Two Royal Navy patrol ships have finished a ten day exercise in the South China Sea alongside Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore, working with fifth generation fighters, a Singaporean submarine and New Zealand boarding teams, according to the Royal Navy.
HMS Spey and HMS Tamar led the British contribution to Bersama Lima 2026, the annual exercise of the Five Power Defence Arrangements, whose name means Together Five in Malay. The participating navies brought corvettes, frigates, patrol ships and a submarine, and the exercise built from familiarisation scenarios to a two day war game.
Before sailing, the crews spent a week learning each other’s vessels, systems, procedures and the language they would use at sea so that they could work together once the pace picked up. The maritime phase covered boarding and searching suspect vessels, naval gunfire directed onto targets ashore by soldiers embarked in the ships, a submarine hunt and an air defence exercise supported by aircraft.
Commander Tom Lindsey, the commanding officer of HMS Tamar, said: “Bersama Lima was an excellent opportunity to put my ship’s company through their paces and refresh their war-fighting skills with our Five Power allies.
“There was a great breadth to this iteration of Bersama Lima: fifth-generation fighter jets, international boarding teams and Singapore’s newest submarine which, combined with the level of competence and professionalism showed, levelled up the experience gained.
“These war-fighting serials demonstrated that we can put a task group together in short order and successfully operate together to achieve a spectrum of scenarios.”
Tamar hosted a Royal New Zealand Navy Deployable Boarding Team which was put through repeated serials investigating suspected illegal fishing and narcotics smuggling, work the team and the ship will be doing for real on their next mission.
Able Seaman Mansfield, one of Tamar’s seaman specialists, said: “Driving a Kiwi boarding team up to a suspect vessel with a second sea boat, armed to the teeth, was a surreal experience which really brought the exercise to life.
“We also got the opportunity to replenish underway at sea where we exchanged some goods from home with HMAS Stalwart, who sent Tim Tams [Australia’s favourite biscuit] in return!”
A sailor from HMS Spey said: “It was a privilege to attend Bersama Lima 26 alongside our FPDA partners, an exercise which demonstrates over five decades of commitment to training and working together.
“Throughout the harbour phase, HMS Spey’s sailors took the opportunity to learn from each of the Five Power nations and share their skills to enhance interoperability and build stronger friendships in the region.”
Each British operation in the region since has drawn the same response as Beijing previously accused Britain of flexing its naval muscles over the 2021 carrier deployment. After HMS Spey passed through the Taiwan Strait in June 2025, Senior Captain Liu Runke, spokesman for the navy of the People’s Liberation Army Eastern Theatre Command, said British remarks about the transit had distorted legal principles, and that troops remained on high alert and would resolutely counter all threats and provocations.
When Spey exercised navigation rights and freedoms around the Spratly Islands in May this year, China’s ambassador to the United Kingdom said the 2016 arbitration award was illegal, null and void and that the British position would not shake China’s resolve, as this publication reported at the time. In July the Chinese Embassy in London told Britain to stop stirring up trouble after it backed a statement on the same award, and the embassy’s position was set out again as the two ships entered the sea at the start of this month.
Spey and Tamar are Batch 2 River class offshore patrol vessels, each crewed by around sixty sailors. They have been forward deployed to the Indo-Pacific since 2021 under Operation Highwall. The Five Power Defence Arrangements date from 1971 and remain the only standing multilateral defence arrangement in the region involving Britain.
Spey is now heading to south-east Asia for several weeks of patrols and diplomatic engagement, while Tamar is making for Australia and New Zealand by way of Pacific island chains, where she will carry out maritime security patrols and counter illegal fishing.
