Category Archives: Royal Navy

Russian ambassador claims UK involved in drone attack on Black Sea fleet

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Andrei Kelin says Britain ‘too deep in this conflict’ as speculation grows over Russian withdrawal from Kherson region

The Russian ambassador to the UK has claimed UK special forces were involved in a Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow’s Black Sea fleet.

Andrei Kelin told Sky News: “We perfectly know about [the] participation of British specialists in [the] training, preparation and execution of violence against the Russian infrastructure and the Russian fleet in the Black Sea. We know that it has been done.”

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Royal Navy chief orders inquiry into ‘abhorrent’ allegations of bullying and sexual harassment

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Whistleblowers allege abuse suffered by female recruits included compilation of a ‘crush depth rape list’ by submariners

The head of the Royal Navy has ordered an investigation into “abhorrent” allegations of inappropriate behaviour in the submarine service and declared that sexual assault and harassment has no place in the fleet.

It follows claims from whistleblowers who have made harrowing allegations of bullying, misogyny and sexual harassment suffered by female members.

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UK’s defective Nato flagship could miss ‘landmark’ flight trials

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HMS Prince of Wales retreats to Solent for repairs after propeller malfunction, risking cross-Atlantic date with allies

Britain’s biggest warship could miss important flight trials with jets off the US coast after it suffered a propeller shaft malfunction shortly after setting sail, the Royal Navy has said.

HMS Prince of Wales, a £3bn aircraft carrier, left Portsmouth naval base on Saturday and suffered an “emerging mechanical issue” off the south-east coast of the Isle of Wight.

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Tens of thousands of asylum seekers could be sent to Rwanda, says Johnson

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PM insists east African country is safe and scheme will prove ‘very considerable deterrent’

Tens of thousands of unauthorised migrants who seek sanctuary in the UK will be flown more than 4,000 miles to Rwanda under a new set of immigration policies, Boris Johnson has said.

The prime minister insisted at a press conference that the African state, criticised last year by the UK for its human rights record, was one of the safest countries in the world. He also announced that the Royal Navy would take over patrolling the Channel to intercept small boats from France.

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Experts raise doubts over plan for Royal Navy to control Channel crossings

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Exclusive: Critical defence select committee report to come amid growing Tory unease over No 10’s plan

The credibility of the government’s plan to put the Royal Navy in charge of coordinating efforts to control small boats in the Channel is expected to be questioned by an influential parliamentary committee.

A report by the defence select committee, to be delivered shortly, will raise doubts over whether plans to put the Royal Navy in charge have been rigorously tested.

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Priti Patel says Macron ‘absolutely wrong’ over Channel crossings

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Home secretary rebuffs French claim UK immigration policy encourages people to risk dangerous journey

Priti Patel, the home secretary, has said Emmanuel Macron is wrong to say the UK’s immigration policy is encouraging people to risk their lives crossing the Channel from France.

In a further escalation of the row between the two countries, Patel has dismissed claims by the French president that Britain’s immigration system favours clandestine migration and does not allow for asylum seekers to seek legal ways into the country.

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Trident submariner who died at base named as Stephen Cashman

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Engineering technician was stationed at Faslane and worked on a vessel that carried UK’s nuclear deterrent

A 25-year-old Trident submariner who died in unexplained circumstances at the Faslane naval base on Thursday has been named as engineering technician Stephen Cashman by the Royal Navy.

Police Scotland is continuing to investigate the sudden death, first reported to officers at 12.30pm on Thursday, which is believed to have taken place in the barracks at the base for Britain’s nuclear deterrent.

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UK takes part in huge French naval exercise to counter ‘emerging threats’

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France’s top naval commander cites ‘rapid rearmament’ of China and Russia as danger to maritime security

France’s most senior naval commander has said future conflicts are likely to be fought at sea and in the cybersphere, citing the “rapid rearmament” of countries such as China as a potential threat.

Adm Pierre Vandier made his comments after the French Marine Nationale and forces from five allied countries, including the UK, took part in what he described as a unique two-week exercise intended to prepare for “composite threats”.

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UK says it has no plans for South China Sea confrontation after Beijing warning

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Naval strike group is sailing through waters heavily contested between China and neighbouring countries

Britain has said it has no plans to stage a naval confrontation with China in the South China Sea and that it aims to send its carrier strike group in the most direct route across the contested body of water from Singapore to the Philippine Sea.

The cooling message emerged hours after China’s military and state media warned the UK against provocation as the group, led by Royal Navy aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth, undertakes what had been expected to be a more assertive deployment.

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Britain acknowledges surprise at speed of Russian reaction to warship

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Kremlin summons UK ambassador as Boris Johnson says HMS Defender’s deployment ‘wholly appropriate’

British officials acknowledged they were taken by surprise by the speed of the Russian reaction to HMS Defender’s 36-minute passage through Crimean waters on Wednesday as the British ambassador to Moscow was summoned to the Kremlin.

Although a Russian response to the Royal Navy warship’s passage within the 12-mile territorial limit was anticipated, the UK Ministry of Defence did not expect the Kremlin to speedily declare that warning shots had been fired.

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UK-Russian naval dispute: both sides will claim victory

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Analysis: Royal Navy ship sailing near Crimea may also be test of Beijing reaction to territorial reach

British ministers will have been under no illusions that the decision to sail HMS Defender into disputed waters off the coast of Russian-annexed Crimea would provoke a reaction from the Kremlin.

A dispute about whether warning shots were fired or not is beside the point – although if they were, they were miles out of range. Because even if the west considers Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, to be still part of Ukraine, the Russians do not and will act accordingly.

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Royal Navy ship off Crimea sparks diplomatic row between Russia and UK

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MoD and Moscow disagree over whether shots were fired at destroyer near disputed territory

Britain was unexpectedly embroiled in a diplomatic and military dispute with Russia on Wednesday after Royal Navy destroyer HMS Defender briefly sailed through territorial waters off the coast of the disputed territory of Crimea.

The warship sailed for about an hour in the morning within the 12-mile limit off Cape Fiolent on a direct route between the Ukrainian port of Odesa and Georgia, prompting Russian complaints and a disagreement about whether warning shots were fired.

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French fishers’ protest over Jersey rights is over but the dispute will go on

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New restrictions and deep cuts to allowances mean both French and Jersey boat owners feel betrayed by Brexit

Dawn was still four hours away and the small Normandy port of Carteret was alive, some boats hurriedly unloading their catch for a rapid turnaround, others turning on their lights and firing up their engines for the first time that night.

Minutes after 3am on Thursday they had left the quayside and, in pitch darkness and a gentle swell, were pushing smartly out to sea to join a growing armada of 60-odd boats from Cherbourg right the way round to St-Malo.

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Why Britain is tilting to the Indo-Pacific region

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Critics warn of imperial fantasy but the economic and political forces pulling the UK back to the region are real

Some will call it a tilt, others a rebalancing and yet others a pivot but, either way, the new big idea due to emerge from the government’s foreign and defence policy review on Tuesday will be the importance of the Indo-Pacific region – a British return east of Suez more than 50 years after the then defence secretary Denis Healey announced the UK’s cash-strapped retreat in 1968.

Boris Johnson and his admirals are billing the focus on a zone stretching through some of the world’s most vital seaways east from India to Japan and south from China to Australia as Britain stepping out in the world after 47 years locked in the EU’s protectionist cupboard. Others warn Johnson is indulging a hubristic and militarily dangerous imperial fantasy.

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British soldiers sacked for being gay can get their medals back

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Campaigners say veterans should also get compensation for injustice they suffered and pensions restored

Thousands of British military personnel who were dismissed because they were homosexual will be able to have their service medals restored if they had been taken away when they were kicked out of the armed forces.

Gay rights campaigners welcomed the move as the “first step on a journey” but said that issues such as enduring criminal records, lost pension rights and still blemished service records now needed to be dealt with by the Ministry of Defence.

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Four navy ships to help protect fishing waters in case of no-deal Brexit

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Exclusive: two vessels to be deployed at sea with two on standby in case EU fishing boats enter EEZ

Four Royal Navy patrol ships will be ready from 1 January to help the UK protect its fishing waters in the event of a no-deal Brexit, in a deployment evoking memories of the “cod wars” in the 1970s.

The 80-metre-long armed vessels would have the power to halt, inspect and impound all EU fishing boats operating within the UK’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which can extend 200 miles from shore.

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Seven men bailed following suspected hijack of oil tanker off Isle of Wight

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Nigerians arrested after SBS stormed Nave Andromeda are still detained by Border Force

Seven Nigerian men detained after British special services stormed an oil tanker off the Isle of Wight have been bailed, police have said.

The raid was carried out by around 16 members of the Special Boat Service (SBS), backed by airborne snipers, who secured the Nave Andromeda tanker in around nine minutes.

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Military dog Kuno to receive UK’s highest honour for animals

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Three-year-old Belgian shepherd malinois saved lives by tackling an al-Qaida gunman

A retired British military dog is to receive a medal for valour after he was injured in action while tackling an al-Qaida gunman.

Kuno will receive the PDSA Dickin Medal in a virtual ceremony in November, giving him the highest honour for military animal valour.

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Boris Johnson says crossing Channel in small boats ‘dangerous and criminal’

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PM hints at law change to make it easier to deport people who make dangerous voyage

Boris Johnson has branded attempts by people to cross the Channel in small boats as a “very bad and stupid and dangerous and criminal thing to do” and hinted at changing the law to make it easier to deport such arrivals.

Meanwhile, a French politician has warned that the UK’s decision to send in the Royal Navy “won’t change anything”, and a former Home Office official has said he was sceptical of the plans.

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RAF jets to roar over UK to mark 75th anniversary of VE Day

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Boris Johnson urges nation to unite in tribute as celebrations are adapted owing to Covid-19

RAF jets will roar over Britain to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, as Boris Johnson urged the nation to unite in tribute to the achievement and sacrifice of the wartime generation.

The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall will lead a two-minute silence from Scotland on a day of celebration and commemoration which also includes a “national toast”, an address by the Queen, and a nationwide sing-a-long of Vera Lynn’s We’ll Meet Again.

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