Editing Royal Navy (section)

===Cold War===
{{Further|Cold War}}
<!-- This section is a [[WP:SUMMARY]]. The separate [[History of the Royal Navy (after 1707)]] has much greater detail -->
[[File:Polaris missile launch from HMS Revenge (S27) 1983.JPEG|thumb|200px|A [[UGM-27 Polaris|Polaris missile]] is fired from the submerged British [[ballistic missile submarine]] {{HMS|Revenge|S27|6}} on 9 June 1983]]
After World War II, the decline of the [[British Empire]] and the [[Economic history of the United Kingdom#1945–2001|economic hardships in Britain]] forced the reduction in the size and capability of the Royal Navy. The United States Navy instead took on the role of global naval power. Governments since have faced increasing budgetary pressures, partly due to the [[Upward Spiral|increasing cost of weapons systems]].<ref>Kennedy, 1989, pp. 570–571.</ref> 

In 1981, Defence Secretary [[John Nott]] had advocated and initiated a [[1981 Defence White Paper|series of cutbacks to the Navy]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=%2Farts%2F2002%2F03%2F12%2Fboknot12.xml |title=We were heading for war...and the Commons blamed me |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |location=London |date=1 March 2002 |access-date=10 August 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060718081008/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=%2Farts%2F2002%2F03%2F12%2Fboknot12.xml |archive-date=18 July 2006 }}</ref> The [[Falklands War]] however proved a need for the Royal Navy to regain an expeditionary and [[littoral]] capability which, with its resources and structure at the time, would prove difficult. At the beginning of the 1980s, the Royal Navy was a force focused on [[Blue-water navy|blue-water]] [[anti-submarine warfare]]. Its purpose was to search for and destroy [[Soviet Navy#Submarines|Soviet submarines]] in the North Atlantic, and to operate the nuclear deterrent submarine force. The navy received its first nuclear weapons with the introduction of the first of the {{sclass|Resolution|submarine|1}}s armed with the [[Polaris missile]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/slbm/a-1.htm|title=Polaris A1|access-date=26 November 2017}}</ref>