"Requires physical reorientation": Calls for Royal Navy ships to move from Portsmouth "to face Russian threat"
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More Royal Navy ships should be based away from Portsmouth to provide a greater deterrent to Russia, a Sub-Lieutenant has said.
Joe Reilly, who currently serves as a Initial Warfare Officer onboard HMS Cattistock, believes the focus of the fleet should be on the North Atlantic. Writing for the Council on Geostrategy magazine The Broadside, he said the UK needs to place its strategic focus there.
“Achieving success in the North Atlantic requires a physical reorientation of the Royal Navy’s fleet to face the Russian threat, and the recovery of meaningful shipbuilding and repair capacity to the defence industrial base,” Sub Lt Reilly added.
“The Royal Navy has a long history of repositioning home forces to combat overseas opponents. Wars against the Dutch required concentration in the South East (Chatham, Portsmouth and Sheerness), while wars against the French saw forces distributed to Plymouth (to blockade Brest) and Portsmouth (to hold the Channel). In the 21st century, there is no military posture more necessary, and indeed more popular, than that which is Russian-facing.”
New warships to be deployed up north?
The Warfare Officer said the UK lacks strategic advantage in the area, where the Russian shadow fleet regularly operates. He mooted the possibility of basing the Inspiration-class Type 31 frigates, currently under construction, in Tyneside on a rotational crew basis. It was confirmed in April that they would call HMNB Portsmouth their home.
Officials who wrote the Strategic Defence Review also highlighted the need for the submarine-hunting Type 26 frigates to operate in the region. The report said the UK and Nato needs to respond to a “persistent and growing underwater threat from a modernising Russian submarine force”.
It called for the City-class frigates would form part of a force which alongside un-crewed surface vessels and autonomous underwater vehicles. Vessels will be equipped with mission bays, which can be turned into an amphibious platform for raiding tasks or special forces operations.