Hardly 'a Debacle'... The Royal Navy & CSG21 Deployment

Hot on the heels of the good news about the deployment of CSG21 comes news that has, in some parts of the media, been characterised as a ‘debacle’. News has emerged that one of the groups Type 45 destroyers (HMS DIAMOND) is unexpectedly alongside for maintenance, while there are reports of an outbreak of COVID onboard some ships in the group. Is this sufficient grounds to describe it as ‘debacle’ though?

The Type 45s enjoy an undeserved reputation for being ships with maintenance issues, and one that is increasingly unfair. On entering service some minor issues were experienced, which have been identified and corrected over time. This is the same as any new warship class in history – search through naval records and it would be hard to find examples of a ship class from any nation that didn’t experience some form of challenges.

If you read the account by Admiral Woodward (One Hundred Days), he writes at length about his time in command of HMS SHEFFIELD and the problems she experienced. This was not unusual, and it would not take much research in the archives to uncover plenty of similar challenges for other ship classes. The fact is that ships are complex and difficult machines, and can, and do, break or experience problems on a regular basis – that is an unfortunate reality of operating a ship.

This doesn’t make them a bad design though, nor does it mean that they are ineffective. Part of the challenge the Type 45s have had is that they are the first major RN surface ship class to enter service during the Internet age. Previously rumours of problems or issues would have been confined to dockyard gossip or local towns. There would have been little or no interest more widely in the teething troubles experienced by a new ship class.

In the modern world no such privacy exists. There is huge interest in every ship movement, and in rumours circulating rapidly around the world. The breathless excitement with which people report each movement of ships in and out of harbour on social media means there is much wider public awareness of movements. Likewise, discussion forums and social media allow rumours, gossip and utterly false ‘’2-deck buzzes’ to circulate at will, and take on a life of their own.

One only has to look at the nonsensical rumours circulated early in the CSG deployment, that the QUEEN ELIZABETH wasn’t visiting Gibraltar due to ‘Spanish pressure’ and the way this turned into a mini whirlwind of anger and indignation on social media, despite there not being any evidence or proof that such a thing had happened. This all seemed to have been quietly forgotten about when the PRINCE OF WALES visited a few weeks later…

In the case of the Type 45s, the ships have had to enjoy their first decade of operations very much in the public glare, where things going wrong got much more attention than was necessary. Ships entering service will have issues identified and fixes sorted – that’s exactly what has happened with the 45s, where work has been done to address the key issues.

Despite this, they enjoy a reputation as harbour queens that ignores their hard-working operational reality. When a photo emerged of almost all of them alongside a few years ago, there were snide comments about the ships being broken and unseaworthy – the fact it was summer leave, that others had just returned from deployment and others were about to go on deployment was irrelevant – what mattered was the image in the photo.

If you took an objective look at how hard the Type 45 force has worked, you’ll see a very different story. Here is a class of ship that has deployed globally to support the UK on operations all over the world. It has been particularly hard worked in the Middle East, where 45s regularly provide air defence coverage for UK, US and coalition warships at sea, including US carrier battle groups.

That the US Navy is comfortable integrating the Type 45 into its air defence coverage for their own carriers in one of the most high-risk operating environments speaks volumes for their confidence in the platform, the capabilities it possesses and the crew that operate it. Similarly, the deployments of Type 45s in escorting UK shipping through high risk areas like the Bab-al-Mendab highlights its ability to operate in very high risk areas, with extremely high reliability.

Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright

It is frustrating then to hear the constant moans from people who seem to assume that somehow these ships are jinxed. Nonsensical ideas were being floated on social media today about how the RN ‘should get rid of them and buy an interim class’, as if the RN is so flush with cash, people and design teams that it can just willingly introduce a temporary destroyer class into service for the fun of it. 

The specifics of why the DIAMOND is alongside are not in the public domain, save that she needs some maintenance and work done. There is no point in speculating what is, or is not the reason, nor frankly is there any need to. Instead, there are some positives that can be gleaned from this which are worth remembering.

Firstly, the simple fact is that DIAMOND is at sea on a global deployment – not many navies do this, so it’s a useful reminder that for many navies, when their ships experience a technical issue, its easy to return home. They do not need to worry about the image of ships alongside for repairs for weeks at a time in foreign ports, because they rarely venture far from home.

The Royal Navy is one of the few globally focused naval powers, and has to look at support differently. That the DIAMOND can spend time alongside in a friendly port is a reminder of the strengths of military alliances like NATO, which make it easier for harbour support and looking after the logistics of a sustained port visit, and how much members gain from logistical support arrangements put in place over many decades.

Allied to this is the strength of the global logistical capability of the UK. The fact that a UK vessel can pull into a friendly port some distance from home, and arrangements can be made to send out the appropriate replacement parts and then install them is testament to the effective support and supply chain arrangements in place, and the benefits of NATO membership in helping make this easier to do.

Very few navies ever have to face the lived reality of a ship experiencing an operational issue like this away from home, and relatively few could do this. Many would find their ships stuck some distance from home, without logistical support or the enabling arrangements in place to permit repairs to be done – the best that could be hoped for is a slow passage home and an ignominious end to a deployment.

For the UK, this issue, while mildly irritating is a temporary setback and a reality of operating complex military hardware, is not going to be a major game changer. The ships deployment will continue, and she will re-join her fellow vessels in the not too distant future.

Of course this also highlights another strength of the Royal Navy – namely resilience and operational depth. For some navies, losing an advanced anti-air warfare destroyer temporarily would be a major challenge – for CSG21, there is support in the form of additional Type 45 to provide air defence cover if required.

It may sound a minor point, but relatively few navies can deploy multiple advanced AAW destroyers to sea, much less operationally. While there are two on CSG21, there are others at home able to deploy as well – this is a good reminder of the strength and operational availability of the RN in keeping these ships ready and able to go to sea if needed.

There is no doubt that people reading this will see it as some kind of exercise designed to paper over cracks in the Royal Navy. There is no doubt that having a ship unexpectedly alongside is an annoying reality of naval life, but if you think that somehow this is a problem unique to the UK and that all other navies ships work perfectly, then you’d be very mistaken.

Every navy in the world fights a constant battle for availability in their ships, and some do it better than others. Some navies rarely send their ships to sea, so availability is less of an issue. Others rely on relatively simple low cost ships, ideal as floating local constabulary in peacetime, and a floating target in wartime.

These ships do what their nations ask of them, but they are still mechanically challenged, still have defects and issues and still need to undergo repairs unexpectedly. We don’t notice this as much for two reasons – firstly, because so many of them don’t go to sea that often, so its hard to spot when a ship isn’t operational.

Secondly these ships tend not to deploy far from home – so if they do return under their own power, its not really commented on or noticed in the same way, as it is seen as pattern of routine naval activity, and issues can more easily be hidden.

By contrast in the UK we are far more open in the movements of our ships, and have a much more open approach to the media in terms of admitting when things have gone wrong. Some may sneer at this statement, but if you contrast the UK approach of demonstrable honesty, versus other countries which may regard readiness as a classified issue, arguably the UK approach is better for accountability, but can build a false perception of quality.

The UK is far more open on its military readiness and availability than most nations – this is admirable, but lets not pretend that the challenges of readiness apply only to the RN – every other nation has exactly the same challenges in one form or another.

Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright

The fact is that the RN is a busy hard working navy, and one that excels at drawing on support around the world to keep its people busy and ships at sea. Sometimes ships don’t work as planned, no matter how good the intentions, but where the RN does very well is in patching up, sorting it out, and getting back on with the job at hand.

It can only do this due to the fantastic quality of its people at all levels. There is no doubt that the crew of DIAMOND have worked exceptionally hard to get ready for this deployment, they’ve been through a lot of training, work up and hard yards to get deployed, and it will no doubt be frustrating early on to have an unexpected pause. But they’ll doubtless rise to the challenge of this and be back and ready to go again in no time.

Shortly after she sails, she’ll need to a Suez transit to rejoin the main group, and then sail through some interesting choke points and waters. This means her crew will need to quickly step their game up and be ready to go into challenging waters where they need to be on top of their game.

It’s a testament to the quality of the training and people involved that the ships company will meet the challenges placed on them with their usual high levels of professionalism. It’s a tough mental game to wind down and step up, and then be ready to operate some of the most advanced sensors and equipment on the planet in challenging circumstances shortly after sailing – but that’s what we rightly expect of the Royal Navy.

Meanwhile another ship has had an outbreak of COVID, which while doubtless unpleasant to those afflicted seems to be abating. Compared to outbreaks on US or French carriers, this seems far less severe, and is a testament to the strength of the vaccines that the crew are, according to media reports, not requiring admission or medical treatment in the ships extensive medical facilities.

While the news of a COVID outbreak onboard sounds scary, anyone who has ever done any form of deployment will know, outbreaks of bugs can and do happen – the dreaded ‘D&V’ from Iraq and Afghanistan springs to mind at this point.

The purpose here is not to play down this incident, for COVID remains a deeply unpleasant illness, but as a gentle reminder that as it morphs away from pandemic to endemic, we may well see things like this occur in ships globally for all nations. The challenge is to ensure that the best possible healthcare is in place to support those affected.

Its easy to say ‘but they should have stayed onboard’ but to say this rather misses the point that dual vaccines offer a strong level of protection, and as we return to normalcy this is the path we need to tread. All other countries in the business of deploying military units globally are going to face similar challenges as we emerge from this period.

Some will ask ‘why did they do a run ashore in Cyprus’, to which the answer must be – what is the point of sending a hermetically sealed ship 7000 miles to not go ashore or meet people in defence diplomacy? The crew have been hard worked for months now, and you can only stay at your peak for so long before fatigue becomes a major health and safety issue. At times it could be argued that a rest, down time with the potential of gaining a low level infection is a better outcome overall than tired crew making mistakes that get people killed. There is no easy answer here.

Its depressing to hear that people think the situation is a debacle. As far as one can tell this appears to be a pretty normal deployment. Ships have deployed, one has experienced minor issues that require some unplanned maintenance and the support networks in place are dealing with this. Another has had an outbreak of a virus, which won’t be the first and won’t be the last time in history that RN vessels have had to put arrangements in place to cope with a respiratory virus onboard.

We need to keep a sense of perspective here – the deployment proceeds well, with ships doing what we ask of them and their sailors helping represent the UK globally and enhance international security.

It is absolutely right to question and note what is going on, but this is anything but a debacle – it is just another day in the life of a globally focused, globally deployed and globally ready Royal Navy.