We're all Going on a Summer Deployment Holiday...

For most people August is a quiet season, time for a rest and relaxation ahead of the autumn. Long lazy days on leave spent on the beach, or shopping for Christmas in the various department stores ‘Christmas Shops’ that are opening up about now.

For the Royal Navy, while August may be a time to enable people to get a break, it is also a period when the force remains active and busy across the globe. Events in the last few days have helped demonstrate, once again, the breadth and reach of the UK’s maritime forces.

Last Friday HMS WESTMINSTER returned home to Portsmouth after 5 months deployed in the Baltic supporting OP BALTIC PROTECTOR and working alongside NATO forces to reassure friends and allies in this region. The ship was busy right up until the last few days of her deployment escorting a Chinese destroyer in the Channel, before ceremonially exercising the Freedom of the City of London, and demonstrating to the British Army how real drill is carried out properly by parading on Horseguards last week.

HMS WESTMINSTER on Horseguards- Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright

On Monday two Royal Navy escorts sailed from Portsmouth to global deployments. HMS KENT is heading to the Middle East, to replace HMS DUNCAN, currently in month six of her deployment. At the same time HMS DEFENDER sailed on a long-planned deployment out towards the Far East where she will support British interests in this vast, and vital, region.

These deployments help illustrate the constant operational focus of the Royal Navy and its ability to keep pushing ships out to sea on operations. In the case of HMS DEFENDER this deployment represents the fourth escort ship to enter the Asia Pacific region in the last 18 months (HMS ARGYLL, SUTHERLAND and MONTROSE have all been out there recently too, as well as HMS ALBION).

One of the very positive moves of the last two years has been the reintroduction of a near permanent naval presence in the Asia Pacific region, which is likely to be expanded on ever further with the introduction to service of more of the Batch 2 RIVER class. The RN has made no secret of its aspiration to see permanent basing in the region, using the fantastic permanent Royal Navy facilities in Singapore.

This deployment helps illustrate too the continued reliability and capability of the Type 45 destroyer, which as a class continues to deliver excellent service and capability for the RN, particularly following its engine upgrades. This year has seen three of five available Type 45s deployed on operations – DUNCAN, DEFENDER and DRAGON, while HMS DIAMOND spent much of late 2018 on deployments and is now, along with HMS DARING in refit.

HMS DRAGON will deploy again shortly with the QUEEN ELIZABETH to conduct WESTLANT 19, a critical deployment in regenerating and proving the ability of the Carrier Strike capability by embarking F35 for more trials.

What this means is that in 2019 we’ve seen and will see 60% of the T45 force deployed on live operations in the Atlantic, Med, Gulf and Asia Pacific region – in other words the force is working exceptionally hard across the globe. While some people may mock and cling to the tired chestnut of ‘Type 45s don’t work’ this may come as news to sailors on a force which has generated ships for operations in the Med and Gulf on a near constant basis for some years now.

It is also a good reminder of the enduring capability and flexibility of the RN’s force of Type 23 frigates, which although ageing, remain exceptionally capable platforms. The deployment of HMS KENT to the Gulf is also a reminder of the inherent flexibility and quality of RN training and support.

The announcement that KENT would deploy was made at fairly short notice for operational reasons, yet within a couple of weeks of it being made, the crew were able to sail for a deployment thousands of miles from home and able to operate in one of the most challenging maritime domains out there.

That they could do this is testament to the RN logistics chain that ensured they were ready to go, and the training delivered by the FOST organisation to ensure they are able to flexibly deploy wherever the Government of the day requires them to go. The rapid retasking of HMS KENT is a great example of the flexibility the Royal Navy can achieve in responding to global security challenges.

This flexibility is something that perhaps too many of us take for granted, yet many navies remain in genuine awe of what the RN can do here. To seamlessly sail two escorts out on global deployments in the middle of the leave season, one of which was on a very short notice programme change, and then support them as they operate globally is not something many navies are capable of.

A lot of nations would struggle to prepare their ships, have the right training and infrastructure in place and the ability to mount this sort of task without a lot of advance notice and planning. For the RN, this sort of departure represents ‘business as usual’. We often take too easily for granted the fact that what is routine ‘business as usual’ is for many nations ‘a deployment too far’.

We also perhaps take for granted, or at least choose not to think about, the strength of our operating position overseas. This was drawn into sharp contrast the other day following some astoundingly ill informed speculation on social media that HMS DUNCAN was in Bahrain ‘because she had broken down’. This nonsense came about because someone saw an image of a ship alongside and decided that she must be broken because ‘reasons’.

In reality Humphrey looked at this image of the DUNCAN berthed on the ‘finger jetty’ in Bahrain and was struck by a very different view. Instead of assuming the vessel was broken, he was struck by the wonderful sight of a world beating British destroyer alongside in a permanently established Royal Navy facility in the Middle East, as just one of multiple British ships in the region (six of which are permanently based there) and how good it was to be able to support her using our own purely national capabilities.

Lets think about that for a moment – this image showed a vessel thousands of miles from home after a six month deployment that has seen her take part in all manner of challenging work, and she is able to pull alongside into a British base to take on stores to return to operations.

This is a level of reach and presence that is far beyond most nations dreams to achieve. Yet only in the UK can we look at this and conclude that because a ship is alongside, she ‘must be broken’. Our ability to do down our national presence and capability is depressing at times, which is a shame as the reality is our navy remains pretty damn impressive at what it can do.

As we reach the middle of the summer leave season, lets pause for a moment and reflect on just how busy the RN is. As we speak roughly a quarter of the operational escort force is deployed on operations, with other ships in  home waters getting ready to deploy imminently too.

More widely there continues to be a global presence in the Caribbean with RFA MOUNTS BAY standing ready to provide disaster relief as part of a tri-service operation, and HMS CLYDE continues in the Falkland Islands as the resident guardship (hopefully to be replaced soon). The survey flotilla continues its work around the world, with HMS ECHO returning home after nearly two years away from her baseport – another example of a quiet global reach that rarely gets much attention, but which remains utterly vital. Under the sea an SSBN remains on constant readiness, as one has done for over 50 unbroken years of deterrent patrol, while the SSN force remains ready to serve where required.

On the day that steel was cut on the next HMS CARDIFF, a Type 26 Frigate, this is also good reminder that not only is the RN busy and capable now, but it is on the cusp of a genuine capability revolution as new and ever more potent vessels in the form of the Batch 2 RIVER class, the Type 26 and 31 all start coming closer and closer to fruition.

When added to the returning vessels from OP BALTIC PROTECTOR and the ongoing deployment of the MCMV force in the Middle East, it is clear that the UK possesses a very hard working and very capable navy second only to the US in its ability to exercise global reach and capability. We can see across the globe from the Arctic borders to the Antarctic waters that the Naval Service has spent the summer holiday period working hard to keep the nation safe wherever the threat may lie. That is a really good news story.