Sailing into Danger - Thoughts on the HMS DARING Medal.

The MOD has announced that the crew of HMS DARING who were onboard during her deployment to the Middle East in 2016-2017 will be eligible for a clasp to the General Service Medal (or the GSM if they don’t already have the Medal) for their work in escorting shipping in the Bab-Al-Mendeb straits.

This small piece of recognition is well deserved and thoroughly good news for the crew, who worked in difficult and dangerous conditions during their deployment to keep UK entitled merchant shipping safe. Already though people on social media channels have questioned why, and how is this different from doing their normal job?

Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright

For context, the Bab-Al-Mendeb is one of the worlds most important strategic choke points. Situated in the Southern Red Sea, it is some 45 miles long and barely 12 miles wide. Any ship wishing to use the Suez Canal and avoid an extensive and lengthy detour via Africa must transit these waters. Western economies, including the UK, are hugely dependent on the goods and energy sent through here on its way to and from the Far East. Any disruption to shipping here would cause shockwaves through the international economic system in two ways.

Firstly, if shipping were disrupted then insurance prices would rise, leading to significantly increased costs for goods and energy, which would have a direct impact on consumers. Secondly, if shipping was disrupted, then it would lengthen the time taken to get goods and energy into the UK – disrupting ‘just in time’ supply chains, reducing the stock available to go onto shops shelves and in the very worst case, significantly disrupting the flow of energy reserves into the UK.

It is not an exaggeration to say that in the worst-case scenario, where the straits are closed to merchant shipping, then jobs will be lost, shops and companies may hit economic turbulence and could close, and potentially in the very worst case there would be an energy crisis leading to power cuts in the UK as fuel supplies were rationed. The closure of these straits in the Red Sea would have massive social, economic and political consequences for the UK and Western Europe.

The challenge is even more pronounced for the global shipping industry, as disruption to Suez would cause significant disruption to their vessels and routes, and would cause weeks or months of challenge as ships found it took longer to get to and from Western Europe, and in turn took longer to return back to the Middle East and Asia to reload and return. The ripples in the system would have major consequences for the wider global economy too.

The Bab-Al-Mendeb

The worry though, particularly in 2016- 2017 was the ongoing conflict in Yemen, which had led to a situation where Iranian backed Houthi rebels had access to anti-ship missiles and other equipment including drone vessels and suicide craft that was being targeted on ships sailing through the Southern Red Sea. The real challenge for shipping here is that its ability to manoeuvre is highly limited, and their course is entirely predictable – it is hard to avoid detection, or for hostile forces to not take a reasonable guess about where you may be headed.

Throughout this period the rebels launched a number of attacks on shipping in the region, targeting both warships and merchant shipping in an attempt to strike back at the Emirate & Saudi coalition. This included launching attacks on the Emirati high speed vessel ‘SWIFT’ , suicide attacks on a Saudi Frigate (the AL-MADINAH) - LINK. They also reportedly attempted to target at least one US Navy warship, resulting in an US missile strike on Yemeni targets. These attacks continue to this day, for instance in April 2018 an Emirati vessel was hit by Houthi forces (LINK)

During this period, HMS DARING was deployed as the Royal Navys escort vessel for OP KIPION, conducting duties in the Middle East and beyond as part of the wider maritime work conducted by the UK in the region.

Her role was to carry out escort duties of UK entitled merchant shipping to protect them against the clear and credible threat of attack from a hostile force that had shown no respect for international law, scant interest in positively IDing its targets and in attacking innocent shipping too. The risk to shipping, including tankers, cargo ships and other vessels including Royal Navy ships like HMS OCEAN and HMS BULWARK who were deployed in the region too was real, and as such HMS DARING was tasked to escort them during these transits through the most dangerous parts.

This was not just a case of steaming in close proximity to another vessel for a few hours and then heading off for tea and medals. Each transit required the vessel to close up at ‘Action Stations’ ready to be prepared to go to war at a seconds notice. The surface picture was intensely complex, with all manner of different ships and smaller craft around, requiring split second judgement from the crew about what to do and whether to react. The overall picture was also difficult to police, with all manner of activity going on, from neutral shipping trying to reach Suez without hassle through to other ships and aircraft potentially embarking on operations against Yemeni targets.

Amidst all this HMS DARING had to steam knowing that their warning of an incoming attack would be very short, that they would have to be prepared to respond appropriately and also be ready in the worst case to react to either themselves or a friendly ship being hit and then conducting damage control and trying to save the vessel. In the event that a friendly merchant ship, or UK warship was sunk, then the international ramifications would be enormous.

Everyone onboard was required to operate at the limits of their professional capability, from the most junior sailor through to the CO – a single failing anywhere in the chain from upper deck sentries or surface picture compilers (often young junior sailors who maybe 18 months previously had potentially still been at school, and who now had 150 plus lives  depending on their ability to not screw up), through to the Officers in the Ops Room and the Bridge who needed to keep the ship ready to fight, but also not to open fire without reason too quickly (courageous restraint at its finest). This was very much a team effort, involving a lot of people, many of whom were relatively junior in the Service.

Protecting shipping may be one of the most timeless core roles of the Royal Navy, but it is also incredibly complex and challenging. To do it once is a test, to do it repeatedly over many days and weeks, all the time knowing you are in a very complex situation, with limited ability to manouvere and where your potential foe who you are not at war with has a track record of opening fire through poor identification of targets is a fairly mentally and emotionally challenging process. It is a significant ask of people to repeatedly go into these situations, all the time knowing that the threat was very real.

It is reasonable to say that few other Royal Navy warships have, in one operational deployment in the post WW2 era, been exposed to as much risk and rigour as HMS DARING has. She has spent more time closed up at Action Stations on one deployment than any Royal Navy warship since the Falklands War apparently.While she may not have been under direct fire, the exposure to risk was far higher than many other ships had, and required her to repeatedly re-enter the area of operations over a sustained period of time. This was a significant contribution in a challenging situation.

While some may begrudge it, there is a strong and compelling case to be made for the award of a GSM 08 clasp for this situation. It recognises the unique set of circumstances that DARING was exposed too, and nicely establishes precedent for future deployments to be recognised in a similar manner should other vessels find themselves in a similar position.

Some people may mock this, seeing it as ‘just doing their job’, but arguably when you look at the criteria for the levels of risk and rigour for other awards (such as the GSM for Northern Ireland once the Troubles had ended) or the award of the OP HERRICK medal to individuals who never left Camp Bastion, then it is clear that this is in the same tradition of the Service. Recognising when people are ‘doing their jobs’ by repeatedly steaming at Action Stations waiting to come under fire from anti-ship missiles or suicide craft is no different to repeatedly working outside the wire, weapons loaded and ‘made ready’ but never fired – both tasks require you to be away from home, at real risk of attack and be ready to deal with challenging circumstances at a moments notice.

 To those who see this as the devaluing of medals, its worth noting that in the last 70 years or so, the only other specific recognition for an action like this awarded to the RN was for HMS AMETHYST. That the RN has chosen to recognise this specific deployment, particularly when set against many decades of wider RN presence in the region should say a good deal about the recognition within the system of just how challenging the situation was for the crew of HMS DARING.

The use of the GSM 08 is a helpful means of allowing recognition for a single unit without going ‘bling crazy’. It has precedent too, having been awarded to individuals involved in an EOD training team working with Pakistan, and a variety of smaller niche deployments across the Middle East and North Africa (Information Here).  

It is easy to say ‘threat of missiles’ and sneer, but repeatedly sailing into the line of fire, against a potential foe with a proven track record of firing first without asking questions is not easy, particularly when the strategic risks are so great. This award is well deserved, and a good visible reminder of the work done by members of the Royal Navy on a regular basis.

Bravo Zulu.

SH, 19 Aug 2018, pinstripedline@gmail.com ; @pinstripedline