Should There Be a Jubilee Fleet Review?

 

This weekend the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and the Commonwealth Realms celebrate the 70^th anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II becoming Sovereign. This is a milestone anniversary, the likes of which are unlikely to ever be seen again.

To mark the event the UK is spending a long weekend of public holidays to cover a variety of formal and informal events to mark the reign, and the many events that have occurred during it. Central to this will be the provision of State ceremonial functions, including the first Trooping the Colour ceremony in three years, and a flypast by the RAF and other services down the Mall towards Buckingham Palace.

There will be parades around the country involving military personnel, as well as Royal Navy ships in a variety of ports that will be open to visitors. There will though be no formal fleet review to mark the occasion. This decision has raised eyebrows, and concerns, in some quarters, and the suggestion that while the British Army and RAF are in the public eye, the Royal Navy is somewhat forgotten and missing out on an opportunity for both publicity, and to mark the occasion properly.  

Fleet Reviews are an interesting phenomenon and a key part of naval history. They mark an occasion to bring the fleet together, enabling the sovereign of the day to inspect them and to visually demonstrate naval power to the nations friends and potential foes.

The earliest Royal Navy fleet review dates back to the 14^th century, and Queen Victoria had no less than 17 occur in her reign, while there have been 10 during the reign of the current Queen. These have varied in size, location and purpose from magnificent gatherings to commemorate coronations or jubilees, to smaller ones of the fleet to mark anniversaries or visits, and the last one was held in 2005 to mark the 200^th anniversary of Trafalgar.

The most well-known reviews of the current Queens reign are the Coronation Review of 1953, when over 300 ships from around the globe were present, and the 1977 Silver Jubilee review. These involved dozens of Royal Navy vessels and aircraft and thousands of personnel to support the occasion.  The question is whether there should have been one this time, and on balance the author feels that it is right that one was not held.

The reason for this contentious view is that Fleet Reviews are fantastic visual sights, but also involve an enormous amount of work and disruption for all the ships involved. It is not as simple as sailing into place and sitting there for the day, an enormous amount of effort goes into ensuring that the Review is carried out to the highest possible standards.

This involves rehearsals, preparation, logistical efforts to support ships and ensure they can occupy the anchorage safely and securely. It also requires a lot of planning to make sure that ships are available and able to attend properly.

Bluntly given all that has happened in the last few years, it is unlikely that many ships would be in a position to be sent, giving rise to an image that would damage, not enhance the reputation of the Royal Navy.  The reason for this is that with fewer ships available than for previous reviews, and those that are available either working hard, or in refit, there would be relatively few spare hulls to deploy for the occasion.

The smaller fleet is also globally deployed, with multiple ships operating all across the world, flying the White Ensign as a visual representative of British seapower across the globe. It makes no sense to recall the busy forces from the West Indies, to the South Atlantic to the Med, to the Gulf, to the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Oceans to attend this event – they would take many months to travel to and from home waters.

This leaves you with the vessels in home waters which are working up for deployments, supporting live operations or in maintenance and some form of refit. For example the carriers are both in the working up stage of their training cycle, and taking time to attend a Fleet Review, no matter how visually magnificent it would be, would prevent them from training to deploy on operations.

The challenge the Royal Navy has is that it is a very busy, very hard working force, but it doesn’t have many hulls spare to go into the Solent and prepare for a rehearsal and deliver a Fleet Review – no matter how gratifying the event may be to see on screen.

At the same time, a Fleet Review makes sense when you can have international attendance, for example ships from the various Commonwealth Realms or NATO partners. Earlier reviews are marked by their international element, which takes a lot of planning. Since Covid, there has been significant disruption to international visits, and a reduction in deployments – making it hard to predict what (if any) ships could be available to attend.

Given the timescale involved in committing warships, and the cost of doing so, a firm decision would have been needed a long time ago to enable nations to send their vessels to attend – for this is a trip that would not be done in isolation, but as part of a bigger programme of visits and exercises. Australia, for example, would not deploy a frigate just for the event, and any commitment would essentially take the vessel out of the normal deployment cycle for months while it worked up, deployed and returned. This is a big commitment for any nation.

The reality is that global navies are very busy right now – NATO nations are busy trying to deter Russia in the Baltic and the Med, and sending ships back to attend a Fleet Review is probably not a priority, and nor should it be. These are very much a ‘nice to have’ not a ‘need to have’, and right now there are greater needs out there.

Does not having a Fleet Review visually harm the Royal Navy? Its hard to tell – there is no doubt that images of vessels in Spithead looking magnificent is very photogenic, but there is an equally strong argument that it could backfire. If in the eyes of the public the Royal Navy has enough spare ships to let them sit in the Solent, why are we spending all of this money on the Royal Navy – clearly it has plenty of spare assets to draw on? There is a careful balancing act to be struck between showing off the close and deeply valued link between the Sovereign and Senior Service, and not appearing to be flush with resource at a difficult time.

The current plan seems to strike a good approach. There will be a large RN contingent (both regular and reservist) marching as part of the major military parade in London. Royal Navy aircraft will feature in the flypast over Buckingham Palace, while around the nation, a range of RN ships will be open to visitors in different ports.  

This may not involve lines of ships in one location, but perhaps it means more people will see the Royal Navy. Holding a fleet review ties you to one location, and is very southern centric-  in an era of £100 fuel tanks, few people will wish to travel long distances for a day out to see some ships out at sea. By putting ships that would have participated into ports around the UK, it makes it much easier to bring the navy to the people.

Will there ever be another fleet review? While its dangerous to say ‘never’, it seems ever more unlikely that major reviews will occur, perhaps outside of set pieces like Coronation Reviews. With smaller fleets globally working harder than ever, the resources don’t really exist to enable navies to send ships around the world for this sort of event anymore – it is hard to see there being many more major naval reviews occurring – certainly not in the current reign.

While the Royal Navy of 2022 is far smaller than the Royal Navy of 1952, it remains a powerful, capable and global navy. Its fighting ethos, its willingness to go in harms way that others may be safe, and its people are of the same quality – it is a force that is fiercely proud of its heritage and Royal links. While there may be no review this weekend, the Royal Navy will continue to serve its Sovereign with a fierce pride, as the men and women who serve in Her Navy go sea to do difficult and dangerous work as part of Her fleet. God Save The Queen.