The head of the navy has warned that the UK needs to use both aircraft carriers being built on the Clyde to protect national security.
The Ministry of Defence is considering mothballing one of the giant £3 billion vessels after it is completed.
The call, by Admiral Sir George Zambellas, comes just days before the Queen is due to attend the official naming of the first ship, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, at Rosyth on Friday.
In a speech to the defence think-tank, Rusi (the Royal United Services Institutes) Admiral Zambellas said that Britain needed two aircraft carriers, not just one, to provide a credible answer to the global threat to maritime security.
He said the continuous availability that came with two carriers was "a modest extra premium to pay" for an "effective, credible, available insurance policy".
His comments echo similar remarks made by Defence Secretary Philip Hammond last year.
The Conservative cabinet minister called for the navy to have the use of both the Queen Elizabeth-class carriers. But Mr Hammond warned that while it would cost only £70 million a year to run an extra carrier, the money would have to be found from elsewhere in the defence budget.
A final decision on the future of the carriers is due to be made in the next Strategic Defence and Security Review, after the 2015 General Election.
Speaking during last year's Tory Party conference, Mr Hammond also described the cost of running the carriers as a "snip" compared to the amount spent building them.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article