Navy on delicate course in choppy waters
The three Iranian Fast Attack Craft speed towards HMS Dragon from the port side, threatening to weave between the Royal Navy Type 45 destroyer and the trio of British vessels it is escorting through the Strait of Hormuz.
Although dwarfed by the British ships – HMS Dragon’s twin gas turbine generators alone produce enough energy to power a city the size of Leicester – the Iranian speedboats could still cause significant damage if they attack, not to mention spark an international diplomatic incident. As they race over the water the Iranian Revolutionary Guards on board point film cameras towards the British to gauge their reaction. HMS Dragon’s captain, Cdr Mike Carter-quinn, orders five deafening blasts of the ship’s horn – the international warning signal – as his crew don helmets and body armour and man the heavy machine guns.
The officer of the watch radios over to the Iranian navy to warn that its vessels have impeded the destroyer’s passage and request that they remain 1,000 yards clear of the port side.
“For your information we are here to safeguard our national sovereignty and we are doing routine operations,” comes the reply from the Iranians.
Such geo-political drama between Britain and Iran is a routine and almost daily occurrence on the Strait of Hormuz between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, one of the most strategic sections of water in the world.
Fortunately, on this occasion the Iranians heed the British and eventually move aside. According to Cdr Carter-quinn, had they not moved the next steps would be firing flares and ultimately warning shots. “You have to provide a robust response,” he says. “The day you don’t take it seriously is the day you become unstuck.”
The Royal Navy navigates a delicate diplomatic course through these choppy waters. “The contest between Iran and Saudi Arabia provides the backdrop to everything out here,” says Lt-cdr Richard Attwater, HMS Dragon’s second in command. “It’s a very volatile region. And we’re sailing 8,000 tons of Britain right through the middle of it.”
Britain has four Royal Navy minehunters and a Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) logistics vessel permanently based in Bahrain. The principal mission of the minehunters is to clear the route of Britain’s nuclear armed submarines from their base in Scotland to the North Atlantic.
However, in recent years the fleet of 13 vessels has also been used to keep open the shipping lanes in the Gulf, through which one fifth of the world’s oil is carried.
The area has been a flashpoint for decades and the politics of the region remains intricate and finely poised. Britain has friends here, more since America’s pivot to Asia has left many Gulf states questioning the commitment of the United States to this region. But old enmities persist.
“Iran assumes the UK is behind everything that goes wrong for them,” says Prof Michael Clarke of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).
“They use the Gulf as a tap to turn on the tension and indicate their degree of co-operation [with the international community].”
Britain’s contribution to the 33-nation Combined Maritime Forces based in Bahrain helps ensure safe passage from the Suez Canal to the Indian Ocean.
Delivering world-leading mine survey, detection and destruction capabilities, the sonars on the minehunters can distinguish objects as small as tin cans. Minehunter hulls are made of glass reinforced plastic instead of steel. It makes for quieter running and enables the crews to detect magnetic waves and acoustic pulses.
When a suspicious object has been identified, the crew release Seafox, a
‘It’s a very volatile region. And we’re sailing 8,000 tons of Britain right through the middle of it’
drone that can identify mines and place an explosive charge. The drone relays everything it sees back on board to assess whether the target is a mine, rock or piece of debris.
Royal Navy ships have been present in the Omani deep-water port of Duqm to take part in the maritime phase of Exercise Saif Sareea 3, one of the largest international military exercises in the world. As part of the exercise, 5,000 British military personnel join 65,000 Omani troops in practising desert warfare.
Duqm port, the offloading point, has 1.2 mile-long jetties abutting very deep water. Were Britain’s new aircraft carriers to be required to come this way in the future, Duqm is one of a very small number of places where they could berth.
The point is not lost on the Omanis. Outside the port, heading towards the month-old international airport, wooden signs announce “education zone” or “health zone” to the empty expanse of rocky desert.
This place will never draw the tourists like Dubai, but it seeks to attract huge investment and become an economic hub. China has already signed up.
For Britain’s part, the attractions of a military staging post such as Duqm are clear. Here, Royal Navy ships can loiter with the capability to interdict shipping, raid ashore or provide humanitarian relief to a disaster zone.
This is the Royal Navy in 2018: on operations every day of the year, employing hard and soft power. It is not problem-free: tours at sea are generally longer than in the past to make best use of the limited number of personnel, and serviceability of an ageing fleet is a concern.
But there is also cause for optimism. The minehunters, “Britain’s Tupperware warriors”, in the words of their commander, are the envy of the world. Maintaining trade routes in the face of regular provocation, they offer an example of how shared risk and enterprise can be mutually beneficial in an arena far from home.
Ensuring a naval commitment in the face of these dynamics is costly and dangerous, but according to Cdr Ashley Spencer, head of the Mine Counter Measures fleet: “We can’t afford not to.”