Last weekend, Iran, or possibly one of its proxies on the Mediterranean shore, launched two attacks at British sovereign territory: RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. The first salvo fell short, the second, possibly a single drone, hit. Thankfully there were no casualties and damage was minimal.
To be clear, British sovereign territory has been attacked and remains under threat. The response? Very slow. (From: The Telegraph, London.)
Finally, Britain has have decided to send a destroyer. These ships cost more than £1bn each to build, for the express purpose of providing area air defence. Despite early teething problems, and the fact that most of them are in dock, these ships are now good at this. HMS Dragon acted as goalkeeper for Cyprus in 2013 during the Syrian crisis. HMS Diamond and Duncan have done air defence since. It is a core task. Why didn’t we get a destroyer out there ages ago?
Likewise, our one working nuclear-powered attack submarine HMS Anson, comfortably our best land-attack asset, sailed gaily past all this a couple of weeks ago en route to Australia as part of the AUKUS build up. Why don’t we call the Aussies, tell them we have a bit of a job on that will delay that prep work for a month or so, and would they like to send a couple of observers aboard the boat?
It is hard to overstate how useful Anson would be in the Gulf of Oman just now even if we never pluck up the courage to fire back at someone who just shot at us.
What about our up-and-ready aircraft carrier? The French are sending theirs. HMS Prince of Wales is currently preparing for operations in the High North. That’s important, but we could send her to the Mediterranean where she could sit under the USS Ford’s protective umbrella and help out defensively oroffensively. The Ford, reportedly, doesn’t yet have F-35 stealth fighters: ours could be useful.
The Cyprus strike took place when we were in the “neither confirming nor denying” phase regarding the use of our bases for the war against Iran. Watching the Defence Secretary, a good man, having to duck this really basic question, was utterly tragic. The second took place after the combined wisdom of the No 10 communications machine decided that the best way to inform the public that our stance had now changed – to a still tepid, “defensive use only” – was to make the PM do a piece to camera, looking like someone was holding an actual gun to his head.
You can probably work out what my stance is on whether or not we should be involved in this current campaign against our worst enemy in that entire region. With that aside, there is another question to answer. How did we allow a sovereign air base inside a known threat bubble during a shooting war to get hit?
Two recent things illustrate both the woeful state we are in and the mindset that keeps us there, despite threats increasing on every hand.
The first was a retired senior officer advising online that everyone stay calm because the drone that hit RAF Akrotiri was small and didn’t cause any damage. If you have learnt your helplessness over decades of being in a shrinking organisation where your best chance of advancement is not to fight it, then “nothing to see here, Minister” is the way to do it. How one wishes for a modern-day Admiral Sir Henry Leach – the man who convinced Margaret Thatcher to retake the Falklands – striding purposefully into No 10 to suggest we send the destroyer post-haste, recall the submarine and let’s discuss the carrier. Today he would probably be arrested for a hate crime.
The second was the image of US 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain having just been hit, taken from the bridge wing of the recently decommissioned HMS Lancaster tied up alongside. It really is impeccable timing. The 5th Fleet HQ is also the home to our UK regional headquarters which was 100 yards from the missile strike. On another day, this could have worked out very differently, leading to all sorts of questions about why we still have a senior commander and a staff there at all given that the only operational naval unit we have there now is a single minehunter – and she is soon to depart for good.
Defence is in a bind. As a country, we have two weeks of energy and a week of food; facts that were largely ignored by the Strategic Defence Review last year. The Defence Investment Plan, which is set to actually give costs and budgeting on the review is yet to be seen nine months later. All we know is that it has caused a ruckus with the Treasury, and that there is not enough money to do what the Review says. We can be sure that there will be pain and grief when the details are finally published – perhaps including delays or cancellation for HMS Lancaster’s replacement.
There are literally hundreds of defensive and offensive systems we could procure now if the money and drive were there. Neither is: though there is, of course, money for gold-plated job creation schemes that might yield useful weapons in the far future.
Meanwhile our bases get hit and we do nothing, because we lack the leadership and confidence to know whether we should even be present at all. We need to wake up and take action now before it’s forced upon us and costs more. Today, right now, that day is getting closer.
*Tom Sharpe OBE served for 27 years as a Royal Navy officer, commanding four different warships.
