Regards, Ivan
"Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, This was their finest hour." -- Winston Churchill, June 18, 1940
Posted on 12/14/2002 4:28:36 PM PST by MadIvan
The Royal Navy will dispatch a task force to the Gulf at the start of next month as Britain launches its military build-up to a war with Iraq.
The aircraft carrier Ark Royal will lead a six-vessel fleet that includes a destroyer, a frigate and a submarine. The ships will sail directly to the Middle East.
The deployment is the first British contribution to the military build-up in the region being assembled by the United States to confront Saddam Hussein.
An announcement on the sending of a ground force of about 20,000 British troops, led by a "light" armoured division, is expected within two weeks.
Senior military figures said yesterday that the naval task force would provide a vital part of Britain's contribution to a US-led war, which is expected in the spring.
One told The Telegraph: "This is really the guts of our naval commitments against Iraq. Ark Royal gives an obvious capacity and the destroyer and frigate will help guard all the ships in the region."
The ships are under preparation in Portsmouth, but will sail "imminently". Adam Ingram, the Armed Forces minister, said that the deployment demonstrated Britain's "continuing commitment to the security of the Gulf".
The fleet will include about 600 Royal Marines aboard Ark Royal, whose complement is 685 men and a further 366 aircrew.
The carrier has 16 Harriers and six helicopters. She will be guarded by Liverpool, a Type 42 destroyer, and Marlborough, a Duke Class frigate. All three will be supplied by two Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels, Fort Victoria and Orangeleaf.
Completing the fleet is an unnamed submarine. It is expected, as in the last Gulf war, to be equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles.
The official line is that the fleet is heading for Exercise Flying Fish, an international training event to be held in Malaysian waters next June. "It is true that this has been planned for some time but it is a very convenient cover," said one senior official.
In total about 2,600 military personnel will sail within the next few weeks. A "passage exercise" with the Egyptian navy is planned but the task force is expected to divert to the Gulf, a fortnight's sailing from Britain.
The fleet is smaller than that committed during the last conflict, in 1991. Then Britain had 19 vessels in the Gulf, including two destroyers, two frigates, five minehunters and 10 support ships.
Nevertheless the dispatch of the Naval Task Group, led by Rear-Adml David Snelson, Commander of the UK Maritime Force, contrasts with delays in sending the armoured division. Ministers have been warned that transporting Challenger tanks, refitted for desert warfare, could take eight weeks.
It means the deployment must be announced within a fortnight if the troops are to be in place by late February, a preferred time for an offensive.
Senior military officials last night appeared to blame the US for the delays, insisting that the scale of Britain's contribution had yet to be agreed with the Pentagon.
Regards, Ivan
Thanks for posting this MadIvan. Never ceases to amaze me the amount of support your country is giving the US. God bless you all!
The article says "early spring". I look for the attack to begin long before that. I have mid-January in the pool. I'll stick with it.
Leni
Yo, Ivan. Indeed it was your finest hour. My dad was there to see it. With friends like you, we hope the British Commonwealth does indeed last a thousand years.
Regards, Ivan
Transport of a UK armored division to Southwest Asia raises a question about UK strategic sealift capabilities. Unlike the 1990 buildup to Gulf War I, when everything had to be transported by sea, there is now the option of overland rail transport through the old USSR. So I wonder if the UK Ministry of Defence will take a cue from US Army logisticians, and redeploy elements of its British Army of the Rhine via rail. It's no secret that we have a three-star general running the rails with military gear behind the old Iron Curtain. 'Tis a new world, indeed...
Maybe they got lucky, but didn't a Type 42 take down a Silkworm during the Gulf War?
That's right, a silkworm was fired at the Missouri and it was shot down by HMS Gloucester which launched 2 Sea Dart missiles. Sea Darts are pretty good against sea skimmers, as they were extensively updated after the lessons learned in the Falklands campaign.
True, though at least a couple of the losses were due to the doctrines of the time, which were to keep radar turned off to avoid detection by the enemy. IIRC, HMS Sheffield didn't detect the incoming exocet until it was within visual range and by then it was too late to fire missiles. To be fair, it was the first time any navy had faced sea-skimmers in a true combat situation. No doubt the US navy also learned a lot from analysis of the combat in the Falklands, I know our lot certainly did!
The Brits are working on a replacement, the type 45
Should be a good replacement. More cruiser-weight than destroyer and the PAAMS system seems pretty tasty.
2. To my knowledge, the first ship sunk by anti-shipping missles was the Israeli destroyer, the Eilat. It was sunk by Russian made Styx missles in 1967. On 21 October 1967, two Arab boats sank Eilat with four Styx missiles in Tina Bay, thirteen miles off Port Said. http://www.nwc.navy.mil/press/Review/1997/autumn/s&d1-a97.htm
Should be a good replacement. More cruiser-weight than destroyer and the PAAMS system seems pretty tasty.
They Type 45 (http://www.type45.com/) seems a little limited. The PAAMS system is only for anti-aircraft missles, unlike the more versitile US VLS systems, which launch anti-aircraft missles and cruise missles.
I'm also interested to see the capabilities of the PAAMS/BAE SYSTEMS SAMPSON Multi-Functional Radar (MFR) vs. the America Aegis/SPY-1D combination in the Arleigh Burkes. Also use of the French Aster 15 and Aster 30 missiles is interesting. I wonder how these fare against the US block IV SM-2s or new SM-3s.
Oh well, I suppose this is classified.
The FSC, replavement for the Type 22 Frigate looks interesting.
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