Britain is co-leading planning with France for a Multinational Military Mission intended to give commercial shipping safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, and has an autonomous mine countermeasures capability already working in the region, according to an answer given in Parliament.
Stuart Anderson, the Conservative member for South Shropshire, had asked how the United Kingdom is contributing to multinational maritime security task forces in the Red Sea and Gulf.
Louise Sandher-Jones, the Minister for the Armed Forces, said: “The UK remains steadfast in its commitment to maritime security in the Middle East and to supporting regional stability alongside our regional partners.
“The UK is supporting multinational maritime security efforts in the Red Sea and Gulf regions, working alongside international partners including US-led Combined Maritime Forces.
“The UK is also co-leading planning efforts with the French on the Multinational Military Mission that will support safe transit for commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. As part of this, the Royal Navy’s modernisation programme has delivered an autonomous mine countermeasures capability operating in the region, which continues to innovate at pace.”
The Royal Navy withdrew its last Sandown class minehunters from the Gulf and replaced crewed mine warfare vessels in the region with uncrewed systems operated from a support ship, drawing on the work done through the Maritime Mine Counter Measures programme developed jointly with France.
Imagine if we had kept those four minesweepers in the gulf, would have been a total waste of time. They would have all been obliterated in Bahrain.
Ships without air defence have been getting obliterated since 1939.
Good test bed got the new kit.
Getting rid of the mines is all well and good if this works .But how to stop missiles hitting the ships is another matter. UK and France don’t have enough Escorts for that role plus wouldn’t want to put ship’s in harm’s way.
I don’t think the plan is to escort ships through war zone in an enclosed sea, the USN cannot do that so why should the European nations even try.. the U.S. has to sort its shit out with Iran first.
Yes the wording is important. British and French ‘planning efforts’ is not same as escorting shipping. When price of oil comes down is when something happens.
Perhaps more of a job for Royal Marines providing onboard firepower and protection on merchant vessels. The uk no longer has a navy to these tasks . We have two ships at best for the rask. An aircraft carrier can provide f35 cover in the Indian Ocean somewhere . The Red Sea is a prime example of why the UK being an island nation requires another 15 frigates to protect sea trade which uk relys 100 percent on
Deja vu?
Huh, this explains one of the bays being around port of Mombasa 2 wks ago
I dont think the RN has the surface warships available to do this.
Type 31, second batch needed, the type 26 and 31 programmes need accelerating, the remaining type 23 frigates will need to soldier on for many more years.
A corvette order, possibly based on river class batch 2 hull might be a necessary stop gap measure, despite the navy top brass being against it. Canada is about to order a large number of corvette that will be quite heavily armed and provide a useful persistent presence.
Welcome back Mr Bell! With you on all this. A few more T31s and get a 4 Corvette/OPV order in to replace the B1s. Just don’t mention drones.
The Swedes operate very effectively Corvettes which while being perfect for the Baltic would not be unsuited to some tasks useful to us too being an island nation with extensive costliness to defend. But clearly we won’t find any budget for them.
The fact the Royal Canadian Navy is about to sign a contract for a first batch of 16 corvette is telling. They have the largest coastline in the world and the need to patrol this is pressing. Follow up batch ordering upto 48 ships is rumoured to be likely.
Each ship has a 56mm BAE main gun, 2x bofors CIWS, torpedo launchers, helo pad for a lynx or SH60 type aircraft, 16 cell VLS for Evolved SS missiles (so quad sea ceptor capable or Asroc) multi mission bay for light weight USSV, USV. And 8 NSM missiles in cannisters.
Troop carrying capacity for 36 embarked force.
That’s a lot of capacity and presence and when paired or grouped represents more firepower than most frigates. Crew of just 54-56. See Vard 7 105 continental design.
Cost per ship..circa £128-135 million. What’s not to like?
The Continental Corvette has a couple of designs that the RCN is looking at but the firepower and sensor systems are what you specked out. Admiral Topshee wanted something with the firepower of the Halifax Class and in large numbers. 16-20 of these vessels are being considered to help shore up the River class when they start going into service.
If everything goes well the RCN will look like this in 20 years:
15x River Class Destoyers
16-20x Continental Defence Corvettes
12x Type12 CD Submarines
6x Harry De Wolfe Class Arctic OPV
2x Protecteur Class Replenishment ships ( Possible 1 or 2 civilian replenishment ships to fill gaps)
Unknown number of CB90s to replace the Orca Class patrol boats
Unknown number of air and sea drones
Canada has a lot of shoreline but drone and satellite (NORAD) survellance is the primary patrol tool.
Plenty of corvettes in the Gulf state nations navies.
Two permanent members of the U.N. Security Council having no credible contingency plan to maintain safe passage for international shipping through a key international waterway is a grave dereliction of duty by both Britain and France. Why are they still permanent members if they bring nothing to the table?
Which member of permanent council could assert control of the straits off Iran? Drones are a great leveller in asymmetrical warfare.
Both countries have known about the threat from drones for several years. Contingency planning dictates that means to deal with the threat should have been researched, reported on and report recommendations implemented some time ago. It beggars belief that Ukraine can deal with the threat from Iranian drones at scale but Britain and France cannot. Neither country has any right any longer to permanent membership of the U.N. security council.
Probably could have helped if a third member of the security council hadn’t started a bloody war wouldn’t it🙄
Of course. Nevertheless it is possible to argue that the Iranian government’s crimes against its own people constituted good cause for U.N. security council intervention:
‘In a report released Monday, the mission concluded that killings by security forces “occurred on a massive scale in all provinces” of Iran, during the Government’s “violent crackdown” on mass protests that stretched from last year into this year.
The mission also reported that at least 221 children – some as young as two years old – were killed and that security forces attacked health care facilities, “beating and arresting wounded protesters and arresting some health care workers, discouraging victims from seeking life-saving care.’ Sept. 2026
The U.S. military action was precipitate and badly planned. But that does not obviate the fact that France and Britain, in order to justify their permanent membership of the security council, should have had a contingency plan in place and properly resourced to keep the Straits open.
There is an arguable case that the military weakness of Britain and France is a significant contributor to the widespread instability in world affairs at the present time.
Without our Nuclear Capabilites its hard to justify even now our Position over say INDIA Very Soon..!
The only reason Britain and France haven’t been removed is because that would allow Russia to be removed as well. China will never allow India to become a permanent member. Weak and feeble France and Britain, Russia as a Chinese pawn, suits them very well.
This country’s international image is, by now, a grotesque embarrassment.
Until Trump is removed & peace made I think we’d be better steering well clear. We could have the best resolution & arrangement in place, but at any time Trump could mess the whole thing up & tip the region back into turmoil. Netanyahu as well for that matter. The free world can do so much, but with the USA & Israel behaving like murderous fascist loons we’d be better off shunning them until sanity returns.
In order to to make transiting the strait viable the risk has to be reduced to a level that makes it acceptable to insurance companies. Any risk mitigation effort that falls short of that threshold is futile.
Without IRANIAN OK Isuspect this is going Nowhere..
TWO old Bankrupt Countries trying to maintain some sort of Presence on the world stage…!