Royal Navy warship crews face breath tests under new rules Earlier this year Keith Wiseman, the Southampton coroner called on the navy to introduce random breath tests, having heard that Donovan was at least three times over the drink-drive limit at the time of the killing. While officers will not have powers to carry out random tests, they will be able to do so if they believe a sailor is intoxicated. Crew members will access to weaponry will be subject to special scrutiny. Before the Astute incident a sailor was allowed no more than 10 units in the 24 hour period before going on duty and no alcohol for the 10 hours before going on duty. That has now been revised and sailors are now allowed no more than 5 units in the preceding 24 hours before a duty and no alcohol in the 10 hours before. It will be several months, however, before the new testing powers will come into force. A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: "The Armed Forces Act 2011 introduced new powers so that Service personnel could be tested under very specific circumstances, to ensure they have not consumed alcohol when they are on safety critical duties. We are working to introduce secondary legislation to enact these powers and this is ongoing. The Armed Forces Act has also set prescribed limits which will apply for sailors performing key safety critical duties. During the inquest into the death of Lieutenant Commander Ian Molyneux it was heard that binge drinking was endemic among crew and many would get "drunk out of their minds" Donovan, the coroner was told, had drunk 20 pints of cider and lager, cocktails and double vodkas in the 48 hours before he was put on a guard duty with the SA80 rifle. At the conclusion of the inquest the coroner said he was raise the issues with the Defence Ministry. Random testing has some value. Anyone being drunk, or anywhere near drunk, on duty has, in my view, got to stop. It is an unfair responsibility to be given to someone carrying out little more than a spot check. In my view the routine use of the appropriate machinery to at least establish the absence of alcohol in the system is necessary as I'm not convinced that the concept of heavy drinking on leave periods is likely to alter very much. Mark Jarvis, 49, a Falklands veteran and retired petty officer, said the new arrangements would have an impact on sailors during shore leave. But I think it is the natural progression with so much weaponry on board nowadays. If it stops a repeat of the terrible incident like we saw on Astute, then most sailors would be in favour.