As the global coronavirus pandemic has begun to impact all aspects of life in the UK, this is a brief update on how the RN is responding to the crisis.
Operational
At the sharp end, the RN is delivering as normal and says its priorities of maintaining the Continuous At Sea (nuclear) Deterrent, Gulf operations (Kipion) and protection of UK waters are not affected. At sea, crews are naturally isolated from in the general population, but should infection break out in a ship or submarine it tends to spread rapidly. Fortunately, the workforce does not include those at high risk from Covid-19 and young, fit people are likely to recover rapidly. The RN says no cases have been confirmed on any vessels at sea although it notes that testing is not (yet) being carried out.
Social distancing
While operationally things are relatively normal for now at least, they are, of course, entirely dependent on a long tail of infrastructure and support ashore. The RN is acutely aware it must carefully balance the needs of the nation with the safety of families and other civilians. On land it is following government guidelines on hygiene and isolation as closely as it can. Efforts to ensure the service will remain resilient and keep meeting its tasking are ongoing, even if some personnel should become infected. Shore establishments remain open but people are being asked to work remotely where possible and non-essential and family visits have been stopped. Teams are being divided into watches so that should one member become infected, the other watch/watches can take over. Assembling large groups of people together is being avoided but shoreside support and the dockyards continue to operate.
MACA
As yet the government has not made a formal request for Military Aid to the Civil Authorities (MACA). All three are forces are mandated to be ready to respond to such a request, should regular civilian capacity become overwhelmed. This would normally be in the form of additional manpower or expertise. A variety of contingency plans are always kept in place but the RN says it is further reviewing plans for how it may assist the government in this situation if called upon.
Work is going on across the Defence Medical Service (DMS) to see how best to assist the NHS. The DMS comprises of 11,200 service personnel (7,600 regular and 3,600 reserve) and 2,200 civilian personnel but a very large percentage are already seconded to the NHS on a routine basis. There are some, but not large numbers of military medics readily available to boost the hospital workforce. Separate military hospitals ceased to exist by the mid-1990s as it was hard to justify their cost as forces numbers declined and it was felt that military medics would benefit from integration with the NHS. This kind of spare capacity that would be so helpful in times of crisis is typical of the kind of contingency and reserves that have been continually drawn down in an endless round of defence cuts since the end of the Cold War. The DMS posses 35 breathing ventilators which are likely to become in very short supply soon and it has made them available to the NHS.
Cold Response
The pandemic has impacted various exercises and events. The annual Maritime Combat Power Visit at Portsmouth Naval Base, that sees various military personnel from around the world and UK defence observe the navy in action, has been cancelled. The RN says it will continue to review future events ‘on a case by case basis’. A major NATO Exercise, Cold Response 2020 held in Norway was supposed to run between 2 – 18 March but was terminated early on 11 March by the Norwegian government as there we a number of suspected coronavirus cases amongst troops. RN participants HMS Albion, Sutherland and RFA Lyme Bay are returning home but around 900 Royal Marines are being kept on in Norway to continue training in relative isolation in the remote Arctic for a few more weeks.
Like everyone else, the RN is being led by government and scientific advice with many unknowns about how the pandemic will play out and how long it may last. Defence of the realm must continue and it is always possible that a global crisis could be exploited by our adversaries. The Commons Defence Select Committee meeting held yesterday seemed to endorse the view that the current Integrated Defence Review will probably be deferred for at least a year. Besides the psychological and emotional impact on the public as a whole, COVID-19 will see an upheaval in the public finances and likely have a very significant effect of defence planning in the next few years. While all sensible precautions are being taken in the face of an unprecedented situation, the message is to keep calm and carry on.
Main image: HMS Sutherland leaves Portsmouth after brief logistics stop on 17 March after returning early from exercise Cold Response in Norway. (Photo: Amy Savage)
I’m in the Royal Canadian Navy, on the HMCS Regina. We were at sea 10-13 March and were told while on that sail we would likely do a quarantine sail of 28 days at some point. So we got told on the 13 we would pull along side and go home but would leave for 28 days on the 23 of March. On 16 March we were told we would leave 20 March for no less than 50 days (no port visits).
Point of this, the RCN decided we would be fine to be alongside our homeport for a week prior to sailing in an effort to keep us healthy. 99% sure they screwed that one up. And it’s a bigger hit to morale because the rest of the Canadian Armed Forces were told to stay home starting 14 March for a minimum of three weeks! So I miss out on free leave days! Argh!
Im curious what they are gonna do about the carriers as there are more than 500 onboard. PoW remains at sea (self isolation?) Whilst QE remains alongside.
Im curious as to whether leave will be stopped for sailors onboard ships alongside Portsmouth for 12 weeks. That will be great morale for sailors and there’s families.
Seems to be being decided on a case-by-case basis. Units due to deploy may very well quarantine their crews to avoid taking an infection with them, others alongside for some time for maintenance etc. seem to be dropping down to minimum manning and rotating duty watches about.
Ultimately it depends on what’s defined as essential or not. I would argue that the longer the current situation goes on for, the shorter the list of what’s truly essential becomes, especially if the government requires military support.
I’ think the’ll be sunk
USS Boxer has had a positive. That ship has a crew of 1200 and close to 3000 if it has a full Marine Combat group aboard.
Sorry but that’s just untrue. Serious manning issues are on the horizon with people either being self-isolated or forced to stay at home to care for family.
Arent there vastly more people in the RN than berths on ships and only a few ships are sea at any one time. Must be within the capability to manage most occasions
RN medical could arrange testing of crew before they deploy, as having someone on a ship with the virus is the worst case.
Both the work up exercises and the planing of the “down route” activities for the 2021 carrier group deployment are almost bound to be impacted.
It would not surprise me if in order to back the deployment a “Big Deal” in PR, Diplomatic and Military terms it is put back a year.
Has anybody told the boat on CASD not to come back…….better word that signal carefully…
I heard earlier that 2 US Seaflift Command Hospital ships were being included in their response. I checked and RFA Argus is home at Plymouth 😊 While not a Hospital ship as she has a pair of 20mm guns, Argus is very well equipped to support medical endeavours ashore. Coronavirus on a Vanguard Sub….easy….Novovirus however…thats a way to incapacitate a sub lol 😆 Question for anyone who knows…how many Toilets per sub does the RN have???? 😁
I’m sure they are looking at using Argus if neccessary, however she can only provide a maximum of about 120 beds (if memory serves me, its been awhile) and they would have to find the medical staff from somewhere as they are not normally part of the ships complement. Perhaps she could find a role in a lightly populated, remote area such as the Western Isles?
She has 10 intensive care beds, which is more than most hospitals in the UK. She may well be pressed into action.
RFA Argus news https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1258505/royal-navy-coronavirus-nhs-hospital-beds-river-thames
So dragon has been confined to HMS Drake the past week and yet Drake is open freely allowing entry and exit. So how is that helping🤔
We need a vaccination found. Let’s hope we british make one, after all we created the vaccine
In the 1780s no less. Interestingly, Napoleon vaccinated most of his soldiers with it- while at war with Britain. But he did release 2 English POWs at Jenner’s request. – Wikipedia
The country is under attack. 1408 innocent civilians have died.
Yet not one bullet, canon, missile or nuke has been launched at the enemy. Not one.
It’s a disgrace! It’s almost like the Navy can’t fight back against this foe. That all that useless expenditure on rusting ship hulks would have been better spent on more Doctors,, Nurses and PPE equipment. Even hand sanitisers and loo roll would have been a better spend…..
Where are all the Hooray Henry’s speaking of 3% GDP spend on defence now? Lining up for emergency NHS appointments, I bet!
Ahhh…the joys of Statistics and data sets.
They can be made to read whatever you want.
Try this out.
Driving and road safety in the UK will be some of the best in the world next year. There will be considerably less than the current average of 3000 deaths per year on the roads . So the roads must be safer …Yes?
The UK will be one of the healthiest countries in the world for having reduced the number of deaths in the 50+ age group in Heart Disease, Cancer and Dementia. …isnt that great?
Statistics in isolation with no reference are dangerous and cause more problems than they solve.
As for fighting this foe, the armed forces are organising the provision of emergency hospitals in 3 locations. Military staff working alongside the NHS on wards, Delivering millions of items of PPE to where the NHS tell them they want it ( and there in is the weak link…the NHS organising things), providing airlift facilities whilst still doing their core business all around the world.
Here are more stats you won’t like. We spend £2 billion on Trident and we can’t give all our frontline NHS staff goggles, masks, gloves and aprons.
Instead we are literally sending Doctors and nurses to their deaths via contracting Covid.
There is something simply and fundamentally wrong with this country.
The NHS got 139billion pounds last year, so you’re little massaging of figures trying to make tridents expenditure look huge is a waste Putin stooge.