Keir Starmer just exposed the Royal Navy’s sorry state – could he be more negligent? | UK | News
Defence chiefs are planning to send a Royal Navy Type 45 destroyer to the Middle East to defend a UK military base in Cyprus. The decision, taken after a drone struck RAF Akrotiri on Monday morning, addresses the lack of ballistic missile defence on the island but begs one question: why was this not done earlier?
Trump directed his “beautiful armada” to set sail for Iran in January, promising to do exactly what he has done if Tehran failed to “make a deal”. In military circles, planning always identifies a most likely course of action and a most dangerous course of action ahead of any operation. Arguably, as military chiefs looked at the potential for military action by the US, both the most likely and most dangerous course of action was retaliatory strikes on western assets in the region? The Royal Navy currently has six Type 45 destroyers, three of which are in deep maintenance.
Of the remaining three, HMS Dauntless and HMS Dragon are understood to be undergoing minor maintenance according to a defence source, but remains on paper at least, on three days notice to move.
HMS Duncan could be the Type 45 destroyer sent to the region, having recently completed a training exercise on taking down drones.
However Sir Keir Starmer yesterday (tues) confirmed it was HMS Dragon that would be deployed, again raising questions about the urgency of the operation. HMS Dragon is understood to be in dry dock on three days’ notice to move, meaning it may not sail until Saturday.
Armed with anti-air and anti-sea missiles as well as a range of other weaponry, Type 45 is more than capable of downing Iranian drones and would have done so on Monday morning. Of course, this wouldn’t be an issue if Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves were not dithering on the issue of defence funding which would allow ships to be better maintained and kept in service.
The failure to do so in favour of keeping HMS Duncan exercising in UK waters off the coast of Wales shows the fragility of naval resources. And now, the decision to send HMS Dragon instead…
The UK military tends to operate in threes. When one asset is in the fight, another should be in support and a third in reserve.
An inability to deploy all three potentially underpinned the decision not to deploy HMS Duncan in advance of the US operation but that is an extraordinary gamble given Trump’s history of impulsive military operations and Tehran’s track record of striking back indiscriminately.
Perhaps in the minds of military planners, was the inherent risk of deploying a crucial asset when you have little else in reserve given it leaves you short should it be damaged or denied.
Had British service personnel or their families been killed in Monday’s attack, there would be serious questions asked of naval officers, ministers and intelligence bosses. Luckily, the decision to send HMS Dragon late rather than never, simply looks negligent.
