are Royal Navy ships today smaller since the World Wars?

Short answer, yes they are.

Long answer, they're smaller because modern navies have changed roles. During WW1, whoever had the most capital ships (Battleships and Battlecruisers) would pretty much win the engagement, crew training and build quality were nice bonuses but it was mostly numbers. The aircraft carrier was around in WW1, but they were hardly used atall. During the inter-war and the start of WW2, battleships were still the Queens of the seas but slowly that started to change. The British used aircraft carriers effectively against the Kriegsmarine (HMS Ark Royal was crucial in sinking the Bismarck) and the Regina Marina (3 or 4 Italian battleships were sunk in port at Taranto, Italy) and soon after the Pacific theatre opened up into a spammage of aircraft carriers.

After WW2, the battleship was second fiddle to the carrier and the submarine was also catching up fast and by the Cold War, the threat from Russian subs forced the Royal Navy to become an almost purely anti submarine force. All the big battleships were retired/scrapped in the years after WW2 as their use was limited, their running costs high and their vulnerability to aircraft and submarines too high for their firepower to be worth it. Despite this, the USN kept 2 of their Iowa class BBs in service and I think they even fought in the Gulf war, but they're in reserve now.

But yeah, the carriers. The Royal Navy is actually retiring our 3 Invincible class carriers and replacing them with 2 Queen Elizabeth class supercarriers, each weighing in at 65,000 tons compared to the 22,000 that the Invincibles weigh. One thing a lot of people overlook though is the projection power the RN has from it's nuclear submarines. Right now there's a nuclear submarine, armed to the teeth with nuclear armed Trident missiles, out there somewhere ready to fire at whoever may fire at us. The Royal Navy always keeps atleast one submarine at sea just incase, but our submarine technology is incredibly advanced. One of only 4 countries (USA, UK, France, Russia) to have nuclear powered subs and the new Astute class that are coming out will be the most advanced submarines in the world. So quiet that they're as good as undetectable and sonar so advanced it can sit at the bottom of the English channel for months on end and can track ships entering and leaving New York Harbour. At the moment, I'd say the aircraft carrier is seeing the decline the Battleship faced during the late years of WW2 and in 10 years time the Submarine will be the most important vessel in a fleet, which is good news for the Royal Navy. Not that the carrier will be completely useless, but HMS Astute could sit in Portsmouth harbour firing off Tomahawk missiles at targets in Western Russia while HMS Queen Elizabeth (one of the RNs next generation carriers) would have to sail right up the baltic sea to within the F35's range, which would also be within range of Russian aircraft with the intention of sinking a £2 billion ship.

Yes, the ships of the RN are smaller than in the world wars.

There are no battleships any more. The all big gun battleship was outclassed by the aircraft carrier which could sink a battleship with aircraft without it being able to fire a shot in return.

The RN's current aircraft carriers are small and the only fixed wing fighter aircraft that can use them is the Harrier which has serious combat limitations. The American fleet carriers are very much larger and have considerably greater capability.

The RN fleet today consists mainly of frigates and destroyers. These are much smaller than the battleships and cruisers of the world wars.

They do however carry significant fire power in their weapons systems and the ships need only be large enough to carry them to be effective fighting units.

In the world wars far more manpower was required to operate the ship and weapons systems and the ships had to be large to carry crews of several hundreds. Heavy cruisers had crews of about 800 with battleships requiring over 1000. HMS Hood, of WW2 fame had a crew of 1500.

We once had the largest navy in the world but it has shrunk to a fraction of its former size due to the enormous cost and reduction of our overseas interests.

If you are talking strictly about the RN ships, then yes, they are smaller.

During the World Wars, GB was the #1 world naval power. Their capital ships were the biggest and best in the world. Capital ships include Battleships (pre WW1 through WW2) and Aircraft Carriers (WW2 and beyond). The British Carriers had steel decks and were smaller than US and Japanese carriers (which had wooden decks) due to the weight. The advantage of a steel deck was that when the kamikaze's hit the deck, they simply wiped the splattered plane off the deck rather than have the plane crash through into the hanger deck as was the case with the US carriers.

After the WW2, battleships were deemed obsolete and unneeded. Consequently, no country built a battleship after the war. GB was delegated the antisubmarine warfare (ASW) role for NATO and only needed light cruisers, destroyers and smaller ships. Their aircraft carriers were built to support the ASW role and were not intended to project national power around the world the way US carriers are intended.

After the Falkland Islands war, GB realized it needed more than a support carrier if it was going to sail around the world to protect its remaining kingdom so a few larger carriers have been build.

Our current carriers are STOL carriers (Short-take-off-landing), which are shorter than conventional aircraft carriers. Only Harriers are suitable out of aircraft the Navy has. They came about because of some politics about not replacing the previous generation of carriers so this compromise happened.

The Falklands War saw the (long) HMS Hermes and the (short) HMS Invincible. I believe without the Hermes the UK would have struggled moreso in the war because of lack of aircraft capacity. The Hermes was sold to the Indian Navy shortly after.

The next generation of Royal Navy carriers are full sized.

Since WW2, Navies of the world have used small, fast Destroyers in replacement of massive battleships with endless amounts of guns that were difficult to maneurvre.

the current Royal Navy carriers are STOL carriers (short take-off-landing), which are shorter than conventional aircraft carriers. only Harriers are suitable out of aircraft the Navy has. they came about because of some politics about not replacing the previous generation of carriers so this compromise happened.

the Falklands War saw the (long) HMS Hermes and the (short) HMS Invincible. i believe without the Hermes the UK would have struggled moreso in the war because of lack of aircraft capacity. the Hermes was sold to the Indian Navy shortly after.

the next generation of Royal Navy carriers are full sized. since World War II, navies around the world have used small, fast destroyers in replacement of massive battleships with endless amounts of guns that were difficult to maneuver.

Yes.

Oddly the RN laid down several ships that were very large during the war, but failed to finish them prior to its conclusion.

- Vanguard Class BB (completed 1946) 52,000 tonnes deep load

- Audacious Class CV (completed 1946 & 50) 40-60,000 tonnes depending on various refits to 1978.

Actually serviung during the was were CVs or the Illustrious & Implacable classes both 25,000-32,000 tonnes depending on loading

and the KGV class BBs, which deep loaded to somewhat over 40,000 tonnes.

Invincible Class STOVL CV 22,000, the largest current ship in the RN, no bigger than Britain's first CV launched over 70 years ago... If the money is there for the QE class carrier these should be c.65,000 tonnes standard load.

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The Empire is a bit smaller than it was in the World Wars.

yes they are because of the radar Signature and did you no they are trying to make them out of plastic type of material