OP RELENTLESS at 50.

The Royal Navy has celebrated 50 years of maintaining continuous nuclear deterrent patrols at sea (CASD). At a service on Fri 03 May in Westminster Abbey, the Naval Service gave thanks to those who had supported this effort, led by the new Secretary of State for Defence, doubtless fresh from her introductory briefings to the MOD and its global military efforts, which could have ranged from planned future naval operations in the South China Sea via operations in the Middle East, all the way to opportunities for possible peacekeeping operations across Africa.

The effort to keep the nuclear deterrent at sea is something that is now perhaps so routine that we take it for granted. But it is worth reflecting on the scale of the achievement and its wider implications too.

For every minute of every day of the last 50 years, a British ballistic missile submarine has been at sea, in the depths of the ocean and far from home, or help. Cruising in absolute radio silence the 130 or so people aboard are required to maintain the ability to receive orders via a secure and highly resilient communications chain, to launch rockets into space, potentially at exceptionally short notice, which will then traverse the globe before deploying warheads capable of defeating any defensive counter-measures and delivering a British designed and produced hydrogen bomb onto a target of the Prime Ministers choosing.

HMS VICTORIOUS- Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright

This capability reflects the coming together of so many disparate strands of effort and capabilities in one place, but it is perhaps often forgotten that the UK deterrent capability is so much more than the four SSBNs and their sailors. While these are the most vital parts of the chain, without the effort of many others, the deterrent would not work.

From a military perspective, it is right and proper to remember the work of the wider attack submarine force, which is required to deploy as required to counter any hostile submarine based threat. While silence is essential for the SSBN, the ability to have a friendly guard dog at sea with you, helping ensure unfriendly and uninvited neighbours bugger off is always very helpful.

The Submarine Service is a very special group of people – throughout the Cold War and beyond they were the individuals most likely to come up close and personal with hostile forces. Life in the Submarine Service has always required a certain person, able to put up with discomfort, cramped quarters and an actively hostile working environment determined to kill you given the slightest opportunity, and in turn be willing to go to sea and face an unseen enemy in a very real game of cat and mouse.

While the stories of their efforts remain highly classified, books such as ‘Silent Deep’ by Lord Hennessy or ‘Hunter Killers’ by Iain Ballantyne hint at some of the operations that have been conducted in their name.

It is important to remember that for all the banter between the different arms of the Submarine Service, at its heart there remain a group of utterly professional and highly dedicated individuals who have been through some incredibly challenging operations and kept the nation safe. Few groups of people are more deserving of medallic recognition than the men and women of the Submarine Service, yet few if any details of why this is the case can ever be made public.

More widely the surface fleet has played a critical role in keeping the deterrent operational for many years now. From the anti-submarine frigates, regularly sortied at short notice, often in vile weather and over Christmas or other leave periods, to the smaller ships of the MCMV and Hydrographic squadrons, the surface fleet has played a significant role in providing wider capability to support the SSBN force.

HMS VANGUARD

This work, sometimes routine but challenging, and at other times short notice, responsive and potentially extremely difficult rarely receives much notice or attention. But, it is reasonable to assume that there are plenty of surface ship sailors (or ‘skimmers’ as their submariner brethren call them) who have had to sacrifice a great deal in the wider operational effort to keep the deterrent force safe.

The same can be said for both the Fleet Air Arm and the Royal Air Force, whose operational support has ranged from sending ASW helicopters such as the Merlin and Seaking forces through to the work of the Nimrod, and soon to be P8 fleets too. At one stage the Royal Navy maintained a specialist air station (HMS GANNET) where a squadron of ASW helicopters was stationed to help support the Clydes defences for many years.

The Royal Marines continue to play a part in supporting the deterrent to this day, with their work through 43 Commando providing security to certain highly secure sites and locations. This work is exceptionally vital, but rarely glamorous, and often involves long days where the sole foes are treacherous weather and the voracious hordes of Scottish midges, a creature so terrible that if they could be weaponised en masse, would be an ideal weapon of mass distraction. 

In a similar vein, it is not just the armed forces who support the deterrent force. An enormous force of civil servants, contractors, industry and the MOD Police have all played their parts too in supporting the system. This will range from on call dockyard workers and tug operators, through to people in lonely communication facilities ensuring the means exist, if required, to ensure that the nuclear firing chain works as required.

There is a plethora of places around the UK which rarely get much attention or notice, but which play a key part in ensuring the system works as planned – from the construction and refit yards, through to special escort groups for the police and those people manning the Armaments Depots and other associated sites that keep the system functional.

More widely, there are many different parts of Government that help enable this in some form or another, from the police to the MOD to the FCO – all of whom play key roles in ensuring that the deterrent is able to proceed to sea in a safe and effective way.

It is reasonable to say that rare is the individual in the Naval Service, or the wider civilian world who at some point or other in their career has not played some part in supporting the deterrent, either directly or indirectly. It is a mission which calls on many different parts of the armed forces and many individuals who may never even go to Faslane will have found themselves supporting it in one form or another.

The reason this matters is that when considering what CASD means, it counts for more than just four submarines sitting in Faslane. They are the heart of an incredibly complex system that has links across the UK, involving thousands of people and posts, many of which have been manned 24/7 now for half a century. Not just at sea on a submarine, but on shore bases, office facilities and all manner of other locations too.

The submarine is the business end of the deterrent, but it only works due to the huge team effort brought about by countless other individuals who have worked overnights, weekends and at public holidays too for decades now to keep the deterrent constantly at sea.

The Royal Navy may operate the submarines, but it is a team effort across the whole of Defence and beyond to keep them operational now. In an era when we are all too used to hearing tales of the failing public sector and how ‘Britain doesn’t work anymore’ we perhaps don’t spend time to reflect on the incredible success story that is OP RELENTLESS, and how it has successfully kept the UK as a credible nuclear power for many years. This is a system that cannot be permitted to fail, that cannot gap a patrol or have a bad day – it must be ready 100% of the time to ensure that any potential aggressor knows that a strategic miscalculation would be punished.

A Regal Name

The use of the service to coincide with the naming of thefourth and final new SSBN was a nice touch, and gives us three ‘old favourites’ (DREADNOUGHT, VALIANT and WARSPITE) to form the bulk of the class. The final name (HMS KING GEORGE VI) attracted some comment on social media as to whether it was an appropriate name for an SSBN.

His Majesty King George VI was a true friend of the Royal Navy and one of the finest monarchs this nation has ever had. Serving his country in WW1 at sea (including the Battle of Jutland), he was not born expecting to be King. It was only after an unexpected series of events led to the Abdication crisis that he found himself thrust into the role.

In WW2 he was called upon to exercise leadership of the UK, the Commonwealth and the Empire during its darkest hours and facing the prospect of an existential crisis arguably not faced in over a thousand years. In leading a nation through dark times, with little prospect of swift victory or an easy ending, he and his family served as beacons of dignity, leadership and hope.

His reign ended all too early, passing to his daughter Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the 2^nd, whose reign continues to this day. Yet, despite the traditions of the Service of naming a capital ship after Monarchs, no ship has ever borne the name KING GEORGE VI.

Humphrey has a strictly personal interpretation of the naming of this vessel and what it may signal. On the one hand, the name points to an individual whose values and conduct serve as a role model and exemplar to us all and as a reminder of this nations spirit of wilful determination to resist and stand up for what is right, regardless of the risk.

But more widely it is also arguably a tacit signal of recognition and respect to the current Queen, who has reigned for 67 years now. When you look to the forward programme of ship building for the next 15-20 years, there are no more Capital Ships (e.g. Carriers or Submarines) being built that require naming approval by Her Majesty. Baring exceptionally unlikely and unforeseen circumstances, the fourth SSBN is realistically going to be the last ‘Capital Ship’ to be ordered during her long reign.

While some smaller ships will be ordered, and others, such as the Type 31e frigate still require naming (and ordering!), there will be no other vessels ordered suitable to carry the name of a Monarch until at least the mid-2030s, if not later.

It is sometimes forgotten that before she became Queen, the then Princess Elizabeth was also a naval wife, married to Prince Phillip and they were stationed in Malta for some years. She has a genuinely deep bond with the Service and truly understands what it means to be part of the wider ‘naval family’ as she has been both a naval wife, and a naval mother, knowing her husband served in WW2 and her son Prince Andrew served with distinction in the Falklands War. She is almost certainly all too aware of the burden, and pride, that comes from being part of this family.

In turn the Royal Navy has been privileged to enjoy a deep, decades long, relationship with the Queen and there is a fierce pride among many who serve of this link between the Service and the Monarchy. Some may mock it, others may not understand it, but there is a deep bond there that truly matters to many who place great stock and value in it.

In requesting permission from the Queen to name a vessel ‘KING GEORGE VI’ the Royal Navy has essentially paid the highest compliment it can to its Monarch. As the last Capital Ship to be ordered during her reign, it is a chance for the Service to recognise its deeper links to the Monarchy and its links to the current Sovereign. 

In a time of challenge and strife around the globe, there is something to be gained from being able to draw links to the past. There is a comfort from seeing familiar names, even on unfamiliar vessels. To know that there will be a trio of vessels bearing the names of the late King, the Queen and the Prince of Wales well into the 2060s will serve as a very tangible link and reminder of this nations past, and pay respect to the Sovereigns and royalty of old. 

One thing is certain, when OPERATION RELENTLESS celebrates its 75^th anniversary, the chances are that that these magnificent vessels will be still sailing the oceans, helping keep the United Kingdom and her friends safe from harm – primarily due to the superb efforts of all the people, both military and civilian that have made it all possible.

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