October 2018 sees the highest number of RN vessels deployed overseas for a considerable time. Despite limited resources, clever management of the assets available has allowed substantial participation in two major exercises simultaneously, in addition to other commitments.
Exercise Saif Sareea 3
SS3 is the third in a series of large-scale joint exercises with Oman and will involve 5,000 UK military personnel. It is the largest UK training exercise in the region since 2001. The prime purpose is to demonstrate UK resolve to support Oman and protect it’s key partners in the region, particularly from the threat posed by Iran. As usual, logistic planning is foundational to the exercise which will include the transport of Main Battle Tanks from the UK. Strategic Ro-Ro ships MV Anvil Point and MV Hurst Point loaded over 3,500 tonnes of stores and vehicles at Marchwood Military Port in July, arriving at the Port of Duqm in mid-August to unload. SS3 will be the first big test of the spacious and new Joint Logistics Support Base at Duqm which is has a dry dock and facilities that can accommodate the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers. (Main image above – HMS Albion arrives in Duqm.)
RN participation is lead by the fleet flagship, with Commander of the UK Amphibious Task Group (COMATG), Cdre James Parkin flying his flag in HMS Albion. Elements of 40 Cdo Royal Marines and their Army support Groups are on board and supported by auxiliaries RFA Lyme Bay and RFA Cardigan Bay. MV Hurst Point is participating in the exercise and provides additional logistical transport. The Royal Marines will conduct amphibious assaults and manoeuvers with Army and Omani troops. The amphibious force and will be escorted by HMS Dragon with HMS Shoreham and Ledbury providing Mine Countermeasures support. By recent RN standards, this represents a substantial amphibious force of 7 vessels.
The last Exercise Saif Sareea took place in October 2001 and the UK deployed 22,500 personnel, 6,500 vehicles, 49 fixed-wing aircraft and 44 helicopters, with the RN contributing 14 ships supported by 7 Royal Fleet Auxiliaries.
The platforms may be more capable but the intervening 17 years has seen a serious decline in overall UK fighting strength. Total personnel numbers on Saif Sareea 3 are just 23% of Saif Sareea 2 and the RN’s contribution is about a third of what it delivered in 2001.
SS3 is part of the overall Amphibious Task Group (ATG) deployment which includes activity that isn’t part of SS3, but utilises assets either already in the Gulf region or due to deploy there anyway. RFA Lyme Bay will relive RFA Cardigan Bay and then remain based in Bahrain for several years. HMS Dragon will also stay East of Suez after SS3 concludes. HMS Albion has already been away from the UK for 8 months, deployed in the Pacific and joins SS3 before returning to the UK.
Exercise Trident Juncture
TRJE18 is a major NATO exercise held in Norway and the Norwegian Sea. The live training phase will run from 25 October to 7 November but the build-up of personnel and equipment from the States and all over Europe has already begun. Testing NATO’s logistic capabilities to transport, deliver and support military forces in Norway is as important as the live training. Should the reinforcement of Norway ever need to be done for real, a functioning logistical chain will be critical.
It is the biggest NATO exercise since 2002 and the largest in the region since the depths of the Cold War in the 1980s. Few people had expected an exercise of this scale would ever happen again but a real Russian threat to Norway the high North makes this demonstration necessary. With 50,000 personnel, 150 aircraft and 65 naval vessels from more than 30 nations on its doorstep, this sends a powerful message and NATO has asked Moscow to send observers to witness the exercise. TRJE18 will demonstrate the capability and resolve to reinforce the northern flank but Russia can be reassured that this not the prelude to some act of aggression. This is a large exercise by NATO standards but to put it in perspective, there are about 400,000 soldiers in Russia’s Western Military District confronting NATO in Europe.
Admiral James G. Foggo III, US Navy, Commander of NATO Joint Force is in overall charge of the exercise. The deployment of the carrier USS Harry S Truman and supporting vessels into the Norwegian Sea is a bold show of strength. In a conflict situation, deploying a carrier into such a position would put it at risk, especially from submarines of the Northern Fleet, but is a strategy designed to put Russian forces on the defensive in an area they want to dominate.
HMS Northumberland and Westminster both have towed array sonar and are likely to exercise their primary role – ASW defence of the naval task groups. HMS Enterprise has the Mine Warfare Battle Staff embarked and will support HMS Cattistock, Grimsby, Hurworth and Ramsey and other NATO minehunters. In their biggest deployment in 8 years, 20 engineers from the RN’s Forward Support Unit 02 based in Portsmouth are being sent to Norway with 9 containerised Engineering Workshop Modules used to rectify ships defects during the exercise.
Other commitments
Besides the two major exercises, the RN has single vessels committed to another overseas tasking. HMS Argyll is participating in Exercise Bersama Lima 18 held in the South China Sea from 2 to 19 October. This is in support of the Five Power Defence Arrangement (FPDA) and also involves ships submarines, aircraft and personnel from Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore. HMS Argyll will remain in the Pacific region into 2019 after Bersama Lima concludes.
HMS Diamond is on maritime security patrols in the Mediterranean and HMS Echo is also in the region conducting a variety of tasks including hydrographic survey, migrant patrols and defence diplomacy visits. Falklands patrol ship HMS Clyde has been joined by HMS Protector in the Falklands as she prepares for the coming season – supporting science and research in the Antarctic. RFA Mounts Bay remains on station in the Carribean for the hurricane season ready to respond, should she be called to help islands in need of humanitarian assistance.
Westlant 18 is not an exercise or operational deployment but HMS Queen Elizabeth has made very good progress with F-35 flying trials. Developmental Test period 1 (DT-1) is now complete and QE will arrive in New York on 19th October for her most important port visit to date. HMS Monmouth is on exercise with a US Navy Amphibious Task Group.
Every single day the submarine service quietly carries on with UK defence priority number one, the Continuous at Sea Deterrent, maintained by a Vanguard class boat on patrol. There has not been a single official announcement about any UK submarine activity since HMS Trenchant surfaced at the North pole in March, but we can be sure the slender SSN force is being worked hard.
This overall operational tempo will not be sustained indefinitely and some of the vessels will return home to cycle through normal, maintenance and regeneration periods. If, for example, 5 out of 6 Type 45s are back alongside in Portsmouth for the Christmas leave period, watch out for complaints that RN ships don’t go to sea!
Related articles
- Exercise Saif Seareea II (2001) (NAO Report)
- Type 23 Sea Days and why the RN excels at getting ships to sea (Thin Pinstriped Line)
- Portrait of an active fleet – the Royal Navy in the last 7 days (Save the Royal Navy, Feb 2018)
Doesn’t the T-23 look outdated compared with the Singapore vessels, let’s hope the T-26 and 31 can address this issue in the NOT TOO DISTANT future???
Those Singaporean Formidable class ships are exactly what the Type-31 should be.
Ive always loved how the Singapore Navy has used Royal Navy names-Formidable, Victory, Steadfast, Intrepid, Indomitable, Fearless, Endurance etc.
The combination of Sea Ceptor, Artisan, Type 2087 and a Merlin is still a world beating combination! Agree that the physical look of the class is dated though.
Flogging ships to death with 30+ years service was always something other navies did, whereas the RN used to benefit from a huge shipbuilding industry which replaced vessels before their systems became obsolete.
Rather than arsing around with the design for years there should have been the clarity and planning to commence with the building the first T26 once the last Type 45 was finished 2012-2013 which would see them entering the fleet around now and avoiding costly later life refits to Type 23’s.
A steady drumbeat of construction with assurances of numbers is essential and something the parallel T26/T31 programs need to provide.
Parallel and steady are not compatible.Type 31e programme will stretch resources and require investment in facilities as well as the problems with rushed construction, block obsolescence and just about every other procurement problem known to man.At the same time we are paying extra to build the type 26 slowly.
Don’t underestimate a T23 with Sea Ceptor and towed array, though!
Sea Ceptor while not as capable as the Aster 15s or 30s is still very good 😊 you can quad pack them in a VLS cell and will greatly help the Type 45 as they are under armed (48 Sylver S50 VLS compared to the 90-96 Mark 41 VLS Cells the Arleigh Burke has) in the Missile Quantity department.
Fantastic article, thanks!
The Points are majestic vessels, nice to see them in action carrying the tonnage they can. Also glad to see the Block1B Phalanx are appearing; wasn’t sure if we were salvaging old sets and hoping for best or investing in new units. My understanding is the B1B is an entirely new mount in terms of radar, barrel and shell. Many patrons of this site wish to see SAMs on ships like the Bulwarks’. I agree an 8 bank of CAMM would be nice. But, for now I can be happy with the latest Phalanx.
Older Mounts are upgraded to current standards for the Phalanx mounts 😊 Also Raytheon do have SeaRAM mounts (basically a phalanx mount with an 11 cell launcher of RIM 116 Rolling Airframe Missiles) I would personally add these to high priority assets like the Carriers and Large Assault ships in addition of their current armaments.
I wonder how Brexit will affect the Royal Navys use of Aster 15 and Aster 30 SAMs? Will MBDA sell them to the UK anymore?…Will there be massive tarriffs involved? I wonder if there has been any research done on swapping to the Standard missile family in case of issues with buying Aster Missiles
The Royal Navy should had brought the Mk41 VLS system which is more flexible and cheaper than the S50 VLS for the type 45 .
But yet again our politicians obsession with European and French joint defence projects leads to use paying a lot for a inferior and over budget system.
And aster 30 missile costs 40% more than a standard missile yet has no discernible advantage for the money.
And yes I know France is in Europe but the French view the rest of Europe as vassal states and when in a partnership are only interested in getting what they want and not what is good for each partner.
The aster is a case in point no other country is interested where as the standard is widely used but the French wanted a so called European version and the UK paid for it.
Better to buy what works and save money than spend money we don’t have on vain glorious projects .
Mk41 also is strike length so Tomahawks like the upcoming new anti shipping missile can be carried. Fortunately the Type 26 is apparently going to have Mk41 😊 24 Mk 41 VLS cells and 48 SeaCeptor Cells either individual or quad packed. Also a 5inch 62 cailbre main gun (Pretty sure the same gun the US uses)
If Mk41 and the Standard family could’ve been integrated with Sea Viper without a potentially huge increase in costs, maybe. However that would’ve taken time and money that we didn’t want or need to spend on buying from the US. I confess I would’ve preferred the SYLVER A70 over the A50 as it would’ve allowed the use of SCALP/Storm Shadow cruise missiles, but the T45s were already too expensive as it was.
Why so much hate for the Aster? Its fundamentally more capable than an SM-2 in most regards: its Mach 4.5 vs the SM-2s M3.5, it uses a more advanced active seeker vs a semi-active seeker, and its all around a more modern weapon. It only loses in technical range and altitude (120km and 20km up vs 160km and 24km up).
The main reason Standard is so much much more popular? Its American and produced in large quantities, which guarantees lower costs, in-service support, and future updates. The same reasons the 5.56mm NATO round was chosen despite far better alternatives being out there.
Don’t hate the aster, it is a question of cost .
The RN has over the last 35 years has fixated on quality over quantity and has paid the cost in having fewer platforms .
The type 45 was meant to be a class of 12 became a class of 6 due to cost overruns and extended build times.
Type 26 a class of 13 but now 8 due in main to the long build times to protect Scottish jobs .
Astute meant to be 12 now 7 due to the delay in ordering after the Trafalgar class and attempt to cut costs by shoehorning the vanguard reactor into to the hull.
The type 45 and astute may be world beating platforms but there is not enough of them .
The RN might have been better served with less capable vessels but more vessels along the lines of the Danish navies new frigates.
I don’t think the type 31 will be built and the type 26 is only funded for 4 ships and a Labour government would definitely not fund the next 4 and I have serious doubts that a Tory government would.
There are no votes in defence and that is the problem.
Correct on most counts. Basically the UK (like the US) has a military-industrial complex which is interested in having as many $$$ delivered its way and this is not necessarily consistent with the interests of people living in your country and paying taxes. It is in the interests of the military-industrial complex for the public to order weapons that are as complicated and expensive as possible. Not only does this increase the up-front cost of the weapons, but it means the military then needs to keep coming back to these companies to pay very high maintenance and sustainment costs.
The above system works really well for Admirals and Generals too, because in return for advocating these expensive weapons systems, they are rewarded at retirement with cushy directorships and consultancy jobs. Take a look at some of your recent former Admirals/Generals and where they ended up after retiring.
Under this system, every time you buy a new weapon the size of your overall force shrinks, due to the expensive purchase price and then the increased maintenance costs. Paradoxically, more capable and less expensive weapons actually make way for more expensive ones. I expect the Navy will do everything it can to protect its out-of-date, status-symbol aircraft carriers, which are irrelevant to modern war, by retiring more capable, cheaper and useful systems such as minehunters and attack submarines.
In about 10 to 20 years, the Royal Navy will basically just have two carriers, mostly empty, although containing a handful of expensive, barely maintainable F35s, that it can rarely afford to operate and a handful of other ships.
Similar storey with your air force – the Eurofighter is so complicated and expensive that it is barely maintainable, although the F35B version will take this to whole a new level. Expect the air force to have maybe a dozen or two active fighter aircraft in a decade or so time, down from hundreds not so long ago.
The Royal Navy is really a lost cause. There is plenty of money available and being spent, although the system is too corrupt to turn things around. Britain is not a powerful or significant country anymore, there’s no point trying to pretend otherwise. Perhaps this decline is actually a good thing for the British people though, instead of bombing other countries and creating enemies, perhaps new priorities can be created like peace and trade.
David we are not going out of our way to “bomb and create enemies”. The utopian garden that you seem to crave for is in heaven not on earth. Britain has the worlds 5th largest economy and is still a world power. We are not an insignificant country as you describe it.
Certain responsibilities must be maintained to keep the peace. To do this we must maintain our forces.
BAES owns the joint-largest share of MBDA and a fair share of its production happens here. The other two owning companies are Airbus and Leonardo, both of whom are already major suppliers for us. There won’t be any issue buying missiles from a company we partly own.
Type 26 wins in Canada.This can’t be anything other than good news but no one has been able to give a convincing explanation of the royalty payments. It looks a lot like the UK government pays for the design and BAE rakes in the cash. I would be delighted if someone could prove me wrong.
If only we could smash some heads together with all the parties cooperating with production there could be some huge gains in efficiency ,but I suspect that it will end up a bit like the Eurofighter with lots of duplicate efforts.
I believe the recent estimates are that the 9 Australian versions are worth approximately £1bn to UK industry. Depending on the exact configuration and numbers of the Canadian version, I’d say we’re looking at another ~£1.3bn? In combination with the ability to bulk order components and future spares and upgrades, we could see some decent savings in maintenance costs for the fleet over the next few decades.