Iran: Royal Navy considering whether to send Portsmouth destroyer HMS Duncan to Middle East amid hostilities
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The Royal Navy is deciding whether to send an air defence destroyer to the Middle East as hostilities refuse to subside.
National news outlets including The Independent and The Press Association have reported that the Portsmouth-based warship HMS Duncan may be deployed to the region. This comes after a kamikaze drone strike on RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus during the early hours of Monday (March 2).
No definitive decisions have been confirmed yet, with discussions being held as to how the armed forces should respond. A Daring-class air defence vessel is the most likely candidate for such an operation given the threats that British forces may face.
Given HMS Duncan’s recent activities, she is the most likely to be deployed. The warship recently completed an intense period of gunnery exercises off the coast of Wales, with the ship’s company being asked to battle “an onslaught of drones, aircraft and missiles” during Exercise Sharpshooter. She tracked and neutralised five aerial targets, while sinking two Hammerhead surface vessels.
Two other Type 45s are operational and can be activated. HMS Dauntless began a maintenance period last Friday (February 27), with HMS Dragon also being looked over by engineers. HMS Daring, Defender, and Diamond, are in the midst of Power Improvement Project (PIP) enhancements to restore their engines.
France is dispatching a frigate alongside anti-missile and anti-drone to Cyprus, the semi-official Cyprus News Agency has said. Sir Keir Starmer granted permission on Sunday for the US to use British bases for “defensive” strikes on Iran’s missile sites, a day after the launch of joint American-Israeli military action against Tehran over the weekend.
Hours afterwards, a drone hit RAF Akrotiri, a British sovereign air base on the island, though the Prime Minister said it was launched before his announcement and was not in retaliation. Defence secretary John Healey said there were no casualties and the damage to the base was minimal. The families of service personnel have been moved away from the base as a precaution.
On Monday, a spokesperson for the Cypriot government said two further unmanned drones heading towards the base had been intercepted. Mr Healey said the drone that struck Akrotiri was an example of the “dangerous and indiscriminate attacks” by Iran and its proxies.
Cypriot government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis spoke about the possibility of French support on Monday, telling reporters it could be “support similar to that of Greece”. French President Emmanuel Macron and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides had a phone call “in the context of strengthening the precautionary measures being taken”, he said.
Conflicts began after US-Israeli strikes over the weekend devastated parts of Iran, with the country’s supreme leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei being killed.