Naval chiefs from across Northern Europe have signed a statement of intent to develop a formal Northern Navies initiative, the First Sea Lord announced at RUSI on Tuesday, describing it as a multinational maritime force to defend Northwest Europe and the High North with the UK at the helm.
General Sir Gwyn Jenkins said he hosted naval chiefs from across Northern Europe last week and that during that meeting the assembled nations signed a statement of intent committing to work up detailed proposals for the initiative. He said he wanted all participating nations to have signed a formal declaration by the end of the year, “laying the foundations for what will be a vital and enduring partnership for many years to come” and pledged to set out more details later this summer on how he intended to deliver it.
The initiative would see member nations operating common systems and platforms, shared digital networks, logistics and stockpiles, trained through the Royal Navy’s Fleet Operational Standards and Training, supported through UK doctrine and integration standards, and commanded from Northwood’s Maritime Operations Centre. Jenkins described it as “a visible and persistent conventional deterrent, a force that is stronger, collectively, than the sum of its parts” and said it should complement rather than compete with NATO, functioning as a means for the Alliance to respond rapidly and seize the initiative in the region.
Jenkins said the Royal Navy was uniquely placed to drive the initiative forward, pointing to the Lunna House Agreement with Norway and the export of Type 26 frigates to Norway and Canada as evidence of the foundations already in place, saying he hoped similar deals would soon be struck with other Northern allies and that conversations with counterparts showed keen interest in the Hybrid Naval plans. He said the goal was the creation of “a family of allied fleets, something that has not happened in decades.”
On the strategic context driving the initiative, Jenkins was direct about the Russian threat, revealing that Russian incursions into UK waters had jumped by almost a third in the last two years and that in 2025 alone the Royal Navy was required to respond dozens of times in support of homeland defence against Russian Navy surface vessels. He said it was Russia’s reinvestment in its submarine programmes that posed the most acute threat, warning that all signs suggested the pattern of behaviour would only worsen, and pointing to the Defence Secretary’s recent announcement about Royal Navy disruption of Russian submarine activity as evidence of the persistent challenge.
Jenkins described the initiative’s ambition in terms of genuine interchangeability rather than mere interoperability, saying he wanted to create “a maritime force that trains, exercises and prepares together, a force designed to fight immediately if required, with real capabilities, real war plans, and real integration” in which interchangeability was made possible because member nations would be operating common systems and platforms.
I presume this is just another paper exercise or do we need to have both our ships available at the same time…
Since when did we provide all of Northern Europe’s ships? 🤡
Red flags going up all over the place but still no movement from Whitehall!
Too busy trying to save Starmers ass or roast it.
This is a decent start but we need more, we need a new alliance within or alongside NATO that can operate without the USA and where Slovakia, Turkey and Hungary don’t get a veto. Most of all the new alliance needs to be a nuclear sharing agreement and the UK should set as an absolute priority development of a sub strategic nuclear capability and dual use agreement with major Northern European governments as well as Canada and Australia (if they want it).
We already have the potential to developed and IRBM alongside France as part of ELSA and Germany, Poland and Sweden have all signalled a willingness to pay for such weapons again as part of ELSA.
It’s up to the UK to form a spine around which the middle powers can gather.
At all costs we must maintain the NPT even in the face of a US withdrawal and we must deter Russia with nuclear weapons which is the only thing they have to threaten Europe with.
Yes, I support any defence link up with our northern European allies.
If we are defending NATO when will ENATO contribute to the DNE, which is bleeding our military white?
Chill mate, they are giving Victory new/repaired masts. Under sail in ten years and fitted with new cannon she can patrol the Channel….
That good? I’d read they were removing the masks altogether!
Blasted phone….”Masts”
🤣
Fitted for but not with! Dates back to Nelson himself it turns out…
Hi mate hope all’s good. No that was my fear too when I first read it but their taking them off , laying them down horizontally for the first time in over a hundred years , doing what they need to do to make them good for the next hundred or so ( should see me out 😁👎) then putting them back. Good article on the Portsmouth News .
Cheers mate, much better.
If he pulled out his finger and got more Astutes at sea? I might take his words more seriously. If he was not one of those politician friendly chiefs his words would give more confidence’
You’re kidding me. This is some sort of joke idea? We can’t do NATO commitments and some clown decides we can run a parallel second navy. This is a nonsense.
That is the point, fake the lack of RN escorts by getting escorts from other countries under the initiative.
I was in STANAVFORLANT IN THE ‘60s (Euryalus)This scheme seems similar, but without a surface warship based in Scotland is a logistic nonsense and looks like the UK will rely on others to cover the northern gap. The navy now has few sea-going ships and less matelots.
All talk and agreements , no more money to fund any of it.
We seem to hear lots of talk about Stuff and selling Stuff plus future Stuff, but we are not ordering anything what so ever?? (using Stuff to cover everything from Weapons Systems/Guns/Vehicle/Ship/Tanks/Airplane/Trainers/Defensive system etc) I could go on, but I got Stuff to do.