Royal Navy 'run out of ships' as German vessel Sachsen replaces HMS Dragon on Nato op with UK 'bailed out'
.jpg?width=96&crop=1:1,smart)
A German frigate will be the new flagship for a Nato mission after HMS Dragon was sent to defend Cyprus in response to the Iran crisis.
Sachsen, the lead ship of a fleet of Sachsen-class vessels, will be taking command of Nato’s Standing Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1). This command to patrol in the North Atlantic was originally set for HMS Dragon, but the Portsmouth-based destroyer was deployed to the eastern Mediterranean after RAF Akrotiri was hit by a kamikaze drone.
A senior Royal Navy officer will still command the group, with staff based on the German vessel. The German embassy said it showed the close partnership between the two countries. “Germany is increasing its military presence in the North Atlantic under Nato,” the embassy added. “As the UK deploys HMS Dragon to the eastern Mediterranean, German frigate Sachsen will take over from HMS Dragon as Nato maritime task group flagship.”
Many of the Royal Navy’s Type 45 destroyers are out of action. HMS Daring, Diamond, and Defender, are currently undergoing Power Improvement Project (PIP) enhancements to restore their engines and other parts of the ships. The Daring-class have suffered various propulsion issues.
Two of the other warships, HMS Dauntless and Duncan, are both undergoing maintenance. Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty said “the Royal Navy has officially run out of ships”. “Britannia most certainly does not rule the waves,” the former army officer added.
“The government’s inability to manage the Royal Navy surface fleet has become a national embarrassment, with Germany now bailing us out. The defence secretary assured me we would be able to fulfil this commitment. We can’t.”
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “Our commitment to Nato remains unwavering, and the UK will fulfil its leadership role in SNMG1 as planned, with a Royal Navy commodore assuming command next month.”
Downing Street defended the UK’s military commitment in the Middle East, and the state of the Royal Navy. Asked if the situation with HMS Dragon showed the UK does not have enough ships, the prime minister’s official spokesman said: “We have been mobilising a significant defensive capability in the region since January.
“That includes RAF Typhoons. It includes F-35 jets. They’ve been flying defensive missions over a number of our allies, including Cyprus, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain. HMS Dragon has now arrived in the eastern Med and that is beginning operational integration into Cyprus’s defences.”
When questioned on March 26, defence secretary John Healey said the Germans were “good allies” to step in and provide their frigate, adding that the ship will be commanded by a Royal Navy commodore. He told LBC radio: “This is what good allies do. The Germans have stepped in to supply their warship.”
Asked if he was embarrassed that the UK needs to borrow a ship from Germany, he said it was a “sign of the strength of the Nato alliance … but I’m not happy with the situation we have with British warships, and that’s because it takes six years to build a warship”. Asked why they did not make another ship available for the pre-planned Nato mission, he said: “I have to make decisions based on what we’ve got.
“We were preparing HMS Dragon in order to play that flagship role, the way that Iran hit back in an indiscriminate, widespread way, meant I needed to reinforce the defences that we’d already before the conflict broke out, put into the Middle East.”