A British aircraft carrier may need assistance from another navy if it is deployed to the Middle East amid the conflict with Iran, which has placed British bases in the area at risk.
HMS Prince of Wales, one of the Royal Navy’s two aircraft carriers, has been placed on alert. The crew was told it should be ready to sail with only five days’ notice, according to The Daily Telegraph.
But a high-value warship such as an aircraft carrier never travels alone. A typical carrier escort group includes two to three destroyers or frigates and an attack submarine.
“However, with most of the Royal Navy’s major warships unavailable or undergoing maintenance, protection would probably need to be provided by allies such as France, the U.S. and other European countries,” the Telegraph reported.
The Royal Navy has six destroyers, but only the HMS Dragon is thought to be ready for deployment to the eastern Mediterranean to protect British bases in Cyprus.
Of the navy’s seven frigates, only the HMS Somerset and the HMS St. Albans are believed to be available for naval missions. The rest are undergoing maintenance or “struggling with defects,” the Telegraph reported.
British lawmaker James Cartlidge, who serves as the Conservative Party’s shadow defense secretary, said talk from Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government about putting an aircraft carrier on alert is a distraction from the most pressing concern.
“Why didn’t Starmer plan properly and move naval assets weeks ago, when a major U.S. operation was clearly coming?” Mr. Cartlidge told The Telegraph. “The truth is [the Labor Party] has prioritized welfare over defense, leaving an underfunded Ministry of Defense forced to make [$3.3 billion] in cuts this year.”
