Royal Navy frigate HMS Lancaster, alongside sailors and Royal Marines, has assisted hundreds of civilians in fleeing war-torn Sudan.
The frigate arrived in Port Sudan last week as part of the UK’s efforts to help British citizens and those from partner nations escape the ongoing civil war.
The Royal Marines of 3 Commando, stationed onboard the frigate, assisted with the airlift of civilians from around the capital. Meanwhile, people were evacuated by ship across the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia, from where onward travel arrangements were made.
The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office and UK Border Force personnel, supported by the UK Armed Forces, processed and supported British nationals during the evacuation.
Assistance from the Royal Marines
To ensure the safety of hundreds of people arriving in Port Sudan by road, members of 3 Parachute Regiment and 42 Commando Royal Marines disembarked from HMS Lancaster. Their presence provided critical support during the journey.
A safe haven
Among the evacuees was Mohammed Kadouk, a Cardiff-born student at Aberdeen University. Mohammed, along with his wife and three-week-old daughter, made the arduous 750km journey to Port Sudan. Speaking about the situation in Khartoum, Mohammed said, “Once I got here [Coral Hotel reception centre] it has been really good. My priority is my family, I need to get them somewhere safe, get them settled and then get back to work.”
As the situation in Sudan continues to be volatile, the efforts of Royal Navy frigate HMS Lancaster and its crew have been instrumental in assisting hundreds of civilians to escape the conflict and find safe haven.
Excellent work HMS Lancaster. I think sadly Sudan is going to turn into a failed state like Mali and Eritrea with Russian mercenaries PMC Wagner running all the natural resources so oil fields, diamond mines etc and profiteering immensely from their “possessions”.
Putin’s FSB have been involved in the destabilisation of Sudan and alongside Wagner are working to a clear plan of developing multiple African client states embroiled in civil wars that they have fermented.
China too has long been involved in parts of Africa but exercising influence and ‘buying friends’ rather than destabiling regimes.
Yes, likely Russian meddling, trying to get more of a foot hold along this key Suez transit route for world shipping. Link in with its other like minded regimes in Africa and China down the way in Djibouti, Iran over the way and Syria in the North and friendly with Turkey. China buddying up to Saudi Arabia and UAE. Funny (not) how these two rececently held exercises with South Africa, another key trade route around the Cape Horn and China more recently with Singapore. Bet with the later they’ll want a squizz at their weaponry and F-35Bs when they arrive.… Read more »
Hopefully the F35Bs that Singapore are due to get can be used as a cudgel to get them to see sense.
No more exercises with the PLA or else they should have their order completely revoked with no refunds.
He is probably from Sudan ethnically and was likely visiting family/ friends there when the civil war broke out. Just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I thought the FCDO had been advising for months not to visit Sudan.
For years
Which is why our boys and girls are risking everything to get them home because it is the UK governments fault that they didn’t follow the UK governments advice? Obvs.
Hi folks hope all is well.
Excellent work and well done to our magnificent military.
It’s such a shame our own main stream media don’t report this with enthusiasm instead of being disloyal to the nation that keeps them safe, secure and sound. You’d think MSM is on the side of Putin the way they ridicule our military.
Cheers
George
Had to look up MSM – Mainstream media?
Good point George. Our armed forces have done all that they were tasked by politicians to do – and more…and done this dangerous work faultlessly.
[I bet many of those rescued ignored FCDO advice not to travel there].
Sky news interviewing British/Sudanese nationals that had been rescued. They asked them all about the slow response by the British compared to Germany etc, and every single one dismissed it, with one lady stating, well we are now safe and that’s the main thing isn’t it? For her yes, but clearly not for Sky News.
Cardigan Bay and a Point Class ( MV Anvil Point I think) headed to Port Sudan.
Interesting that their is a big stink in the USA about their evacuation as they had no amphibious vessels available and could only follow their expat via drone as they made their way to the port,
China had no planes to send.
Maybe the UK ain’t so bad after all.
We do at least have a capability that works. More would always be nice. In that environment a T23 with its 4.5″ gun and Sea Ceptor is more than enough for the level of threat. NSM would be the icing on the cake but hard to see how its use would be anything other than a threat. Not sure that ROI would allow it to be used unless the T23 or other sovereign vessels were being fired on. So I do think that a Point / Bay / T23 is enough. The Beirut evacuation….a Country racing across the Med on… Read more »
That was supposed to read County Class – which was Glamorgan
I was involved in the Beirut evacuation (84) onboard RFA Reliant as a Radio Officer. We had no armaments at all to defend ourselves. But in true Brit Spirit we coped.
The idea that some US vessels weren’t available as they were undertaking a training exercise in civilian evacuation on the US East Coast bewilders me. Defense News reports they couldn’t go to Sudan as they hadn’t been certified as ready. Didn’t the US always used to have at least one amphibious ready group in the Indian-Ocean/Gulf region?
Yeah apparently the USMC needs 38 amphibious ships and they still can’t rescue anyone. This and the Iranian tanker captures shows how much the USN has run down its presence in the Gulf region.
Thank god we stated forward deploying a frigate to their region.
Jim wrote: “”This and the Iranian tanker captures shows how much the USN has run down its presence in the Gulf region.”” The Advantage sweet tanker is Chinese, manned by Indians and 1 russian on route to the US, the latest ship is owned by a Greek company, on route from Dubai to the UAE after leaving a ship yard (which is why it is so high out of the water) so I cant see how this is a US issue, The US hasnt any protection deals with either of the countries which own the tankers. which could also explain… Read more »
America has traditionally taken a more active role in defending all sea lanes which is why we ended up with flags of convenience. Maybe now shipping companies will realise they can’t just fly any flag they choose to dodge tax and regulations.
Very good point, on the fact these flag of convenience nations do not provide support for Freedom of the seas….maybe there needs to be more of a fair international effort in that nations pay to support anti piracy and freedom for the seas depends on how many flagged vessels they have…
It’s only about 7 hours sailing to Jeddah by frigate, less than the Hull-Rotterdam ferry. A Nimitz could do it in five. You don’t necessarily even need berths this time of year. Just pick them up in the morning, arrange a deck party with a little al fresco dining and drop them off in the afternoon.
Okay I jest, but not entirely. The US will have many ships in the area and I wonder if their press is getting it as badly wrong as ours.
Looking like the T31s are needed in this region pronto. And maybe order a few more.
Yes there is certainly a role for a mid tier combatant procured in numbers. I’m hoping we ditch Type 32 and just role out 10 type 31.
T31 does look like good value so long as it’s reasonably well armed. No guarantee that the T32 will be Babcock. If it goes to BAE it’ll probably cost the earth if a bespoke design like the adaptable frigate.
It the times demand it extra T31s can likely be made sooner. I’d like to see an extra 1 T26 in the RN for additional availability and CSG escorts and maybe 2-3 AAW type T31s, especially as the T83 are ages away. One has to hope for the best!
Exactly, there was no MEU/ARG available for either support of the earthquake in Turkey or the evacuation in Sudan. Deputy Commandant and Commandant have spoken publicly re this matter and Commandant testified in HOR. The Corp is stressed re platforms; uncertain whether there is a viable get well plan.
… Corps…🙄
The Indian Ocean is incredibly far away from the USA. At Britains height it never managed to operate across three oceans. The USA has managed this but it’s not easy especially when security now dictates more forces in the Atlantic and the pacific. Much the same happened to the British empire in the run up to ww1 when it had to build the grand fleet to counter the German high seas fleet. That being said 38 amphibious ships seems like a massive amount, we are down to 6 or 8 if you include the Queen Elizabeth’s and Argus so 38… Read more »
That’s not actually true at the hight of PAX Britainic the RN operated across every ocean in the world. Generally speaking during the hight of pax Britannica the RN had the following foreign station (fleets) covering all the worlds oceans:
Mediterranean fleet
East Indies station
China station
Australia station
affrica station
America and West Indies station
pacific station
South American station
this did not include the three home fleets
The Royal Navy at its hight during pax Britannica was designed to fight two navel conflicts at any one time against the two other strongest navy’s anywhere in the world…
The US is using sealift, with USNS Brunswick shuttling between Port Sudan and Jeddah.
Maybe the UK ain’t so bad after all, agreed. But to be fair, the USN has been busy with an Expeditionary Fast Transport between Jeddah and Port Sudan according to at least one newsreel I saw and MarineTraffic.com
Our evacuation may have started a little slower than others but it was the largest (28 flights, about 2000 people) and got out the most people. Half of those we rescued were Brits and half were from 20 different countries.
NEO is a very difficult and dangerous operation with the possibilities of much to go wrong – our one went brilliantly well. No plaudits from the media though.
It’s now 2,450 people airlifted to safety, Graham. (According to the Foreign Office last night). More than any other European country.
Some of the uninformed comments on Twitter by the public have been dismal. I fear social media has changed the discourse in this country much for the worse.
Thanks Alan. NEO evacuation is very complex with a lot of moving parts and is potentially highly dangerous and there is little to no time to plan or set things up and no chance to rehearse – and plenty of scope for things to go wrong.
Our people have performed a minor miracle.
[I wonder how many of those 2,450 people defied FCO advice not to travel to Sudan in the first place!]
USN has Puller an ESB ship in the Red Sea. I have Worked on it…its massive with lots of capability for Helo ops and SF ideal for just this sort of thing. There is a Fast Cat EFT there. Plenty of capability…again I have worked on one of those . Its basically a Car Ferry catamaran . Fast as Fu*k and can carry a lot of marines and kit from Port A to Port B.
Ther is also an AB there as well.
The USMC is dripping because they didnt get involved.
Considering every body moaned that the government wasn’t doing enough we are still taking ours and other nations nationals out.
We also went in a day earlier than any other nation getting some nasty comments from Germany and the eu because they said we didn’t have permission to land a/c to evacuate, as it was we did have permission we just got on with it without telling anyone.
Its been very interesting watching the power of the media over Sudan. As I mentioned before, the UKs first remit was to get out its diplomats who found themselves smack bang in the middle of a warzone (as in hundreds of metres either side of the Embassy) So the media then went full hog and berated the UK Gov for saving people who were posted there as part of the Gov. Then they decided that as the French and Germany had picked up their citizens and the Uk hadn’t, then the UK was remiss, things weren’t helped by Labour Mastermind… Read more »
It would certainly be interesting to see how rapidly those rescued move back to Sudan. The papers seem to think that because RAF / RN exist they can be ready in 5 mins to do anything and in fact should have anticipated this and been pre positioned. Never mind awkward stuff like scoping out, planning, logistics, risk assessments (for troops, crew and those to be rescued), securing areas (probably loop back to stage 1 a few iterations). The thing you can be pretty sure about is that whoever is writing this guff has never successfully put a tent up in… Read more »
Point 1: David Lammy, met him, a man of limited intelligence with a race chip on his shoulder 24/7.
Point 2: Agree on all other points in your comment.
Point 3: Reiterating point 1&2 👍
Agree on all points. As usual, yawning silence from your naysayers who simply have no answer to the truth and bloody basic common sense!!!
Deleted for posting on wrong thread
Ok…Cardigan Bay. As most have read CB was in Maintenance in Bahrain when this kicked off. It was a pre planned repair period alongside for 3 weeks to conduct defect rectification and planned maintenance…It wasn’t a refit. It wasn’t a drydocking…just a bog standard alongside fixing stuff period. When the confirmation came in to hurry things along and get her away we in the yard had already started the process some days before. I had put two and two together and come up with four so I had warned my engineers and lads from the various departments that she may… Read more »
GB, you and your lads are all “bloody marvellous”. Bloody well done!! 🇦🇺 🇬🇧
Time for a feet up and a few 🍻!!
Unfortunately I was in last Fri and Sat last week, am in tomorrow so it’s basically a school night and I have to be sensible.
I did tell the colonial cousins I wouldn’t be In on Saturday for obvious reasons. Us Brits are having a coronation day all you can eat and drink brunch..
Might get messy!
Back to work on sunday
Like the idea of an “all day eating and drinking brunch” and yes, God save the King too!!
Long live the UK and all our brothers and sisters in Ukraine too!! 🇬🇧 🇺🇦. And not to forget all the other troubles parts of the world!
Not to sound too colonial, but thank you for all your (plural) work!
As a youngster, I liked HMS Tiger & Blake, for their ability to carry 4 SeaKing helicopters each. When T45 are replaced, I would love to see two of them given extended hangers, so they can carry 2x Merlin + 2x Wildcat. Very useful for operations like this.
Regardless of all the pomp and circumstance, somebody somewhere picked up the fone , arranged it and all is well, a huge thank you to all involved.
There is certainly a case for a bigger ship to replace the T45s. This is not only for a larger number of missile cells, but I would suggest for a much larger hangar. The serious issue for an air defence “destroyer” is having radar placed high enough to extend the radar horizon. As this means the ship will see very low level sea skimming missiles earlier and thereby have more time to react and coordinate a response. Hence why Sampson is placed so high on the T45. However, you can only make the mast so high, as the top weight… Read more »
Vigilant was marketed in a 13 ton MTOW class, not much less than the Valor even though its single engine would develop half the power of Valor’s two. I’m a big fan of tiltrotors where they can make the difference, but other than for the carrier group, I think we should have a single distance-extending radar carrier for the whole Navy from OPVs to destroyers; Vigilant is too big for smaller naval platforms while still not being capable of fully using a high-power AEW radar. Leonard is building a 3 ton MTOW demonstrator they unimaginatively called RWUAS (phase 3), but… Read more »
Hi Jon what you say about the requirements of SWAP (size, weight and performance) is very pertinent. As a lot will also be determined by the aircraft’s airframe size and engine’s electrical power generation. However, unlike the Firescout, the signal processing can be done remotely, which saves on weight and power needs. But this then dictates that you require something like the F35’s Multi-function Advanced Data-Link (MADL) to handle the huge amount of raw data, something a quad stacked Link-16 could never cope with. Being electronically beamformed and steered, would also give it a very high resistance to jamming and… Read more »
Well if you go back to the 1970s, the Italians had the Vittorio Veneto, that could take 9 Bell 212 or 4 Sea Kings on its 9500 tons. The Japanese had the Haruna class that carried 3 Sea Kings on its 6400 tons.
Good point, but then what is the differentiation between a destroyer and a cruiser? However, the Vittorio Veneto does show how large a flight deck you can have if you place the hangar below it. Which I guess means there’s less overall top weight, as the hangar is spread across the stern section. Thereby also giving you more volume for a large hangar. But then requires the complication of needing a lift to get from the hangar to the flight deck. As a concept it would be interesting to do a design study for a T83 with a Vittorio Veneto… Read more »
Agreed. I think the Treasury would veto anything of 10,000 tons or more, so any design would need to be under that, if only just.