HMS Protector dropped in on 21 scientists who maintain the polar research station of Vernadsky in Antarctica to check on their welfare, say the Royal Navy here.

According to a news release:

“They found the team who run the base – ­some 9,000 miles from their motherland – had families trapped in their homeland as a result of the war. The landing party from Protector – Captain Michael Wood and ship’s doctor, Surgeon Lieutenant Commander Alex Clarke, along with sailors and Royal Marines ­– delivered fresh food to the scientists, ensured they were in good health, and reassured them of the UK’s support for their nation’s cause.”

Captain Wood was quoted as saying:

“During time spent ashore, the team confirmed the welfare of the 21 scientists who had spent the winter at Vernadsky. Welcome supplies of fresh food were passed to the station leader. Many of the station staff reported families stranded under attacks in Kharkiv and Kyiv.”

The Plymouth-based ship, which is on a five-year mission to the polar regions, also carries out a routine series of goodwill visits to international bases under the peaceful purposes of the Antarctic Treaty, you can read more from the Royal Navy on this here.

Tom Dunlop
Tom Dunlop
Tom has spent the last 13 years working in the defence industry, specifically military and commercial shipbuilding. His work has taken him around Europe and the Far East, he is currently based in Scotland.

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64 COMMENTS

    • Indeed. And it’s a bit of a reversal – normally it’s the families back home worrying about the folks in the Antarctic. I wish we can go back to that soon.

    • more particularly like the madness of ageing autocrats determined to cement their legacies in history….i just dont think this one will work out as planned….

    • Why not rotate the crew?

      Saves a lot of nautical miles of passage if it goes somewhere local for it minor and routine maintenance. Also in theatre for a higher % of time.

      Rotation via scheduled flights?

      Increases time with loved ones.

      Makes sense to me.

      • Who says they don’t rotate the crew? But you need an airport. This article points that out

        “the opening of the new airport on St Helena will permit one third of the ship’s company to trade places with shipmates from home. The regular rotation of crew helps to sustain Protector on patrols far from home for longer periods.”

        so I think that’s how it already works.

        • I **know** that they rotate the crews already,

          All I was setting out what what it “Makes sense to me”

          The comment above didn’t appear to appreciate that rotation had been tested for quite a while on this.

          • I will admit I didnt see the part of the article regarding rotation as quickly read over it, just the 5 year mission stuck in my mind.

            Was going to say no wonder the RN struggles with recruitment if they send people away for such long periods of time.

          • Ah yes. Your first sentence needs to be read with a different tone than I did and it all makes sense. The perils of interpreting the written word!

          • Nah mate, James’ comment seemed fine.

            I get the first part sounded like he didn’t know, but the second part asked how often, not if.

      • They can rotate crew via mount pleasant on the great British overseas territory that is the falklands islands. Argentina can bugger off. Been British for hundreds of years.

  4. “Two sources have told Sky News that defence spending was the most likely of any budget to rise, with additional money for lethal aid for Ukraine and the potential for increases in other areas of the defence budget in the face of the increased threat to NATO from Russia.

    No formal submissions have been made by the Ministry of Defence.

    Labour’s shadow defence secretary John Healey told Sky News earlier he expects there to be a “big boost to defence” in the spring statement.

    Russian invasion has ‘blown away’ defence ‘assumptions’

    Party leader Sir Keir Starmer has called for a review of defence policy and spending in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying the conflict has “blown away some of the assumptions the government was working on”.

    https://news.sky.com/story/uk-defence-budget-could-be-increased-in-wake-of-russias-invasion-of-ukraine-12559092

    • Ben Wallace also said that we might have to revisit the idea and role of heavy armour in modern warfare. That’s good. We haven’t had a change of direction in the army for at least three months. As some know I’ve been questioning the MBT/Ajax/Boxer for probably three years or more and I still haven’t seen anything that convinces me that it works as a concept.

      • If the U.K. is getting rid of armoured vehicles as it always seems to be selling them off on auction websites maybe they should gifted to Ukraine and shipped to Poland ASAP. There are hundreds of vehicles sitting around. Pity it’s not 2025 give them the warriors, if the U.K. really decides to ditch them. A force with armor in the west of Ukraine should be assembled ASAP to push a counter attack or whatever the Ukrainians want to use them for.

        • I’d gift them.

          However not via Poland… likely to be interdicted and NATO would say… you bad boy, that is so naughty of you and how can we assuage your anger at trying to help an innocent nation…

          Ship to France, job jobbed.

      • Well. Its difficult to draw real conclusions from the Russian Army’s frankly piss poor execution of the war in Ukraine. Yes man portable anti tank weapons have given an advantage to infantry but would or should infantry have been able to get close enough to kill Russian T80/ T72MB and T90 series tanks?
        I think a force composed of upgraded Chally 3s and modern IFVs are able to take and hold ground. Their integrated deployed infantry and canon/ machine gun arnaments should be able to keep infantry out of launch range for man pirtable anti tank weapons.
        NALW only has a range of 500ms. So the ukranian infantry have been allowed to get pretty close to Russian armour. Undetected.
        Drones, drones, drones are the answer as well as large numbers of canon and ATGM armed IFVs. All supported by enough infantry to screen the IFVs and shoot down enemy drones.

        • Yes, all our Challenger 2s should be upgraded….and the Warriors…perhaps a more limited upgrade.
          Whereas I agree that the 500-600 m effective NLAW range is not great, and as you say, the Ukrainian’s have somehow been allowed to close the gap, if they are available in significant numbers it must give a good sense of security to the troops on the ground and make enemy tank chaps wary about charging ahead just because they have not spotted any armoured vehicles. Javelin and NLAW compliment each other. Drones. Yes useful, but my impression is that people seem to think they are simply a very cheap sort of missile and even the Turkish TB2, a “wonder weapon” flies at a mere 120mph….?
          Spear3 is the fellah, it may be more expensive, but that 40Km convoy….toast…within minutes.
          AA

        • It is indeed hard to draw conclusions, hundreds if not thousands now of APC’s and IFV’s have been lost between the two sides, and the Russian tanks are in a lot poorer condition than thought. In particular what looked to be reactive armour bricks applied to their older vehicles have turned out to mostly be sand filled with an egg carton to maintain their shape and stop the sand pooling.

    • Keir Starmer is right. Spending on soft power and “space” is nuts when you need the means to fight, kill and utterly defeat a hostile state run by an utter psychopath.
      Theyve got to get mk41vls on all RN surface combatants. Start with type 45s. Then speed up type 26 and type 31 programmes adding mk41 to type 31s. I’d also state the interim Anti ship missile needs ordering asap with 20-25 full sets as a minimum. Fit it onto type 45s, type 23s and possibly river 1+ river batch 2s. The batch 2 rivers also need a CIWS and the BAE 56mm gun added. They are after all corvette sized warships and should be armed as such.
      Order another tranche of typhoon with latest AESA mk2 british radar fitted and at least another 36 F35Bs.
      More poseidon mpas (3-4 more). More A400Ms (already planned) plus put wedgetail order back upto 7 aircraft.
      Focus on any increase defence spending should be arming to the teeth what we have got now. Increasing numbers so we have some attritional reserve and building capacity for the future. Putin wont stop at Ukraine. Moldova is next. Then possibly Baltic states or Bulgaria/ Romania with a link up with Serbia attacking from the West. Serbia very much in Putins sphere of influence judging by thousands coming out in show of support for Putin last night in Belgrade.
      Army needs more Apache (24-36 more). Chally 3. So all 340+ available MBTs upgraded with trophy APS and new turret/ new guns.
      Drones drones drones. Clearly are the future. More Reaper, a stealth deep strike drone so Tarantis.
      Boxer and cv90 series vehicles ordered with more derivatives especially fire support and heavily armed IFV versions.
      Scrap ajax as its shite. Get full refund from company as its been an unremitting disaster.
      New SP howitzer needed to replace AS90. Troop numbers increased. Ideally back to 85,000-90,000 soldiers (dare we hope for a return to an army of 100K?)
      Its going to cost a lot and its going to need to be done urgently and with a real sense of determination and delivering to a tight timeframe. No more crap MOD project management. Get the mess sorted out.
      If we can do those things and get them done urgently Russia and China will be peeved as we will return to a military able to go toe to toe with a peer enemy and win.

      • Have you seen the new add on to the JDAM 2000LB bomb called “Sink ship” that the USAF are looking at. It will be a clip on for the standard 2000lb bomb so will be relatively cheep as there will be no altering current aircraft like F35, F15.16.18. The concept is that once launched it tracks the vessel then enters the water beside the vessel and explodes just below the keel of the vessel like a torpedo. The USAF want to bring this out ASAP so could be operational by next year which would go a long way to putting some anti ship capability back into the RN (provided we buy into the system) as having this system for our F35’s base on the carriers would help alleviate the lack of anti surface capability at the moment.

        • The problem is that it’s still a freefall bomb that our F35s will have to carry and close to within a dozen miles or so to drop, and the sheer size of those 2,000lb bombs means that they have to be carried externally, negating their stealth.

          I wouldn’t want to be an F35 pilot tasked with that mission. At least with 500lb bombs they can be carried internally, improving the life expectancy of the pilots in this scenario.

          • You are right of cause but some thing is better than nothing which is were we are at the moment or will be when they retire Harpoon

          • You would hope so, but the present batch of Harpoon is getting past its sell-by date so will need an upgrade or replacing with an off the shelf equivalent nether of which the MoD are prepared to do at the moment, but that could change due to current affairs overseas.

      • I can’t disagree with anything there. But the bit that worries me is around the Rivers 2.I am really surprised they have continued to deploy Trent in the Eastern med as that could flash at any moment. The whole point of the Rivers is that they are constabulary vessels and should be swiftly chugging in the other direction of any flash points, waving to the Frigates and destroyers as the pass going in the opposite direction.

        So I do think during the debrief, wash ups and critical incident analysts, someone at the RN needs to look at the fact Trent has potentially been sent into harms way and if in the future that is likely the batch 2s will need greater defensive suite, at least some sea-ceptors and maybe an upgrade to a 40mm Bofors as there is no deck penetration, and a lot more soft kill. It’s not about making a Rivers 2 a lethal warship it’s about at least giving it a chance to survive if your running it into harms way.

      • Fully agree.

        We should, at the very least, replace all Typhoon Tranche 1s with Tranche 3s. Ideally buy 40-60 Tranche 3s to grow the Typhoon fleet. Then gift the Tranche 1s to Ukraine and bring some of their pilots here for training.

  5. Australia has announced a shortlist of 3 cities for a nuclear submarine base on its east coast to complement its existing submarine base in the north west of the country. It also said it would be announcing its option selection (US or UK design) in two months.

    • 2 months! Wow. Actually building them will take a while. I don’t know how quickly they can get the workforce trained in sub building. Hopeful they are perhaps going to build up to the reactor compartment and get uk or USA to build that. Ship it over and put it together. It’s the long lead items that will take time. Perhaps in 5-10 years they may get one in water.

    • Great. Hopefully they will go for astute but have a loan of 3-4 surplus Los Angeles class subs in the meantime. What worries me is timeframes. Russia is a clear threat to world peace and security now. China is the threat for end of 2020s/2030s. We shouldnt take our eye off the risk of Russia and China combining into a new axis of evil. Hellbent on world domination.

  6. Good deed. Well done RN. Those researchers must be feeling immense frustration being trapped in Antartica whilat their country is invaded by an evil child murdering dictator. Huge worry for their families.
    This situation can only rnd in war. Putin is not going to stop. Appeasement wont work.
    History i thought had taught the Western world this lesson. Seems we need to relearn what history has already taught us.

        • My fave sci-fi / horror film of all time. Never seen any version with dog at end unless you mean the prequel ?

          • Interestingly the video/tv cut release and original cinematic release had different endings. The for TV video release introduced the dog…John carpenter hated it by all accounts and was really irritated.

        • Ah good point original with Kurt Russell 1982 Johnathan , as doc mentions how you can easily go crazy down here

    • The west use to be Britain and France now it’s the entire industrialised world. The west is so much more powerful than its adversaries that it’s almost a joke. Russia performance in Ukraine is a great example. Imagine China trying to invade Taiwan much less Japan or Singapore or anywhere useful to them.

  8. I have a thought off the topic of this article. Do we now have an explanation for the complacency of the European NATO nations with regards to defence spending? We’ve see in Ukraine, just how poor the Russian forces have been, in all spheres – they seem to be quite a long way off strategically, and I guess it has always been known that tactically they would be poor because of the quality of their soldiers (pile it high, sell it cheap). Russian forces are off the chart in the information space of a battle because they don’t have the quality of soldiers to use that information.

    I remember working with a guy who was among those who first got a look at Soviet aircraft in the eastern Europe after the fall of the wall, and then as those countries became more alligned with the west: he says he was stunned by how poorly maintained the aircraft were, but also the routines and level of instruction given to the crews; he was nervous when he started to see these aircraft at air shows in the UK, because he was expecting bits to start falling off them.

    Was this an assumption that the UK and others worked to? We knew they were useless, hence we made cuts? Otherwise I find it VERY difficult to understand how our senior commanders have stood by and watched our forces be cut back so deeply, when the attitude of the Russian state has never really changed.

    • Since 1989 and even before that the assumption has been that most of the Russian vehicles and aircraft would not survive contact with the ignition key much less the US army and much less the entire combined force of NATO. Russian performance in Ukraine more than validates this. There magic S400 can’t even keep old mig 29 out of the battle space. Imagine that 40 mile russian traffic jam heading to Estonia with NATO AirPower and MLRS on the prowl. It would make the highway of death in Kuwait look like a picnic. Then consider Russian crappy logistics that rely railway’s when the opponent has PGM and TLAM. If anything the defence assumptions have overstated the threat Russia poses. We use to think we had no chance of holding the Baltic’s. Now I think the Royal Welsh battle group might be able to take Moscow on its own. The Russian military is going to get worse now as it’s economy collapse, it gets cut off from high end electronics, it’s population continues to collapse and what few resources it does have get sucked in to Ukraine first to fight then to try and rebuild.

      • The key thing here is once Russia falls, we need to keep it down. This whole mantra that what was done to Germany after WWI was responsible for WWII is what made us help Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union – and look where it has got us. Even if Russia install a ‘friendly’ leader after Putin, we need to make sure we keep them firmly in their place.

        The thing with the S400 is like so much of the rest of their equipment, they may have a few bright scientists and engineers who can create the things, but their armed forces is mostly manned by poorly educated people, who get paid very little – and modern technology needs brains to use and brains to maintain it.

        In our armed forces, there is a good chance if you show initiative and are will to learn, you can end up with some stripes and with lots of options to develop – I get the feeling in the Russian armed forces, if you’re the one who can stay sober until after 10am, you’ll be viewed with suspicion and probably more likely to see a salt mine than career development.

    • I’m not sure they’re complacent – Poland has a decent military and has just ordered an extra 250 Abrams. I’d argue the UK has been far more complacent.

      • Poland are a bit low on aircraft – although it does have to be said they seem to have agood variety of SAMs, which is another huge gap we have here in the UK.

        Poland have been talking about some more F16s – I wonder if the F16 could be seeing more of a surge in demand from other countries; it must have a low price point with how many there are, but as we can see with current events, it would be more than a match for anything in the Russian inventory.

  9. This hits on what I thing will be one of the Most significant Geopolitical pressure points going into the middle of the century The rush to exploit the Antarctic. There is a specific trigger in 2048 around a review on the banning of mining and exploitation, but I’m not even sure it will get to then to be honest. Britain a leading player as effectively we claim sovereignty of 660,000 sqm, which is about the size of Western Europe. It’s also the best bit, with most exposed land and easy access compared to the rest of the Antarctic ( the BAT). The problem is the only countries that have said they will respect the sovereignty of claimed territory are those with territory. America has effectively had a policy of “we can claim any bit we want if we choose to” and most other countries follow the same view. So it’s likely in 25 years the Antarctic will become the Wild West with every nation that can claiming what it can ( the only reason it’s been left alone is it was it economic to exploit, but climate change and increased resource needs will change that soon).

    The key to control and ownership of the BAT, is a favourite subject of everyone, the falklands. Whoever controls the falklands will control how and when the BAT is exploited ( and a lot of the other parts of the Antarctic), this will make the falklands the linchpin of a continent. Which means within a 20-50 years timeframe mount pleasant airbase and Mare harbour may well become the most pivotal military facilities of the middle of the 21c.

    Every power is probably going to looking at the falklands air and navel bases and either want to share it with us as allies ( the US, NATO, Australia, Japan etc). Ask us nicely if they can share ( India etc) or try and take it from us, China, Russia, South America.

    Its one of the areas of strategic build up HMG need to think about with a fully formed plan of how and when we will exploit the BAT and how we will secure sovereignty. It’s also worth noting that if global warming hits 4+ degrees it may end up being one of the places we can live well.

    • I doubt it, most oil companies have given up on drilling in the Arctic which is 10 x easier than Antarctic and that’s before the political outcry. The seabed is literally covered in every mineral you could ever want and no one is really touching it due to cost and environmental impact. The ground you walk on is literally made from metal and almost all metal is recycled heavily. As electric vehicles become more dominant oil prices will go the same way as coal. Still some value but only where it can be extracted cheaply like Saudi Arabia. Lots of open cast mines in Australia still make a profit but deep cast mines in the UK make no sense. Oil will go the same way.

      • Hi Martin, remember the Antarctic is different it’s actual land, the artic is just sea bed. So with the Antarctic you do have actual deposits of things like gold, silver, copper and rare earths to physicsaly did up. There is a good chunk of the BAT which is not presently under thick ice and that will expand over the next decades, century due to retreating ice, warming southern occens will also see increases in options for fisheries.

        you have to remember the Antarctic is actual land, there have been people who wanted to exploit before but is was marginal enough that the environmentalists won in the 1980s, I don’t believe they will win in 2040s to much money is now burred in this continent.

        • It’s land that is dark for 6 months of the year and a coast which ends up with hundreds of miles of sea ice each year. I just can’t see those conditions ever being financially viable for anything. Look at the cost if keeping a few hundred scientists there. There is virtually no item we have a shortage of that’s not significantly cheaper and easier to get elsewhere.

          • Hi Martin the sea ice will be gone within a 20-50 year timeframe ( the southern ocean is heating up faster that all the rest). as for dark for 6 months of the year you are talking the South Pole 100degrees south. Not the exploitable parts of the bat. Take Rothera. It has 14 days a year in which it has civilian twighlight , but it never has any day where it is always night and that is pretty much true for the whole of the Antarctic penisular. That is why the BAT is so important and the BAT is the best bit of Antarctica..it’s the exploitable bit even now 60-70degrees south could be exploited for high value, low bulk minerals. I agree that anything 80degrees south will not be exploitable…but the peninsular is and will be even more so in 20 years…and it’s ours. ( for now).

  11. BBC reporting that Denmark is increasing its defence spending, also that Russia is recruiting Syrian mercenaries, that is just embarrassing.

  12. Sadly putin has tactical and strategic nukes, whatever fancy kit we get in the future, we cannot enter the Ukraine as tempting as it maybe to deal with the knacked kit they have fielded.
    A big thankyou to the crew of our silent deterrent somewhere out there.

    • Russia does not have enough troops to hold Ukraine – they will be dealing with a very long insurrection – think Afghanistan 1980s. Many body bags going back to Russia.
      Any country can be conquered – you will struggle to hold it. Plus you have a very pissed off local population with easy access to weapons from the western borders.

      • Richard, agree Putin has pissed off the population and the West is showing unity for once. It is sad that cities are reportedly being shelled for no obvious purpose other than to terrorise the population.

        Obviously China is watching this as others have commented.

  14. Surely the Ukrainians have just spent the summer there, not the winter? The restock is -presumably to take them through the winter?

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