The Dutch Ministry of Defence have confirmed that HNLMS Evertsen will be joining the upcoming UK Carrier Strike Group deployment to the Asia-Pacific.
In an Instagram post, the Dutch MoD said (translated):
“HNLMS Evertsen is in dry dock for maintenance before the ship departs with the # UKCarrierStrikeGroup21. With this international fleet association, the Evertsen will soon be heading towards Asia.”
The ship also tweeted confirmation.
Just a couple of maintenance weeks left before we set sail with the UK Carrier Strike Group 21 ⚓️🌏 #CSG21 #strongertogether @HMSQNLZ @kon_marine pic.twitter.com/naQmHBegNz
— Zr.Ms. Evertsen (@HNLMS_Evertsen) March 29, 2021
Earlier in the year there was some confusion over this as the UK Ministry of Defence had removed mention of the Dutch vessel joining the group from an article that had been published discussing the deployment.
The post written by the Ministry of Defence detailing the upcoming deployment of HMS Queen Elizabeth and her strike group mentioned a Dutch warship, that mention has now been removed.
Two sections of the post, titled ‘UK Carrier Strike Group Explained’, were removed.
The first stated:
“The group includes NATO’s most sophisticated destroyers coming together from the Royal Navy, the US Navy and the Dutch Navy.”
The second stated:
“The group includes NATO’s most sophisticated destroyers — the Royal Navy’s Type 45s HMS Diamond and HMS Defender and US Navy Arleigh Burke-class USS The Sullivans as well as frigates HMS Northumberland and HMS Kent from the UK and the Dutch Navy’s HNLMS Evertsen.”
The post now reads:
“The Carrier Strike Group will be complemented by US Marine Corps and US Navy personnel and equipment. This includes a detachment of US Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II aircraft and the US Navy’s destroyer, USS The Sullivans.”
There is now no mention of a Dutch vessel and oddly, the graphic featured in the original post has now been removed. The graphic is displayed below and appeared originally to detail how the Carrier Strike Group would operate.
Could it have been removed as it showed the Dutch vessel?
HNLMS Evertsen was present last year as the Carrier Strike Group worked up, traininmg to work alongside British and American vessels.
Could this have happened as it hadn’t yet been announced officially?
Perhaps information on what potential type of Dutch participation was posted early in the proposed CSG structure and is only now being confirmed
At least it’s another air defence frigate
Welcome news, more the merrier!
Obviously they didn’t know if Evertsen would be ready on time but now she will be. Well done the Dutch, nice people, lovely country and good friends. Evertsen will probably be looking in on former Dutch colonies too like Indonesia.
Rob,
I think it was more likely something to do with the Dutch General election…..withMark Rutte returned, its now safe to make the announcement and not worry about another political party cancelling the deployment.
Splendid ??a mighty task force of U.K. PLC and pals ????
?????????
I wonder if the Brits will ever be able to have their own CV battle group again with just British ships and planes?
Why? Multilateral groups are better creditability wise.
Yes we can Dan……. We are working up to a rather potent UK only battle group, when needed.
That said, it’s always good to take allies along with you.
I agree, I think the idea is to be able to do both, so the CTG can be deployed either way depending on the circumstances.
The UK showing up with its own CSG in the South China Sea is no where near as effective a message as the UK showing up with a multinational fleet with a UK carrier strike group at its head operating British and US aircraft with support provided by dozens of countries and partners. Imagine the effect on us if the liaoning was leading a fleet up the Irish Sea with Russian aircraft onboard and Iranian and North Korean escorts.
You never know, if that happened the defence budget might actually get to the 3% it should be at
That’s going to take a lot of tugs and air sea rescue helicopters, we might actually need 3% GDP on defence to afford the necessary numbers of both to see them safely through the Irish Sea….
You could probably walk from Holyhead to Dublin on the crashed J15’s but thankfully Fireman Sam and the Pontypandy fire brigade seem to be well resourced these days ?
“Imagine the effect on us if the liaoning was leading a fleet up the Irish Sea with Russian aircraft onboard and Iranian and North Korean escorts.”
The area annexed by the PRC is at least 600 miles from the Chinese mainland, so comparison with the Irish sea which is 140 miles at its widest part & mostly much narrower is ridiculous. We wouldn’t bully anyone peacefully travelling in international waters even if extremely close to our shores. Even Russian navy ships often transit the Channel, as they are free to do.
This is more equivellent to the UK annexing Iceland or Greenland, or even Newfoundland today, just because our fishermen sometime fished there. Then trying to ban anyone else from travelling through there either at sea or by air.
The Vietnamese, Malaysians, Indonesians & Phillipines have genuine claims there & everyone has the right to legally transit anywhere there within international waters. China suffered greatly from colonialism, but is pursueing its own colonialism today as it has since Mao won the civil war.
Aside from the USMC squadron embarked on QE we’re already there!
QE or PoW, 2 frigates, 2 destroyers, 1 SSN, 1 Tide Class tanker and Fort Vic – that represents a perfectly capable and independent task group.
Are allied additions needed? No! Are allied additions welcomed? Of course!
The more the better. I’d be surprised if another USN escort didn’t join for a stint and exercises with Indian, Malaysian, Australian, Japanese assets and a whole host of other friendly nations can be safely assumed.
Just about but more escorts provide more protection
RN T45 Destroyers have provided air defence cover for Nimitz class carrier’s.
Will Germany, France and Italy be included? I thought Australia was also in the mix for this?
It would have been good to see a French warship taking part, but not the Germans, they just go round and round the Baltic Sea like a boating lake, I think they would get lost in the North Sea, never mind the Pacific….
Perhaps their satnavs have been pre-programmed!
Unfortunate timing as the German Navy is doing a FONOP of the South China Sea and into the Pacific this year, oh well, bigotry doesn’t really care for the truth does it John?
Do you ever lighten up Dern, you really are a humourless wet weekend arnt you…..
Practice smiling in the mirror, ‘if’ your face dosent crack, move on to laughing practice, it will do you the world of good…
A German warship going around and around, can’t but help think of historic references there when reading that.
Cough, cough, Bismarck, cough!
HMS Warspite had her own crack at it too i recall !!
Admiral von Spee would, no doubt, have disagreed with that parochial view of the German Navy
He certainly would H, the Germans had a more, shall we say ‘adventurous’ foreign policy back then.
Today, they are far more interested in gorilla gluing the EU together…..
“There will be no more escapes from Stalag Luft EU”, guards, count the prisoners……
Australia will be there, maybe a japan SDF vessel. India , don’t know.
Of the three E.U. nations Germany and Italy..No interest, France haven’t got the ships and at the moment Macron’s ego would get in the way.
The French have away of doing things.
I know.. The bread, the cheese, the onion, the wine…the oh la la..
Le van, le pan, le boursain?
tres bon, mon amie.
Not quite….note the spellings…
Du vin, du pain, du Boursin!
Ah…la fille auss ?
Tell me about it, now if they could bring a field kitchen and set up on the RFA, it would be the single biggest contribution to the entire deployment …. Even the Astute sub would be surfacing alongside twice a day for supplies!!!
Now your getting serious John. I love Italian food but there is something about France isn’t there…from the
croque monsieur on the riverbank to the boeuf bourguinon and a bottle of Bordeaux (/) Aaaah.
Tell me about it …. It’s a little known fact that in 1940, Hitler personally planned the invasion of France with a big arrow pointing to Normandy on the map
And the words “Secure Normandy Cheeses at all costs” written below it and underlined.
Well maybe not, but it’s what my invasion map would have looked like anyway….
c’est la vie
I’m going to be a nationalistic flag waver and say we produce better cheese that the french.
Careful now Jonathan, don’t use words like nationalistic, UDJ Woke police Chief Dern, will denounce you as a Bigot too!!!
French v British cheese, now we’ve got something to debate!!
Now, I love British cheese, but some of the Normandy Cheeses are just something else!
Now John, I’m going to refer you to a proper cave aged wooky hole chedder. As a hard cheese goes it may just be the best in the world.
Oh, that sounds really good…..
Yes it really is:
http://www.caveagedcheddar.co.uk/
Aren’t the French cruising round about now with allied regional navy assets from India, US, Australia and Japan, or the like at the moment?
Yes, in the UAE at the moment. Greek, Italian and a USN DDG involved. This is my point,though. They only really have enough top end escorts to protect Charles de Gaulle.
Right now for the French Navy there is: mission Clemenceau 2021 with the FS Charles de Gaulle (but will more remain around the arabian sea) and mission Jeanne d’Arc 2021 with the helicopter carrier Tonnerre (and will go to Australia and Japan…).
Sorry to have to interrupt your xenophobic rant full all of false information, but CDG is currently in deployment in Persian Gulf (Clemenceau mission 2021), and Mistral LHD is in the South China Seas (Jeanne d’Arc mission 2021)
Correction -> LHD Mistral is currently in the Indian Ocean doing exercises with Quad nations (India, US, Aus, Japan) then it is headed for South China Seas
First, it might help if you knew the meaning of the words Xenophobia and rant…second,… I know they’re in the Gulf which is why I said it in my post that you are complaining about and… third … I am very happy that Mistral is in the South China Sea.
The only problem with your contribution is that it has nothing whatsoever to do with my post about who was likely to join the Queen Elizabeth Battle Group.
It was likely removed as after the training exercise it went into drydock. They didnt know if it would be out of drydock again in time to take part.
Pretty sure that was the story I read on this site months ago ?♂️
Awesome, lots of love for the cloggies
Still no firm news on the accompanying SSN. Maybe it will be shared effort, with a RN, FN, or USN boat temporarily joining the CSG at appropriate junctures.
UK RN, like with SFs, don’t comment on submarine movements. Be assured an SSN will be deployed.
Just researched why The Sullivans is called as it is. 5 brothers on the same ship… jeez, fair play to honouring them in this way on multiple vessels
I saw the original the Sullivan’s tied up at Buffalo waterfront in New York this summer gone, it’s a museum ship. The story of those brothers is so tragic!
Talking of unusual or unexpected names I was surprised, if somewhat gladoned the other day to realise there was an HMS Owen Glendower. Must admit I was somewhat amused that a navy vessel would have got that name quite intrigued how it came about actually. Was there ever an HMS Robert the Bruce or HMS William Wallace. I rather fancy an HMS Wat Tyler myself.
Thanks for sharing that. I’d never heard of Owen but upon researching I’m not surprised (I’m not Welsh). Definitely an interesting name choice!
HMS Bruce and HMS Wallace were named for them.
The Dutch are 2 faced and put Britain under the Bus during brexit negotiations despite historically being shielded by the UK and supported within the EU even by the UK. Now they are squeezed by the Germans and French post brexit In defence affairs and EU affairs. I would prefer a German frigate joining as that is more significant than tiny economy Dutch in South China sea ✌️
???
There are not a lot of overseas territories or former territories for the Germany navy to visit anymore so its probably not a No1 priority on their list.
That said you seem to be confusing the EU , it being a political and economic organisation, with national military forces and alliances commitments.
In one of my former postings I worked in a major Nato HQ. Something like 2000 people in our area alone and then we had a Submarine HQ, Maritime Control, Strike HQ, Comms organisation( my part!) and Airforce HQ all within 20 miles.
The EU had an office with 3 people in it to liase with Nato. I knew one of the people in that office he hated it. Nobody talked to them and nobody shared info with them because it was a political organisation and not militarily organised. For most briefings they had to leave the room. He couldn’t wait to leave and get back home or moved on to a different Foreign Posting.
To be fair, defence should be intertwined with politics and economics. If their proxies in the EU are acting in a hostile manner, seizing our medications and actively seeking to impoverish us, then it’s not good enough for other NATO members to stand aside and say that it is nothing to do with them because money’s money and defence is defence, so cough up, you’ve got sacred commitments to honour.
The Dutch were just Toeing ( Spouting ) the Party Line regarding the EU,nothing more.
One would hope it gives a clear message to the CCP that international waters are just that. Their arrogance is beyond belief. I would hope that many other countries will “tag-along” for a bit too on this deployment, India and Japan particularly. Sadly the world seems to lack any leaders with a pair. Apart from Modi and Netanyahu the “Wests” offerings are a joke.
The arrogance of the CCP is what will cause a war, what they want and what they say is right and they simply refuse to budge on that stance.
Such a multilateral response isn’t just a strong military statement but an especially strong political one. This is a good move to send the right signals to China and others.
A good complement of capability adding APAR and SM-2/ESSM alongside Sampson and Aster 15/30.
Looking at the diagram of the fleet layout …would it not be wise having another sub patrolling astern ..as in theory based on just declared or estimated speed some Russian subs of 32 knots + and unknown speed of the Chinese attack submarines they could sneak up from behind ????
The chinese subs are still very noisy. An astute class could probably triangular, track and target 5 or 6 of them from 100 miles away.
Would like a second SSN along. Maybe a loss Angeles class or Sea wolf class . The Yanks have got 67 SSNs which is a very impressive fleet.
Have to speculate that maybe they will just say one is going along …because its obvious to everybody that at least one would be part of the escort group. In reality having two or three would be highly effective and a nasty surprise to any potential protagonists. If I was A UK admiral and had 7 astutes at my disposal and sending QE into a seriously hot zone, absolutely send two at least !