General Sir Gwyn Jenkins, the First Sea Lord, has said the Royal Navy has turned a corner and entered a period of renewal, and that he leaves the Sea Power Conference with hope despite a rising risk of conflict.
Closing the conference on board HMS Prince of Wales in Oslo, Jenkins reflected on eighteen months in the post, saying his core mission since his first day has been to rebuild the Royal Navy and refocus it on its fundamental purpose, to lead, fight and win. He said: “The journey we are on is challenging, and we still have a long way to go. But each month we are building.”
He went on: “What motivates me every day is the knowledge that we have turned a corner. That we, the Royal Navy, are now in a period of renewal.” He said everything the Navy now does is focused on the end of the decade, after the Defence Secretary set the task of being ready to fight within a thousand days.
Reflecting on the conference discussions, Jenkins said: “At times, the discussions in this hangar have been sobering. I have said before that we are back in an era of state-on-state contest. And for many of us in this room, even those of us with long careers in uniform, that is unfamiliar territory.
“It feels unsettling, and we shouldn’t pretend otherwise. But I leave today with something else as well.”
That something, he told delegates, was hope, drawn in part from listening to Ukraine’s ambassador. He said: “Five years ago, when the Russian tanks rolled in, very few people gave Ukraine much of a chance.
“But today, Ukrainians are still fighting.
“They have adapted constantly, combined extraordinary courage with technology and innovation, and refused to accept the future others had written for them.”
Jenkins warned that Russia will continue to test allied resolve and look for weakness, but said war is not inevitable if adversaries believe allies are serious. He said: “Prepare for war if you want peace.
“That saying is sixteen hundred-years old – and it remains true today. That means continuing to build our strength, adapting faster, standing together and demonstrating that, if required, we are ready to fight.” He ended with a pledge to allies: “the Royal Navy will be ready, we will continue to lead, and when our allies need us, we will not be found wanting.” He added that his optimism was not blind, and rested on what he had seen and heard over the conference.
Jenkins, the first Royal Marine to lead the Royal Navy, set out in the same speech the Navy’s plans for its biggest rebuild since the Second World War, and opened the conference warning that he had never seen a world this unstable in his 36-year career. The Royal Navy commissioned its first autonomous squadron in Portsmouth last week.
