Britain has taken command of NATO’s Atlantic headquarters with twenty-seven of its own seventy-one posts there still unfilled, and the Ministry of Defence does not expect to complete them until the end of 2027, according to written evidence submitted to the Defence Committee.
The Ministry of Defence supplied the figures in answer to follow-up questions from the committee’s High North inquiry, after members asked for the percentage and actual numbers of British-allocated NATO posts at the headquarters that are currently filled.
The department said: “The UK holds over 1000 NATO posts, which are currently filled at around 90% – one of the highest fill rates in the Alliance. Fill rates naturally fluctuate as posts are created, filled and rotated. The UK holds 71 out of the 494 Joint Force Command Norfolk (JFC Norfolk) posts; 44 of these have already been filled, with the remaining 27 posts due to be filled by the end of 2027. The UK will assume command of JFC Norfolk from the United States in September 2026, when General Nick Perry will take up the 4* Commander (COM) role.”
Joint Force Command Norfolk is the NATO headquarters responsible for the North Atlantic, established in 2019 and declared fully operational in 2021 as the alliance reckoned with Russian submarine activity returning to Cold War levels. It is the only NATO command headquarters based in North America, co-located with the United States Second Fleet at Norfolk, Virginia, and its area of responsibility covers the sea lines of communication between North America and Europe that any reinforcement of the continent depends on.
General Nick Perry took up the four-star Commander role in September, putting a British officer in charge of the headquarters that would run the Atlantic in a crisis. The Royal Navy has long argued that anti-submarine warfare in the Greenland Iceland United Kingdom gap is where Britain contributes most distinctively to NATO, and the command appointment follows that logic.
“The Royal Navy has long argued that anti-submarine warfare in the Greenland Iceland United Kingdom gap is where Britain contributes most distinctively to NATO, and the command appointment follows that logic”
How does this have credibility when most Astute class SSN are alongside in long term maintenance so not ready to patrol the North Atlantic?
Because British defence “strategy” is disjointed and more akin to responding to the latest budget cuts than any true long term plan with areas prioritised.
If it were so, why weren’t the associated maintenance and dry dock facilities upgraded and fully funded years ago concurrent to the Astute build over decades?
Nothings joined up.
T45
QEC
ASTUTE
were all contracted on a 2.5% defence budget.
T45 and ASTUTE were conceived before Blair’s constant wars.
You know as well as I do why the Rosyth nuclear dockyard was cancelled and the money not spent properly. It has been discussed a few times in UKDJ over the years. Rosyth were underbid partway through the build by an untrustworthy bidder in Devonport, and the government saw their imaginary savings turn out to be an extra spend of over half a billion for significantly worse facilities. For those who don’t know about this, the location of a single nuclear dockyard was debated in Parliament and particularly the Lord’s debate about the shift to Devonport makes for instructive reading to this day.
It’s not that the Navy’s strategy is disjointed. One of 1SL’s major initiatives, his 100 day plan, was to do whatever was possible to get the submarines operational. They are trying. Unfortunately, the Treasury’s strategy has always taken precedence. Nobody had the power or the balls to tell the Treasury that moving submarine build to the right by a decade was a disaster and they need to cough up fivefold to fix the consequences of their call. Nobody had the power or the balls to tell the Treasury that moving the frigate build to the right by a decade was a disaster and they need to cough up to fix the consequences of that too, and nobody is telling the Treasury that cancelling destroyer build and hoping CCV/hybrid will magically take over is courting the same disaster, possibly delaying destroyer build by a decade. The Treasury just wash their hands of the disasters they force on the Navy and demand more efficiency savings and that more ships are sold off.
Project Euston and a small upgrade to maintenance at Clyde is the so-called answer and it will do very little this decade. Bets on the first floating drydock, maybe 2031. When 10 dock refurb is complete (2028) it will initially be used for SSBNs and maybe that can help a bit by freeing up the ship-lift if it’s still working — maybe get Artful going again. Whenever I try to figure out how we intend to maintain up to 12 SSNAs, I always come back to the inadequacy of the current plans. Unless Clyde includes a deep maintenance facility and the single Devonport dock decision is reversed, we are headed for failure. It may have been a mistake to put Astute into 15 dock before Artful — possibly a nuclear regulatory thing and it’s done now anyway, so we’ll see neither boat for some time. Ambush is sat being storobbed. So we are rotating two boats until Agamemnon comes on stream and for as long as the two don’t need dry docks (fingers crossed 2030). Let’s hope Agamemnon doesn’t need a dry dock for any teething issues and we can get a third boat in the mix soon.
Good post, well detailed and explained.
I’ve always thought the “up to 12” SSN is pure Whitehall spin and fantasy to be swallowed by the masses now, and nothings changed my mind.
I think I found the missing element in the strategy. No 3 dock at Rosyth is to be upgraded for a contingency docking point for HMS Dreadnought during trials. By upgrading both 2 and 3 docks, Rosyth could easily be recertified as an attack sub maintenance hub to take the overflow. Frigate fit-out would have to be moved but that’s not too hard.
Ready as always. How very sad this has all become.
Did you read the full article? The UK has the highest role fill rate in the alliance. 90% of 1000 roles are filled.
We have enough admirals and generals to fill these, none of which have ships, troops or planes so what is the delay
Because not all Generals, Lt Generals, Major Generals and Rear Admirals, Vice Admirals, and Admirals have commands that have Troops, Ships and planes.
It’s not a valid comparison Dave, I wonder if these missing postings are specialist branch positions where there is overstretch rather than “pen pusher” admin positions. The report obviously doesn’t list what they are.
It’s a bit ambiguous. Are they simply vacant chairs, or simply not yet sat in by Brits… so the previous incumbents carry on?
You may be right, I took it to be the former.
It’s just laughable now – embarrassing joke that’s what we have become.
Clearly didn’t read the article.