In a detailed response to John Healey, the Shadow Secretary of State for Defence, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has provided comprehensive data on the deployment of Royal Navy ships to the Gulf region over the past thirteen years.
James Heappey, the Minister for the Armed Forces, outlined the Royal Navy’s enduring commitment to promoting peace and stability in the Gulf, a strategic area encompassing the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Oman, and the Arabian Gulf.
“The Royal Navy has a long-standing maritime presence in the Gulf region, focussed on promoting peace and stability, as well as ensuring the safe flow of global trade. The Gulf region includes the Red Sea, The Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Gulf.
The table below provides a breakdown of each time an RN ship entered the Gulf region. This demonstrates a changed Royal Navy operating model. Episodic deployments have been incrementally replaced by permanently deployed vessels and long deployments. For example, a Type 23 frigate has been permanently deployed to the region since 2019. The vessel has two crews, providing a more efficient and higher level of operational availability.
Fluctuations in the data reflect periodic surges when multiple RN units deployed to the region. For example, the Carrier Strike Group deployment to the Indo-Pacific in 2021 increased the numbers of vessels in the region.”
Since 2014, there has been a decrease of 14 Royal Navy ships deployed to the Gulf region, with the number dropping from 20 ships in 2014 to 6 ships in 2023.
Royal Navy Ship Deployments to the Gulf Region (2010-2023)
| Year | Number of Ships Deployed |
|---|---|
| 2010 | 20 |
| 2011 | 22 |
| 2012 | 22 |
| 2013 | 22 |
| 2014 | 20 |
| 2015 | 17 |
| 2016 | 13 |
| 2017 | 13 |
| 2018 | 13 |
| 2019 | 12 |
| 2020 | 12 |
| 2021 | 16 |
| 2022 | 8 |
| 2023 | 6 |
This table indicates a gradual decrease in the number of ships deployed annually to the Gulf region, from a high of 22 ships in the early 2010s to just 6 in 2023. The fluctuations in deployment numbers also reflect periodic surges for specific operations, such as the increased presence during the Carrier Strike Group’s deployment to the Indo-Pacific in 2021.
The MoD’s data reveals a notable shift in the Royal Navy’s operational approach in the region, moving from episodic deployments to a strategy of maintaining permanently deployed vessels and longer deployment durations. A significant example of this shift is the permanent deployment of a Type 23 frigate since 2019, which operates with two crews to ensure greater operational availability and efficiency.
The decrease in ship deployments over recent years demonstrates a strategic recalibration by the Royal Navy, focusing on sustained presence and operational efficiency over the quantity of deployed vessels.
Speaking of deployments, when do you think we’re going to see our own CSG deployed? And I don’t mean on exercises with NATO partners or on a world cruise effectively flying the flag and not much else. I mean a specific deployment like our friends across the pond use their CSGs? Or am I mistaken in thinking that is not how we will use our carriers? I am acutely aware we lack manpower, aircraft – the only thing we’re not short of is marketing ourselves. It really would be good to see us using the carriers for what they were… Read more »
Monday.
FOC for the carrier strike group was supposed to be end of 2023, but I don’t think it was declared. If it was, I missed it. I understand it to have been put back to 2025. An exchange in the House of Lords last year had Lord Harlech say for the government: “The definition of full operating capability for the carrier strike group includes 24 UK Lightnings or 36 Lightnings with partner nations when operating within a maritime task group.” Also “In 2022, the number of UK F35Bs available for embarked operations to support routine carrier deployments was a squadron… Read more »
If 2026 then it would be 9 years after QE entered service…….
Only 41 years of life left and they haven’t deployed in 20% of it.
There have been a number of deployments of the carriers since sea trials – you surely just mean to a shooting war?
It’s 29 years since the ‘Go to mkt for JSF’ memos were signed….29 years before that the Beatles were number 1 with ‘we can work it put’…ohh the irony!
Proves how long it takes to regenerate a major strategic capability once its been lost. Particularly if you have to wait for an entirely different US-led multinational programme to deliver sufficent F-35Bs.
I’d hardly call our f35’s limited short range last gen weapons fit full capability. In modern terms its like a last gen fighter armed only with guns.
The stealth design is no reprieve if you have to get close enough to be detected before you can launch a weapon.
I’m not sure what the timeline will be for integration on our F-35Bs, or if we intend to have it installed. FALLS CHURCH, Va. BAE Systems is giving an update on its progress as it works to produce AN/ASQ-239 electronic warfare (EW) suites for the Block 4 version of the F-35 fighter. “According to the company’s update, the BAE Systems Block 4 EW will include substantially upgraded hardware and software; additionally, new sensors will enhance the system’s ability to detect difficult-to-observe threats and more threats simultaneously. The BAE Systems update also asserts that the new systems will improve situational awareness: In the modern environment… Read more »
Typhoons will be fitted with a similar system plus the ECRS Mk2 radar. It has the advantage of Meteor BVR which will not be fitted to the F-35B until the early part of the 2030s short of a miracle.
The Future Eurofighter Typhoon is the leading bridge to the next generation combat air system.
https://
eurofighter.com/the-future
A prototype of a state-of-the-art radar destined for the UK’s Typhoon fleet has been delivered to BAE Systems’ flight-testing facility at Warton in Lancashire. “ECRS Mk 2 (European Common Radar System Mk2) radar will further transform the Eurofighter Typhoon’s control of the air, bringing a world-leading electronic warfare capability which will allow the aircraft to simultaneously detect, identify and track multiple targets in the air and on the ground. The prototype arrived at BAE’s site on 31 March from Edinburgh where it was developed and manufactured by Leonardo. It will now be integrated over the next year with a view to conducting initial flight testing… Read more »
Possibly some for the Carriers? UK to invest £4.5bn in drones for its military The UK will invest £4.5bn in drones for its armed forces off the back of lessons learned in Ukraine, the Ministry of Defence has announced. The UK Defence Drone Strategy will see all elements of the military experimenting with, testing and evaluating unmanned systems. “The conflict in Ukraine has been an incubator for new ways of war and we need to learn and implement those hard-fought lessons,” said defence procurement minister James Cartlidge. “Rapidly being able to develop and upgrade uncrewed systems will be key to gaining… Read more »
We should look at continuous buys of small fleets of drones for the carriers adding multiple capability, First up MQ9 Sea Guardian with the sea spray radar giving us enhance ISR as well as AEW and long range Maritime patrol. Getting four or five of those on the carrier could be done for couple of hundred million and massively increase its capability and free up other platforms. Sea Vixen and Proteous added over time then perhaps MQ25 as a tanker. Very quickly there won’t be much space for more than 12 F35B and the air group can be easily tailored… Read more »
There was a very good article regarding this subject on Navy Lookout a few years ago. Could Maritime Protector RPAS operate from Royal Navy aircraft carriers? “As part of the FMAF, the RN envisions operating a land-based Maritime Protector variant. GA has developed the SeaGuardian derivative of the MQ-9B with a range of 6,000nm, able to stay on station for up to 25 hours, it has nine hard-points for a sensor or weapon payload of up to 2,100 kg. SeaGuardian can be equipped with a variety of maritime radar and EO sensors and even conduct ASW when equipped with a… Read more »
I don’t think we should be purchasing foreign drones unless absolutely necessary. Developing and purchasing them in country, creates tech and manufacturing jobs, gives chances of export, keeps the income within the country.
I couldn’t give a toss where they come from, as long as they work and don’t take forever and a day to be available. Treating the defence budget as a way to bung money to UK industry is part of the reason we are in such a mess.
If the work can be done in the UK great, that’s ideal. If not then tough. Defence comes first. Not UK industry.
I agree, but most of the time the government doesn’t. Tide class tankers being one exception.
Buying abroad for something that in a war scenario where spares, increasing build rates multiple times is a bad move.
The raf get 20 drones abroad. Then realise they are great and need hundreds more. Foreign suppliers could say they can’t do it, their government doesn’t agree with the conflict, they can supply them but at 40x the original cost or any number of situations. Domestic ability stops that.
We are talking about drones that aren’t extremely complex and are unable to be made in the U.K. without significant cost and effort.
The dept of business should be encouraging this.
I sure someone will be along shortly to complain about radars being made in Scotland when they could be made in England.
Cue Andy and his little flag 🏴
😂
We don’t make enough nosie about it to be honest, its always shipbuilding that get mentioned in relation to defence and independance but there’s a lot of defence companies north of the board that are put at risk by independance.
Trouble is it still doesn’t compared to the F35 upgrade as the F35 has sensor throughout the airframe in addtion to the main radar housed in the nose. This would required massive structural changes to the Typhoon and is a fundamental diffenrence between 4th and 5th gen airframes. Hence why we’re building Tempest, if Typhoon could be upgraded to surpass the F35 or even match it it would make Tempest less attractive. Its also why the scepitism around China’s 5th Gen fighters, yes they look stealthly so tick that 5th Gen box but we can’t see what’s under the skin… Read more »
Still pretty good though. Have any been lost incombat. Class-leading sensors give the pilot the unparalleled situational awareness seamlessly integrating data and updating the battle space picture for actionable intelligence. The fusion information superiority allows the pilot to dominate the battle space. 15% metal surface Only 15% of the aircraft’s surface is metal, delivering stealth operation and protection from radar-based systems. It delivers both superior manoeuvrability at subsonic speeds and efficient supersonic capability to support the widest range of combat scenarios. 180kn thrust Four global companies have jointly developed the high performance EJ200 power plants that each provide 90kN of… Read more »
The Typhoon is very good. And that’s why we’ll have 3 airframes in service in the 2030s, Typhoon, F35 and Tempest. They all have their sweet spots so to speak and we’ll use various tactics to ensure we get the best out if them all.
Digital Means Adaptable “Importantly, the Typhoon’s advanced, reprogrammable EW suite allows the aircraft to react to a constantly-changing threat environment in ways that physical stealth cannot. Consider today’s threats. The latest surface-to-air missile systems are having their hardware regularly upgraded, are being networked and can change their behaviour almost instantaneously via software-reprogramming. In short, they are constantly evolving, creating a dynamic and challenging threat environment. This means that the advantage of aircraft which use traditional physical stealth technology, which is designed to make the aircraft hard-to-observe by threat radar systems, is eroding. Counter-stealth techniques are on the rise and have… Read more »
So why are there an increasing number of nations building radar and IR stealthy airframes? Surely if stealth has been compromised then why not build an airframe that’s flight characteristics arent compromised by stealth? We could be saving billions by not being concerned about Tempests RCS. The answer is very obvious the boffins in all these countries play with radars and IR trackers etc and have figured it out, stealth still rules. And whilst there may be conditions where stealthy airframes can be detected, it’s still very challenging and tactics can make it even more challenging. The problem is with… Read more »
Hi Expat,
Stealth has now become part of the sweat of capabilities which along with active and passive systems provide you with a complete capability. Also, RCS is not uniform even on a stealthy platform so you are going to want to show your best side to the threat – that’s where the situational awareness becomes into it. It allows you to make the most of the stealth capabilities.
Cheers CR
Exactly ChariotRider, it forms part of the equation, not all.
I’m not saying it’s all of what makes a 5th gen airframe. As you say its one aspect. And to my point I was conveying to Nigel its not something that 4th Gen airframes do very well, so they can add as many bells and whistles you like but it’s missing a key part. EW is not a substitute for passive stealth baked into an airframe. I’ll add that doesn’t mean 4th gen airframes are obsolete, once 5th fighters reduce the threat level then 4th gen fighters can operate. Or like in the Red Sea it’s a lower end threat… Read more »
The “digital stealth” argument has always been a euphemism for “we lack the capability or can’t afford to produce a stealth airframe” so lets invent something call digital stealth. The laws of physics haven’t change. Everyone who can afford to design or purchase stealthy airframes are trying desperately to do so.
“Digital stealth” aka we can’t afford to build a stealthy airframe or we lack the engineering and manufacturing ability to produce one.
It’s called Tempest or Taranis.
We all hope so.
The carrier capability is never actually going to be finished though. The entire concept is already being evolved with project Ark Royal and that will be followed on by numerous future changes to the air group and the vessels. The littoral capability operating Chinook, Apache has also barely been scratched. The ships already operated with 20 plus aircraft since 2021 and been in combat over Syria. I don’t see a declaration of FOC meaning anything for such a versatile and long lived platform. It would be nice to see the F35 buy rate increase but not if it comes with… Read more »
I personally think that the MK1 Spitfires were a huge mistake at the beginning of WW11……… we should have just waited for the MK 24’s…… 🙄
Yes, we should have just kept the gladiator until the mk24 was fully ready, we wasted a lot of money on all those spitfires in the middle 😀
Likewise, I keep thinkng the army AFV recapitalisation programe will never finish!
Yes that would have saved money, great idea, three ships are always cheaper than two and small aircraft carriers are great for operations 😂
A study was done and confirmed that only a larger carrier could generate the required higher sortie rate.
We need three QE class carriers, not two.
What’s a fleet carrier? Not sure I seen that term used since WW2 construction.
What’s a Fleet…? 😄
The key question will be the support ships. The single vessel is struggling in 2024, is it going to be more reliable in 2026, considering the order for the replacements still hasn’t been signed so they are probably a decade away. Additionally escorts, the number of at sea ships is reducing each year as they get older and / or crewing issues, is there going to be enough to support a full carrier deployment beyond a token fly the flag excersie. Then there is the lack of f35 and their poor armorment, meaning they are only going to be partially… Read more »
We would need a war first. We have never had carriers on a permanent deployment rotation like the USA since the 60’s. You may get to see it soon however depending on how long the Red Sea crisis lasts because the USN is toiling to keep so many assets in theatre and it was always meant to be the Queen Elizabeth’s rotated in to the 5th fleet area to support US operations. Until recently the 5th fleet was devoid of carriers having had two permanently assigned during the 2000’s and 2010’s. The existence of the Queen Elizabeth’s was one of… Read more »
QE is still in Pompey…… Despite what was posted here about a week ago about her leaving for Rosyth (” HMS Queen Elizabeth Leaving for Scotland”) …… she’s still there……. Not sure what the actual timescale is though…..
Good to see John F Kennedy (CVN 79) making steady progress. “HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) unit has started testing of the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) on aircraft carrier John F Kennedy (CVN 79), marking a major milestone for the ship, HII confirmed on 21 February. After testing catapults one and two – the bow cats – with no-load launch movements, NNS workers and Kennedy sailors started the dead-load testing, HII acknowledged in a release. For the dead-load testing, large, wheeled car-like structures of graduated weights up to 80,000 lb (36,287.4 kg) to simulate the weight of actual aircraft… Read more »
“The Navy delayed future carrier John F. Kennedy’s (CVN-79) delivery date from June 2024 so the service could alter the ship’s Post Shakedown Availability (PSA) and perform more work during construction, according to the service’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget documents. “The Navy is implementing a strategy to pull baseline work from the Post Shakedown Availability (PSA) into the construction period in order to provide more capability at ship delivery,” the Navy’s shipbuilding budget books read. The altered schedule will ensure Kennedy is ready to deploy to the Indo-Pacific, according to the service. “This approach will prepare CVN 79 as the… Read more »
Two answers.
1. When block 4 software allows UK primary ‘strike’ weapon integration.
2. When more F35b are ordered because ‘1’ has now occured
Sounds like you want a war to happen! Totally valid to deploy a carrier group as per CSG21 (Operation Fortis, May – Dec 2021). Rather insulting to all the participants to call this a ‘world cruise’. Carriers can’t be on warlike operations all the time. They need to train with escorts long distances from home. We are still building our capability – more of those F-35s are being built rather slowly.
NATO (and JEF) are at the hear of our defence interests – deterring and constraining the Russians is going to be a huge part of the British defence effort for a very long long.
What deploynenrs if there are not ships.
Micki mate….. step away from “Dave’s” phone….. Have another go on his Lap Top…. 😎
😂
😂
😆
I guess Healey asking more questions as he’s the next up for defence secretary and he’s going to need more of plan, stating Russia is the only threat as means to cuddle up to Europe isn’t going to cut it. Iran just shipped 400 balistic missile to Russia and NK are supply weapons to Russia which means even a threat from Russai is global as the weapons suppply goes well beyond Europe boarders.
Its ok, we have Trident 😅
How the navy has shrunk. I was surprised to hear that British troops are still deploying to Iraq just now. Some are on an American base somewhere. Rather dangerous just now unfortunately
Equally, the British troops deploying will be ‘rather’ dangerous; probably permanently depriving people of health 😉
I’m more thinking of incoming missiles, drones etc. an American base has already been hit recently resulting in casualties and others before these
The base in question is Al Tanf and is based at the old customs base at the Iraq, Syrian border. The Americans picked that place as its the most direct road route for Iranian shipments to Syria and Hezbollah which has resulted in iran having to either fly their arms shipments into Syria (which the IDF have a habit of hitting) or facilitate a much longer road route at the top end of the Syria, iraqi border via the Euphrates valley. This Iran took to with a passion by building a huge underground ground complex (Imam Ali military base) near… Read more »
Perhaps that’s where they are. I didn’t want to ask specifics of where certain members of the Scottish based army regiment were deployed. Sounds quite secure and safe.
I work with a wife and her hubby has another month there.
Whatever the stats say, the RN continually go over and above, with the kit and people they have! Well done all round.
I think we discussed this in another post but just to bring it up again. With the T23 operating in the Red Sea would the MOD/RN look at beefing up their armament a tad? Like a Phalanx on the hangar roof with a huge arc of fire and it would complement the 32 CAMM and 2*30mm. I remember seeing a T23 proposal with 2*24 ExLS 48 CAMM configuration on the T23s. Never happened, probably exorbitant costs but if missiles can’t be reloaded at sea yet and with today’s attack drone environment I think having a bit more missile load out… Read more »
If I can just rant on a bit more, the 6 silo CAMM blocks, why didn’t they try to make them into and maybe to take a similar 2*4 cannister load as the Sky Sabre, making it like a miniature (1/2 size) MK41? They don’t seem very space efficient, but maybe they’re in use, weight, maintenance and cost wise. Wondering if they are purely vertical or angles by 5 degrees off the vertical as ExLS Quad CAMM on the Canadian T26s looks angled but any quad CAMM in MK41s would be purely vertical. The Saudis I believe have CAMM in… Read more »
Are the tubes vertical on Sky Sabre?
They must be leaned past 90 degrees because otherwise a motor failure would mean it fell on the truck.
In addition, would you be able to make a boxer module for CAMM? MBDA have made CGI of LRF rocket launching from a boxer module that uses CAMM and the point defence factor would be useful from an armoured group perspective.
waffle for we do not have the ships any more. The MOD are very good at this smoke and mirrors bulls**t. They fool them selves in believing there own spin.
Good example of where a snapshot doesn’t tell the whole story. Pre 2015 FF/DD ships did 6-month deployments out here. So for handovers there wouldf be 2 ships here at some point. We also had Ocean around for 6 months doing the CTF flagship bit at sea(!) The MCMV force was 4 ships plus a Bay and 2 x LCVPs….(Yes LCVPs…I did some engine changes on those and fitted new foam buoyancy on them.) After that the RN went to 9 month deployments with a 4 -6 week FTSP in the middle where 50% of the crew went home at… Read more »
That perhaps makes more sense. I was taking the numbers as a number of ships in the area based over the year. So 2 switching over would be counted as 1. Now you say that of course it isn’t going to be that. 😂😂😂