The Argus cartoonist, Alex Hallatt, depicted a couple of chicks gossiping about computer security system hackers, when one said: "I've just seen a Navy harrier jump jet blow up all the parking meters along Brighton's Kings Road (The Argus, July 26).

This reminded me of the Portsmouth MP, a member of the defence select committee, recently hiring a rowing boat and rowing up to a warship moored alongside the naval dockyard jetty discovering anyone could paint on its hull: "You are blown up."

Ministry of Defence estimates indicate surface warships will still be built even though, in modern warfare, they are as vulnerable as the battleship was at Pearl Harbor.

Perhaps traditional ships and planes are being kept for prestige and not part of modern national defence, which, naturally, is secret.

-John Stanaway, Lorna Road, Hove