HMS Queen Elizabeth: Ex Royal Navy commander urges defence secretary to deploy Portsmouth carrier to Red Sea

Tom Sharpe is urging defence secretary Grant Shapps to “get the carrier out of the door” following the continued threat to merchant vessels from Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. Mr Sharpe told Forces News: “Make that part of the conversation. Don't see it as escalation. I sense from the Foreign Office, perhaps, they're not quite sure how to do this without showing signs of escalation. That, to me, is a failure to understand how carrier operations work. You've got to get them out the door.”

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The former officer added that HMS Queen Elizabeth is a “very high-readiness carrier” and should be deployed when appropriate. “If not now when,” Mr Sharpe said. He added that despite this need, any operation involving the 65,000 tonne aircraft carrier would need to be carefully considered. Militants have been firing missiles at commercial ships in the Gulf which they believe are trading at Israeli ports.

Houthis in Yemen are taking the action in an effort to destabilise Israel amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza. US military helicopters got into gunfight with four armed Houthi boats after they fired of the Singapore-flagged Maersk Hangzhou container vessel on Saturday.

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Portsmouth-based destroyer HMS Diamond is already in the Red Sea and part of Operation Prosperity Guardian alongside American and French forces. The Royal Navy ship shot down a suspected attack drone in December using her sea viper missile. As previously reported in The News, the government is not sending more assets to the Red Sea.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman said: “In terms of other military assets, there are not currently any plans to send additional assets over and above what we already have in the region.” He added that ministers are “committed to holding malign actors accountable for unlawful seizures and attacks”.

“These attacks are unacceptable, they are destabilising,” the spokesman said. “The UK is part of Operation Prosperity Guardian, which is the taskforce working in the region, and we have other assets available.” Mr Shapps previously condemned one of the attacks – on the Bahamas-flagged Unity Explorer, owned by a UK company – stating it was “outrageous” and “unlawful”.