"Immensely successful" HMS Lancaster retired from Royal Navy and will be disposed of without UK homecoming
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An “exceptional” warship that had a “long and distinguished” career in the Royal Navy is being retired.
HMS Lancaster, a Type 23 frigate which has primarily been deployed in the Middle East, will be taken out of service and decommissioned. She will not return to the UK and will spend her final moments in Bahrain, where she has been operating over the past three years.
Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Steve Moorhouse said: “HMS Lancaster is approaching the end of her long and distinguished service with the Royal Navy. As she approaches retirement, I would encourage you all to celebrate everything that she has delivered on operation across the world.
“As our longest serving Type 23 frigate, HMS Lancaster has exceeded the 18 years lifespan she was originally built for, with almost 35 years of outstanding service. Most recently, this has seen her forward deployed in the Middle East, where her operational output has been simply exceptional.
“Just over three years in the region supporting allies and partners, she was the first ship on task in the Red Sea during the heightened threat activity of December 2023, and has seized over £150m of narcotics, the latest of weeks being a few weeks ago. An immensely successful 35 years.”
VAdm Moorhouse, a former Commanding Officer of the frigate, said the ship represents many fond memories for him and those who served on the warship. “It will be particularly poignant for the ship’s company, who will shortly bring her alongside in Bahrain for the final time,” he added.
“Rather than seek to extend her certification, we will now commence preparation for her final disposal from there and not sail her back to the UK. While I realise this will be disappointing to those who will bid her a final farewell, this reflects the extraordinary service she has delivered, and the pride we take in having maximised every ounce of operational capability.”
Rumours initially surfaced in July that the Duke-class frigate would be scrapped, leaving Portsmouth-based minehunter HMS Middleton as the only forward deployed vessel in the region. VAdm Moorhouse did not confirm whether the frigate will be scrapped after being disposed of, or sold.
Lieutenant General Sir Simon Mayall KBE, a retired British Army officer and current Middle East advisor to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), told The Daily Telegraph that this was a “strategic failure” to operations.
HMS Lancaster was assigned to Operation Kipion, a UK deployment designed to maintain peace and stability in the Middle East. She has continually conducted patrols alongside the US Fifth Fleet and the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), a 46-nation unit that patrols 3.2m square metres of ocean.
Personnel have been adept at tackling drug smugglers and confiscating narcotics, wiping tens of millions of pounds worth of contraband off the streets. The number of deployments to the Middle East has been decreasing steadily while the Royal Navy fleet shortens, from 17 in 2015 to eight this year.
VAdm Moorhouse paid tribute to the ship’s company for their professionalism and their families’ unwavering support, as the frigate is prepared for disposal. The Royal Navy is looking to return as many of the ship’s company home for Christmas as possible.
He added: “The UK Maritime Component Command in Bahrain continues to be central to the UK military operations across the Middle East region, working with our allies and partners.”
Chief Petty Officer Jack Edwards-Lawlor the most senior marine engineer at his rank on board. “The challenges that the marine engineer department have faced since I first joined during upkeep have been enormous, but each challenge has brought its own learning opportunity and I am immensely proud of my team for the part that they have played in keeping the propulsion system operational on the oldest Type 23 frigate in the fleet,” he added.
“My favourite memory of Lancaster is when we were on operations in the High North in 2021 – a little different to our period of being deployed in the Gulf region. From entering the Arctic Circle and conducting the ‘Blue Nose Ceremony’, to seeing the natural beauties of the Northern Lights and the Norwegian Fjords, it is something that not many people outside the Royal Navy will have seen, and I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to experience it.”
Other achievements in the frigate’s career include escorting the Royal Yacht Britannia on one of her final winter tours of the Caribbean and accompanying the legendary liner QE2 on her final voyage into Dubai. Her duties also ranged from counter-piracy operations and drug interdiction to protecting commercial shipping and evacuating civilians from war-torn Sudan.
The bulk of her active has been spent in either the Caribbean or Middle East, interspersed with duties in the USA, South Atlantic, Arctic, Mediterranean and Baltic.