Five Ukrainian minehunters have completed seven days of intensive training off the south coast of England, closing with a run in close formation around the Type 45 destroyer HMS Dauntless in the eastern Solent, according to the Royal Navy.
The ships are based in Portsmouth as part of British support to Ukraine, and the training ranged across the Dorset, Hampshire and Isle of Wight coastlines, taking in gunnery, the destruction of dummy mines and formation sailing with a major warship.
UNS Henichesk, Mariupol, Melitopol, Chernihiv and Cherkasy made up the quintet. Under the supervision of British military personnel they first demonstrated their ability to defend themselves with gunnery shoots off Portland, then moved on to locating, identifying and where necessary destroying underwater explosive devices.
That work used Seafox, the remotely operated submersible that has been a mainstay of Royal Navy mine countermeasures for a couple of decades. Chernihiv and Cherkasy both carried out live firings of the system, which ended in controlled explosions neutralising the mine threats they had been set.
The seven days formed the final chapter of Exercise Lion Protector, a Joint Expeditionary Force exercise running from August until the weekend and intended to refine how member nations respond militarily to protect Europe’s northern flank. Its fifth and last phase shifted the emphasis onto the ability of JEF navies to protect maritime infrastructure and guarantee the security of sea lanes.
Earlier phases took the UK Commando Force to the Faroe Islands to work on safeguarding the Greenland, Iceland and United Kingdom gap, the first time Royal Marines have operated in the Atlantic chain since the Second World War. The Royal Navy rates Lion Protector second only to Sea Breeze, the Ukrainian Navy’s premier annual exercise, in scope and complexity. Sea Breeze itself was held off the south coast of England over the summer.
Dauntless played the part of the major warship in the closing serial, with the Ukrainian ships manoeuvring around her as a small task group. The destroyer is preparing to escort the fleet flagship HMS Prince of Wales when she resumes her Firecrest 2026 deployment to the High North. Mine countermeasures have become one of the more practical forms of British help to Ukraine, since the Black Sea remains heavily mined and the Ukrainian Navy has had to rebuild capability.
I wonder what would happen if the Russian frigate that seems to be permanently based in the North sea/channel area attacked these Ukrainian mine hunters, would the RN come to their aid ?
Only if it took place in uk territorial waters. However the Ukrainians are not daft, if they were anywhere near a Russian warship it would be to sink it.
I was just wondering what (if anything) the UK government would do if it kicked off between the Ukrainian naval vessels and the Russian Frigate. The ex RN mine hunters would be no good in a fight against a Frigate (even one as old as the one currently in the Channel) but would make excellent launch platforms for drone’s.