Late response is wake-up call for Whitehall
MORE than 700 British military personnel and 50 police officers are now deployed across the Caribbean helping with rescue, relief and restoring order in the wake of Irma.
Throughout the day RAF Voyager, Atlas A400M and C17 Globemaster transport aircraft were moving in and out of Barbados and the main strips in the British Virgin Islands. A complete field hospital was also being flown in.
The logistics ship RFA Mounts Bay has been helping since the end of last week. By early next week HMS Ocean, the helicopter carrier which is almost designed for the role, will arrive in the area. The ship will provide tons of supplies, vehicles and at least nine helicopters to assist in the medium-term restoration and reconstruction.
Impressive as this sounds, for many people this is not in time and not nearly enough. Bereft British holidaymakers and citizens of the British dependencies across the Caribbean have complained about poor communication and support, particularly compared with the French and Dutch efforts. The Dutch already had two warships in the area before the hurricanes struck, and the French have warships and troops in their dependencies, based on Guadeloupe and Martinique, with more on the way. King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, a pilot, flew yesterday to Curacao and will visit several stricken islands today before overseeing the roster of requirements and supplies for the Dutch dependencies.
The USS Wasp and two more amphibious ships have moved to the US Virgin Islands to start a major rescue and relief operation which is expected to last months. Disaster relief and human- itarian rescue is now core business for the services of the major powers, particularly their navies. There has been a suspicion that since the defence reviews of 2010 British governments have been paying lip service to this notion. Irma and what follows should be a wake-up call.
In fact the UK has good equipment and very good personnel for this kind of job. The aircraft being used are proving more than up to the task — especially the A400M Atlas. Britain is now lending air and helicopter support to France.
HMS Ocean will provide a logistics base for helicopters, boats and vehicles, and be able to supply electricity ashore. The ship is due out of service in the middle of next year but the new aircraft carriers, for all their size, are not very well suited to the humanitarian role.
Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has announced a new shipbuilding strategy and a class of “light” Type 31e frigates. Commercial maritime tonnage has doubled since the beginning of this century. Britain’s navy is far too small now to protect its most vital interests. Among those in humanitarian operations, this component of foreign policy is too easily forgotten by this government.