The Royal Navy did not make a formal offer earlier this year to deploy a Type 45 destroyer before HMS Dragon was eventually sent to the eastern Mediterranean, the Ministry of Defence has claimed.
Responding to a written parliamentary question from Conservative MP James Cartlidge, Defence Minister Al Carns said no formal proposal had been made between 1 January and 2 February 2026 to pre-position a destroyer.
“We constantly review deployments of Royal Navy assets in line with securing the interests of the UK and our allies,” Carns said. “No formal offer was made by the Royal Navy to deploy a Type 45 Destroyer ahead of HMS Dragon’s deployment at the first available moment on 10 March 2026.”
Further answers from the Ministry of Defence also set out the timeline behind the decision to send HMS Dragon to the region. Carns said the proposal to deploy the destroyer to the eastern Mediterranean was reviewed by the Chief of the Defence Staff on 3 March 2026 and approved by the Defence Secretary the same day.
“The Chief of the Defence Staff reviewed the proposal to deploy HMS Dragon to the Eastern Mediterranean on the 3 March 2026 and the Secretary of State signed it off the same day,” Carns said.
HMS Dragon departed Portsmouth on 10 March following the approval.
The Ministry of Defence declined to disclose how long the ship will remain deployed.
“For operational security reasons, we will not comment on the duration of her deployment to the Eastern Mediterranean,” Carns added.
The RN did not offer is a smoke screen. What was the PJHQ position and the advice of CJO to MOD. That is the question to ask please.
Sounds like a statement the MOD has been forced to make to protect the PM.
I read it the opposite way. As the MOD protecting itself against the political row.
This sounds like the minister is hanging out the RN to dry.
Why would the RN randomly offer an asset up, surely tasking is decided in advanced based on threat assessments and commitments and the RN is told to do something (whether it can or not is another thing)
Governments have been quick to accept capability gaps and force reductions over the last 35 yrs, this is the logical outcome of that sequence.
Really poor statement – the defence secretary should get a daily briefing and should be insisting on measures being taken.
He will be getting briefed. The whole notion of the RN or army or RAF offering their services is absolute nonsense.
I’m not sure who the Royal Navy would be making a “formal offer” of a warships too. Itself perhaps 🤣
Maybe to the king 🧐🇬🇧
😂
problem here is that the general public are not as well informed as those of us on sites like this and will probably believe this crap.
given this minister is ex RN (RMC) and an active reservist he knows that he is deliberately misleading the public
time for this type of thing to become an offence whilst in office.
MPs really should be held to far higher standards than they are currently and if found in breach should lose their seat and be banned from standing again.
Notice the careful use of the word formal here.
I would like a formal offer of a warships, sounds very impressive 😂
On a serious note BFBS are reporting that air defences were in Cyprus before that attack (possibly a sky Sabre unit and certainly stormer) and there is a wide range of highly advanced ABM batteries in Jordan and Israel in the path of any ballistic missiles.
It was probably deemed quite rightly at the time that a T45 wasn’t adding much especially when the US was clearly signalling action was not imminent.
I heard about Stormer too, although haven’t seen any confirmation or denial of sky sabre still (may have missed it though). Id argue with the knowledge Iran and its proxies posses ballistic missiles there should 100% have been a T45 at the absolute very least at high readiness. They are hooting about getting HMS Dragon ready in 6 days, if they could do that now then they could have done it prior to giving the okay on March 3rd. L
Just my 2p worth though.
And if things go off they could be needing some back up Aster stock closeby…not in Gibraltar or the UK.
Worth reading or listening to the Sky Politics at Sam and Annes podcasts. One of these suggests that No 10 proposed sending the navy to support Akrotiri early on, but that the Chief of Defence staff said there was no need we have an aircraft carrier already – Cyprus.
He was right about the carrier just not the ability to deal with ABM and other high end threats or have floating radar up threat.
What he has missed is the maintenance facilities on the carriers which is odd for an engineer.
I stepped the issue was the usual RAF ‘if we deploy people in carriers they don’t like it and leave’.
He also ignored the fact that you can’t move Akrotiri, that Akrotiri doesn’t have CIWS to deal with drones that do get close or that the carrier is the perfect platform to have Crowsnest and Wildcats operating from and increasing their time on station with them being in a target deconflicted area. It’s almost as though he has no combat operations experience at all…Oh, right. Seems he doesn’t. He’s head of the armed forces and has never been in a combat zone, ever.
The thing is that Akritori will remain a target as it is a manifestation of The Little Satan.
In an ideal world a couple of T45 working with T23/31 would be ideal as T45 can detect the threats and maybe hand off to guns or Sea Ceptor to prosecute the inbound.
I do also wonder how good the very high up ARTISAN set on QEC is for detecting skimmers if anyone dared to use it in active mode….it is even higher than T45….
To be fair, how many SF experienced CDS and CGS have we had the last 20 years who did sod all?
It’s a political post, combat experience isn’t necessarily needed for it.
No T45 would have been offered at an early stage because none were available, as we have seen.
Meanwhile whatever limited GBAD is available is rapidly being exhausted in defence of Erbil. The one Crowsnest deployed to Cyprus can only deploy for a few hours each day, has, in any case, limited airframe hours available.
What on earth is that strange cacophony…maybe chickens returning to their roost…?
Get rid of the unevidenced and profoundly stupid spending on net zero immediately so that defence, the first duty of government, the lives of servicemen overseas at risk, can be properly resourced!
I suspect T45 will deploy with another bagger.
Saves the self deployment issue.
The Fleet Air Arm is and has always been an exceptional organisation. They will, as ever, do a magnificent job.
But, like every other service, they have simply not been adequately resourced:
‘To keep a Merlin in the air 24/7 will not be attempted as this would require at least 4 or 5 aircraft and a large number of engineers and aircrew. Instead, flying time will have to be balanced with threat levels and availability of Protector and other ISR assets. However, even a sortie per day for a few weeks would quickly rack up precious airframe hours, a significant consideration for the RN’s small fleet of 30 Merlin Mk2s, which has been extended in service until 2040.
The RN has 10 Crowsnest kits that can be fitted to different airframes as required. Installation and removal are not simple and around 6 cabs are fitted at any given time. The deployment to Cyprus may also impact ASaC Merlin availability to embark on HMS Prince of Wales if the carrier strike group were to be deployed.’
Meanwhile Britain squanders funds required for its defence on the quixotic and unevidenced pursuit of net zero. Sensibly, few other countries are following this moronic example. Nuclear power soaks up further funding as a consequence of draconian overregulation.
Systemic reform is required.
The dates are weird too. Nothing during January, but what about during February?
Several thoughts on all this business.
Firstly, typical passing of the buck from HMG, never our fault, yet we have zero strategic nous or vision, despite the intelligence available.
It is up to ministers to think ahead, given that it was obvious for weeks what was likely to happen and that the US would attack.
Advice is then given by the CJO and Ops at MoD as to options available.
It is not the RNs fault so little assets are available, but YOURS.
And the current abuse sent the CDS way is shameful.
He was correct that there was no need to send a Carrier, as the UK has Akrotiri available.
But, a T45 was needed as contingency against possible BM and wider missile attacks and land GBAD needed as the SBAs have nothing.
That we only bought 6 T45, rather than the 12 wanted, is down to YOU, Labour.
That these ships now have engine issues is down to YOUR minister who ignored advice, sitting pretty now with his pension no doubt.
That Dragon has taken a week to deploy is the result of her coming out of maintenance and needing to be worked up you cannot just magically deploy a vessel until it is ready.
That there were no other options is YOUR responsibility, not the RNs.
That GBAD barely exists is YOUR fault, nobody else. You cut most of it in 2004 and it was never rebuilt. Even at it’s peak, apart from SHORAD assets, we had nothing beyond Bloodhound and 2 Regiments of Rapier.
Having said that, what was available should gave been already pre positioned, you do it as standard in the South Atlantic and the threat here was far greater.
You’re now looking like INCOMPETENT IDIOTS, HMG, as we take a week to send a T45, and our MCM capabilty has collapsed as the mother vessels needed to support the autonomous boats STILL have not been ordered.
That the straights are now in peril due to mines, just as you withdraw the last Hunt MCMV to the UK, with the most of the rest of them sold, used as spares, or as a training vessel, is YOUR responsibility.
You cannot now GRANDSTAND, Mr Healey, as you’re doing, that the RN has autonomous MCM assets deployed to the Gulf.
Whoopy dooos.
What defends them? And how do they deploy with no mother vessels beyond close to shore?
If wider action is now taken by the international community to secure those straights I hope you sit on the sidelines looking stupid and impotent, as what assets are there to send?
Meanwhile, I assume you’ll continue to close down our own sources of oil and gas in the North Sea, while expecting the LNG to be imported?
UTTER, SCUM. The lot of you…..
Here here.
For once Daniele, I have nothing to add, except you are one hundred per cent right.
Bloody well said sar!
The 🇬🇧 deserves so much better!
Regards from 🇦🇺
Ah so its not the Governments fault, or the MOD’s or the CDS, its the Navys fault for not offering, ah will that clears that up. Pass the blame, it was not us it was some one else, the CDS is weak and lacks leadership and Government and MOD are bare faced liars who are sad enough to blame others to hide thier own massive failings and disgusting run down state of our military.
We have been totally embarassed around the world, again, because nothing works, nothing is ever ready and what we have is last minute and normally scrapped togeather.
Context is key here: and in this case its what as the question that was asked? A quick check on the questions-statements section of the UK parliament website shows that James Cartlidge MP asked :
“To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the Royal Navy made a formal offer for the preposition of a Type 45 Destroyer between 1 January 2026 and 2 February 2026?”
Answered on 12th March by Al Carns MP (Armed Forces Minister on behalf of Secretary of State for Defence) as :
“We constantly review deployments of Royal Navy assets in line with securing the interests of the UK and our allies. No formal offer was made by the Royal Navy to deploy a Type 45 Destroyer ahead of HMS Dragon’s deployment at the first available moment on 10 March 2026.”
note the 10th March date: that really does mean that no vessels were available before this and, regrettably, this is where we are. Contrary to popular belief the MOD, Navy and indeed the Govt. all know this so they wouldn’t deploy a ship that doesn’t exist or cant deploy.
On a more serious note…and correct me if I’m wrong…but
didn’t …HMS Dragon…use to have a Red 🐉 (definitely green!) on both port and starboard bow? Now its just the port bow? What’s happened, been painted over!?
*definitely [not] green!