Q-ship Society

Odin's Eye Extra: What fate the once proud British frigate HMS Lancaster, marooned in a decommissioned state in Bahrain, where the US 5th Fleet HQ and nearby naval support facility (wherein the ship lies) are said to be under Iranian missile attack? The plight of the Duke Class (Type 23) warship is emblematic of a current (and also previous) UK Govt having no serious interest in naval matters, or it would not also have discarded the LPDs (and the concept of having a littoral group in that part of the world ready to evacuate British citizens). Or allowed Britain's once world-leading mine warfare capabilities (useful in past war for keeping shipping lanes free of mines) to degrade further. The UK Govt, which has allowed frigate after frigate to pay off years before new ones are commissioned, was relaxed about seeing off another in Bahrain, without the expense or trouble of getting the vessel home. It also seems unconcerned about not having replaced the RFA Argus as a Primary Casualty Reception Ship and not vexed either by no RFA Diligence-style forward battle damage repair vessel (in case shore bases become untenable - there again if you have no naval presence there's nothing to get damaged). Not that the Royal Fleet Auxiliary as a whole is of much importance, or so it seems - a service the UK Govt is content to see degrade and become inactive due to strikes by its personnel over pay and conditions. The message on the proper use and deployment of naval power even in a defensive respect is clear. No clue. No care. And the new war in the Middle East will once again expose that fact. The UK knows how to send a few fighter jets to Cyprus and the Middle East, and that is about it. You are on your own UK citizens in the firing line - with the airports and bases under missile blitz, crack on with begging for a place on someone else's ship (or just hunker down)! Britain in 2006 still evacuated its citizens by sea from war zones - using some of the very vessels that have now been binned.