'We don’t need the Royal Navy': Chief 'dismissed sending HMS Prince of Wales' amid Middle East Iran strikes
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The Chief of Defence Staff advised against sending the Royal Navy flagship to the Middle East shortly before the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, reports said.
As reported in the Daily Telegraph, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton allegedly dismissed the notion of deploying HMS Prince of Wales during a secret meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) on February 27.
Jonathan Powell, the national security adviser, asked Sir Richard if the £3.2bn carrier should be sent to the region amid the imminent threat of war. The CDS reportedly said: “We don’t need the carrier. We don’t need the Navy. We have an aircraft carrier – it’s called Cyprus.”
Downing Street sources denied these claims and said the government’s position was that HMS Prince of Wales did not need to be deployed because Britain could launch jets from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. The base was struck by a kamikaze drone on March 2, prompting the deployment of HMS Dragon to the eastern Mediterranean alongside naval helicopters. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) previously said the strike did not come from Iran. It’s believed to have originated from an Iranian-backed militia in Lebanon or western Iraq.
A senior security source claimed that during another meeting last weekend, Mr Powell and others appealed fir a range of options to place before prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, but Sir Richard refused. This reportedly left No 10 “very, very cheesed off”. “The truth is he’s lost the confidence of No 10,” a source told The Spectator magazine. “He has failed to give the Prime Minister military capability, but also diplomatic and political credibility.”
The publication said this decision also enraged Cyprus, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates. “Warships are part of diplomatic theatre,” an insider told the political publication. “They’re symbols as much as they are weapons. And nobody has said that to the Prime Minister.”
Downing Street sources said the idea that the Prime Minister had lost confidence in Sir Richard “couldn’t be further from the truth”, adding that deploying HMS Prince of Wales for symbolic reasons was not necessary. Sources close to Sir Richard told The Telegraph those comments would “have probably been a bit flippant” during a short conversation.
A source said: “Richard is a fan of the carriers. But carriers have their time and place. Just because we have one, doesn’t mean we should use it.” They said it was “far quicker and cheaper” to fly F-35 fighter jets to RAF Akrotiri than sending HMS Prince of Wales.
Sir Keir has received praise for not fully committing to supporting US President Donald Trump with the US-Israeli strikes. A YouGov poll published on March 9 showed that 59 per cent of Britons opposed US military action in Iran. This was from a sample size of 12,002.
Criticism however has been levied at the UK’s slow response to hostilities in the region, despite being prewarned that strikes were likely. Type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon sailed from HMNB Portsmouth on March 10, with the ship being supplied and crewed in six days after she was previously in the dry dock and earmarked to take over Nato duties in April. Two Wildcat helicopters armed with Martlet drone-busting missiles were deployed to Cyprus, with four extra Typhoon jets arriving in Qatar to bolster Britain’s aerial presence. Security patrols are regularly conducted in the region, with aircraft shooting down un-crewed aerial systems.
Even with this response, Britain’s actions have been challenged. Constantinos Kombos, Cyprus’ foreign minister, suggested there needed to be a “conversation” about whether Britain’s two RAF bases stayed in the country, stressing there were “issues and concerns”. Ameer Kotecha, former diplomat who quit the Foreign Office this week, claimed that the UK’s ambassador to Israel alerted London weeks ago that strikes on Iran were “highly likely”.
He told Sky News that minister “didn’t do enough” despite the government having ample notice and said he was “surprised” that HMS Dragon was not deployed sooner. He said: “It’s the politicians that make those really big calls, so I don’t want to blame the officials for that decision, but I was surprised.”