"Withdrawn permanently": HMS Lancaster silently leaves Middle East with no replacement due to "shortages"
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A Royal Navy warship has silently left the Middle East with her future remaining in doubt.
As reported by the Maritime Executive, Type 23 frigate HMS Lancaster is returning to the UK. The trade publication said the Royal Navy “appears to have withdrawn its permanently deployed frigate in the Gulf”.
Assigned to Operation Kipion - a UK deployment designed to maintain peace and stability in the Middle East - the Duke-class warship has held a long successful period in the region. A “huge win” for sailors was reported in October when a Royal Marine shot a boat with a sniper and stopped it trafficking a £35m illegal drug shipment. The UK has completed various security drills alongside the US Fifth Fleet and the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), a 46-nation unit that patrols 3.2m square metres of ocean, as part of the this.
Since then, things have been quiet, with the Maritime Executive reporting that the only vessel alongside at the HMS Juffair base in Bahrain has been the Hunt-class minesweeper HMS Middleton, which is currently the only Royal Navy vessel in the Middle East.
“The Royal Navy is currently suffering significant shortages, caused by shortages of budget, manpower, and replacements for obsolescent ships, and has been reluctant to acknowledge that these are affecting operational requirements,” the publication added.
HMS Lancaster is likely to be returning home alongside RFA Tidespring, after the support ship was spotted on November 12. No replacements in the Gulf have been announced by the Royal Navy, despite tensions in Iran and the wider region. The Daily Telegraph reported in July that the frigate will “be scrapped at the end of the year”.
It was described as a “strategic failure” and a “huge backward step” in the British global position by Lieutenant General Sir Simon Mayall KBE, a retired British Army officer and current Middle East advisor to the Ministry of Defence (MoD).