Setting Course for a Bright Future - 1SLs Speech at DSEI

The DSEI Defence and Security show has recently finished in London, an opportunity for UK  industry to highlight future potential capabilities and for the MOD to announce significant contract awards.

One of the most constant memories of the show, which is now in its 20^th year, is the manner by which multiple warships are berthed alongside the Excel Centre in the docklands, particularly those from the Royal Navy.

Last week saw a range of RN vessels, from HMS ARGYLL through to P2000 class patrol craft showcasing their cutting edge technology and means by which these ships can play a critical part in supporting the UK’s national security. It is all very well having this impressive equipment though, but you do need a compelling and clearly communicated vision for how it will be used, and the priorities that the Service needs to address.

Global Reach via the RFA -Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright

This challenge was met and handled by Admiral Radakin, the newly appointed 1^st Sea Lord, who set out a very positive and uplifting vision for the direction of the Naval Service during a keynote speech during the show.

The full text of the speech can be found on the Royal Navy website, and it is notable for several reasons. Firstly, the extremely positive vision that was set out about the next few years and how the RN would meet it. In simple terms 1SL put forward his top five priorities and what he will focus on:

a.       North Atlantic

b.      Carrier Strike

c.       Future Commando Force

d.      Forward Presence

e.       Technology and Innovation.

Just to skim this list is to inhale a heady sense of optimism about the future path of the Royal Navy. It sets out so clearly a compelling set of priorities that define a navy on the up, not a navy in decline. Yet at the same time there is something quintessentially timeless about this force, with a speech whose priorities in so many ways could have been made by his predecessor Admiral of the Fleet Beatty during his time as First Sea Lord from 1919 – 1927.

The focus on the North Atlantic as an area of key operations is a good reminder that for all its global outlook, the Royal Navy needs to be ready to operate daily in northern waters. This requires a combination of both investment in highly capable technology, such as the modernised Type 23 and Type 26 frigate, but also an ability to work closely with allies to counter the threats posed by Russia.

This calls for a strong investment in training and operational presence and an ability to operate in very challenging conditions. Much of this work will, by necessity, remain discretely compartmented away and out of sight of the public. But the hints made of hundreds of millions of pounds of investment in the ‘ASW spearhead’ work that will improve the RN’s ability to work with NATO and to move ASW from being a battle of individual assets to a truly network centric set of skills points to significant investment in cutting edge technology.

This perhaps mirrors the situation Admiral Beatty found when he had to consider how best to defend the Atlantic from external threats in the post WW1 period. In those years he had to lead a fleet through a post war lull where cuts were looming, and rapid technological change had to be quickly absorbed, while trying to work out how to maintain parity with other forces (such as the US Navy and the Japanese Navy) and maintain a truly global outlook for the Royal Navy.

Carrier Strike is a good example of how the Royal Navy continues to have an extremely positive story to tell about its potent capabilities. With HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH currently on the East Coast of the US on the verge of embarking F35 again, this is a reminder that the UK is now well underway to regenerate the carrier strike capability that matter so much.

Working in very close partnership with the US, the Royal Navy is about to trial the deployment of both UK and US F35 aircraft onboard the QE, to fully test the concept of the carrier strike group. This is the latest iteration of decades of close work in naval aviation between the two nations, and highlights the unparalleled levels of trust and co-ordination that exists here.

The PRINCE OF WALES is reportedly on the verge of sailing for trials too, which means that for the first time ever, the Royal Navy will have a pair of super carriers at sea, and will be only the second nation in history to have successfully built and operated two super carriers at the same time.

This huge investment in carrier strike, underpinned by the wider and far reaching organisational changes that will see the Carrier Strike Group concept become the backbone of the Royal Navys operational presence means that the Royal Navy will remain firmly in the premier league of global navies.

As the 1^st Sea Lord noted in his speech, the US Navy may have 11 carriers, but usually only one or two Carrier Battle Groups are operationally deployed. To our allies, the ability for the UK to have a permanent high readiness carrier strike group is a game changer in terms of knowing there is a platform, and associated command and control facilities and support enablers available if required.

This ties into the point about the North Atlantic in that the Royal Navy is once again demonstrating its ability to operate as a key partner in coalition operations, providing valued capabilities that other nations cannot provide.

This is similar to the world Admiral Beatty inhabited, where his Royal Navy was coming to terms with the lessons learned from WW1 and beginning to develop its own proper aviation capability. With HMS ARGUS in service, Beatty oversaw the introduction to service of the first purpose built from the keel up carrier in the form of HMS HERMES as well as seeing a number of converted battleships and battlecruisers enter service too.

Under Beattys leadership the Royal Navy took the first steps to bring a carrier strike capability into service in a significant way, setting in place a capability, ethos and cadre of experience that would prove to be of vital importance in WW2.

The evolution of the Royal Marines continues to be of significant interest as the force changes shape from a fundamentally brigade sized force intended to go to Norway in specialist shipping to stop the Soviets, and instead become a far more versatile and innovative unit.

This has meant changes in how the RN approaches amphibious warfare, seeing a reduced emphasis on the importance of landing craft chugging slowly ashore in the manner of ‘Saving Private Ryan’, and far more on manouvere, innovation and small groups of highly trained commandos arriving where the enemy does not expect them to be.

The speech hints that the likely role of the Royal Marines in the future is likely to be focused heavily on platforms like the QUEEN ELIZABETH, operating as part of an integrated force and landing as much by helicopter as by landing craft.

While there is likely to be some use for the Corps as ‘door openers’ for the heavier US Forces (as the speech puts it), the inferred wisdom seems to be that the UK is moving away from the sort of traditional amphibious role that it used to fill, and instead focusing on using these assets in a more innovative and flexible way.

This raises questions about the longer term future for amphibious forces within the RN construct – does the modern Navy need a pair of LPDs, three LSD(A)’s (albeit 2 of which are not used for Amphibious ops) and RORO units, or can it get away with less?

If the future of manoeuvre warfare from the sea is about landing discrete parties in a quasi-SF role, and not bn or bde sized forces, is there a future for the ALBION and BAY class? Will the procurement of a pair of Littoral Strike Ships remove the need for heavy amphibious shipping in bigger numbers?

It may be that the price to be paid for investment in other areas to make the marines continue to be relevant is an acceptance that some of their shipping is now less relevant, and potentially easier to cut. If so, this could, purely hypothetically, open the door to wider force reductions in tankers and support capabilities as less ships would be needed to support this force.

Instead the future force will be known as the ‘Littoral Strike Group’ instead of the Amphibious Task Group is likely to see the Royal Marines deployed globally in small numbers, focused on highly specialised areas and able to meet a wide range of challenges.

This future vision is not dissimilar too to the situation that the Royal Marines found themselves in post WW1, where a force that had grown to be some 55,000 strong found itself facing calls for major cuts or even disbandment. In the aftermath of the war, under Admiral Beatty, the Royal Marines became a force some 9,500 strong focused primarily on providing direct support to operations.

In many ways this was remarkably similar to the modern RM, a small force of well-trained personnel embarked on RN warships to quickly overcome local challenges effectively. For example in the mid 1920s a small detachment of Royal Marines was mounted to protect merchant ships in the Yangtze, a strangely similar situation to the modern day where the Royal Marines are protecting UK merchant shipping in the Gulf.

During his speech 1SL alluded to the challenges of ‘economy of force’, which could be easily read as a gentle hint that he does not think he has quite enough ships to do all the tasks at hand. One way in which this could be alleviated until the RN embarks on planned growth over the next few years will be by overseas presence.

He rightly noted the significant success of the Naval Support Facility in Bahrain, which today plays home to a frigate, plus MCMV squadron and RFA’s, and has asked whether more can be done elsewhere.

With the decision being taken to retain the Batch 1 RIVER class in service, there seems to be a golden opportunity to gainfully employ the Batch 2 RIVER class more widely on global operations. More broadly, the restructuring of the RN into a force built around the Carrier Strike Group raises questions about how the five strong ‘GP variant’ Type 23 force could be employed.

Already one of their number is permanently based in Bahrain, while the potential surely exists to see another (or a RIVER) sent to Singapore to help thicken the RN presence in the Asia Pacific region on a more enduring basis.

There would be a delightful historical connection were the current 1SL to push and deliver a permanent Royal Navy warship to be based in Singapore, for Admiral Beatty was very heavily involved in forcing the decision to construct the dockyard facilities in the 1920s.

Nearly 100 years later it seems entirely feasible that the Royal Navy will once again make permanent use of its facilities including the wharves and fuel depots in Sembewang to act as a permanent home again for a globally forward based Navy.

The final area that 1SL focused on was that of technology. The Naval Service is on the cusp of receiving a significant range of new equipment into service in the surface, submarine, aviation and land roles, as the results of billions of pounds of investment in recent years start to take material form. The scale and ambition of a build programme that encompasses so many ships and submarines, plus an exciting vision for both the RFA and Fleet Air Arm is breathtaking.

This is underpinned by a desire to see changes to process, a means to bring new innovative ways of delivering better ways of doing business into service more quickly, and a focus on effect. There seems a real sense emerging of doing things slightly differently and of trying new ways to bring capability into service. 1SL hinted, for example, that the RN would look at using existing land attack missile capability to replace harpoon, helping provide a more valuable asset than the current missile which is rapidly approaching obsolescence.

This has been linked up with the wider news about the successful RN trials on autonomous vessels, highlighting a future suite of capabilities that a few years ago were but a pipe dream, and are now on the threshold of being brought into service.

This focus on innovation, and of finding ways to do things better, more effectively and more cheaply is not different to the 1920s, when a Royal Navy struggling with budget challenges had to look to ways to squeeze every possibly efficiency out of its force, and to invest in doing things differently to keep itself operationally effective against a range of threats.

While it is fashionable in some quarters to assume that the UK doesn’t have a navy anymore, or other such hyperbolic nonsense, the fact remains that today the Royal Navy is a world leading force operating globally.

Right now there is a Royal Navy strike carrier task group operating off Canada, while other RN and RFA ships are restoring in Florida after delivering aid to the Bahamas in the West Indies. RN ships are on patrol or operations in the North Atlantic, near the Falkland Islands and in the Med.

East of Suez, based on media announcements, it appears that no fewer than 10 Royal Navy and RFA vessels are operating, with two Type 45 and two Type 23 frigates in the region on maritime security operations, while the MCMV and RFA force is also equally busy.

This force, operating thousands of miles from home is an extremely capable collection of vessels and a potent reminder of the UK’s ability to rapidly deploy maritime power to respond to international crises, with the force nearly doubling in size in just a few weeks. Very few nations have the ability to surge forces in this way, or sustain them and conduct operations.

When you consider that this high operational tempo comes on the back of a significant operational deployment to the Baltic this summer, it is clear that the Royal Navy remains a very hard working force, demonstrating a level of presence, reach and capability that practically no other navy on the planet has.

So, while some may find it easy to be downhearted about the Royal Navy, in fact there is a remarkably good news story to tell about a force which is focused on global growth and operations. 

The five priorities that the First Sea Lord has set out highlight the breadth of operational responsibilities, reach and aspiration of a navy that is not in retreat, but which is instead focusing on a decade ahead where it will bring new vessels into service, continue with a very substantial ship building programme and continue to successfully deliver on operations globally.

This speech is a timely reminder that the Royal Navy of today faces similar challenges to that of the Royal Navy of 100 years ago. Admiral Radakin may have fewer ships than Admiral of the Fleet Beatty, but he has inherited a Service with the same level of vision, aspiration and most importantly of all, quality of people as its forbears had, and which is likely to deliver similar levels of success. The path ahead for a global navy defending a global Britain looks extremely bright indeed.