There’s a war going on and the Royal Navy is heading into harm’s way again

Tom SharpeMon, May 11, 2026 at 3:09 PM UTC

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HMS Dragon - LPhot Helayna Birkett/UK MOD

In early March, HMS Dragon was being yanked unceremoniously out of dry dock in response to the latest round of hostilities in Iran. RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus had been struck and naval advice to sail our best asset for protecting against further attacks was finally heeded in Whitehall. The next available ship was being readied “at the rush”.

The Royal Navy’s greatest strength – to “make do and mend” – had finally been stretched beyond its elastic limit. Decades of under-resourcing and poor procurement decisions were exposed for all to see. In the time it took our decision-makers to start pointing fingers and working out who was to blame, the French Navy redirected up to 10 ships, including a fully formed carrier strike group, into the Mediterranean – some of which were directed to protect our base there.

Strategic embarrassment aside, the Strait of Hormuz was already under Iranian control at this stage and whilst the Government was getting itself in a twist over whether or not the US could use our airbases or not, whilst saying “this isn’t our war”, the spike in oil prices and looming energy crisis made it clear that it soon would be whether we liked it or not. Dragon was pretty much all we had to send, and we could only send her to one place at a time. Would she stay near Cyprus, or head through Suez to defend trade in the Strait of Hormuz?

Merlin Mk4 delivers stores to HMS Dragon - LPhot Helayna Birkett/UK MOD

Now we have the answer: Hormuz, or its vicinity. For what it’s worth, I believe that is the right call, even though it isn’t at all clear what she or the French will be doing there. I’ll come back to that.

To all intents and purposes, Hormuz remains closed to international shipping, with both Iran and the US violently enforcing their respective blockades. Just yesterday an Iranian drone struck a cargo ship off Qatar and last week the US introduced strafing with cannon fire from its F/A-18 fighters as a tactic for stopping ships. Neither side is backing down and negotiations to break the stalemate are not going well. Qatar is playing an increasingly active role.

Meanwhile the notion of a multinational taskforce, into which HMS Dragon would fit, continues to gather momentum. This started on April 17 with the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, and President Macron. The idea is a coalition of 30-plus countries on a “strictly defensive multinational mission”.

By May 6, satellite pictures of the French carrier strike group centred on the carrier Charles de Gaulle appeared showing the group through Suez and in the northern Red Sea. Three days later, we announced that Dragon would likewise head through. Read into those timings what you will.

Charles de Gaulle deploys to the Red Sea

Either way, there is now a second dilemma for HMS Dragon: scoot through now and plug into the French group with whom she will most likely be operating, or hang back and wait for the fleet auxiliary RFA Lyme Bay’s conversion to mine countermeasures mothership to be complete, and escort her through the Red Sea and towards the danger.

There are pros and cons to each.

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Joining a strike group takes time. Communications, link and data systems all need to be aligned, as do warfare operating procedures, refuelling schedules, rules of engagement and at a more basic level, trust. Type 45s have a good track record of contributing to the French strike groups with their radar (in particular) adding value, but the last time Dragon did this was October 2023 and such is the rate of personnel rotation, there will be no corporate memory of that left onboard. So you tap into fleet experience. Get some training staff onboard who have done it and ideally an exchange officer from the carrier herself and you start building. Given where they are heading, the sooner this starts the better. This option also has the advantage of the French strike group having its own tanker from which Dragon can refuel.

It’s a capable strike group. In addition to the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, it has the destroyer Chevalier Paul, two FREMM frigates, a tanker and most likely a nuclear-powered attack submarine somewhere on a long leash. They are joined by the Royal Netherlands Navy’s HNLMS Evertsen and Italian Navy frigate ITS Alpino. Add HMS Dragon to this mix and you have a genuinely powerful force.

Officers on HMS Dragon - LPhot Helayna Birkett

The flip side of joining the group now is who looks after Lyme when she comes through? As a large amphibious ship, she is essentially undefended. In an ideal world she would be ready now and they could all go together, but it doesn’t sound as though her conversion is progressing quickly. So does Dragon stay back and wait for Lyme, in which case she will be late to the French group and would also need someone to refuel her, or does she head off now, and leave the protection of Lyme to someone else, most likely the US Navy. And let’s not forget the risk involved in getting past the Houthis in the Red Sea. They are quiet for now, but the Iranians have a lot of influence with them. The Houthis aren’t a problem for a British destroyer, but they could be for an unarmed amphib.

For our planners, it’s like being asked to play a piano concerto with two fingers – not easy. And all this before we consider political pressures here in Europe and from the US.

Irrespective of HMS Dragon, RFA Lyme and even FS Charles de Gaulle’s movements between the Mediterranean, Red Sea and Gulf of Oman, the question of what they might actually do on arrival remains.

The idea of opening Hormuz while the Iranians are still shooting is for the birds. A group of US destroyers went through last week, but they had to shoot their way through Iranian attacks and it’s not a sustainable situation for convoying merchantmen – not unless the merchantmen are willing to accept Second World War levels of sinkings, anyway.

But then if a proper, permanent ceasefire comes and Tehran declares Hormuz open, merchant vessels will start moving again of their own accord and there is no need for a massive coalition force. Besides, Iran is showing no sign of relinquishing its half of the blockade, and this coalition won’t change that.

Nevertheless, it’s still right to get what we have into position, because then if things change you at least have some options. At a political level we Brits have forgotten this – a combination of having very little naval experience in Government but also not having enough ships up and ready. Or as we found in early March, any at all.

Overall, our Navy is responding to this global issue as it should. It has been painfully slow, but sending a destroyer to the Mediterranean and beyond, recalling our working attack submarine from Australia, getting Lyme Bay out of extended readiness and fitting her with our nascent mine countermeasure capabilities are all good options. I personally would have sent our aircraft carrier to support the eastern Mediterranean at least – or to join the French strike group, making it a major force and actually acting up to our weight – but that is a close call given Nato commitments in the North Atlantic. It’s back to playing the piano with only two fingers again.

It’s right to head towards the problems. The ships can always come back.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”