U.K. navy decided to keep 2 warships forward-deployed Indo-Pacific tilt

 

U.K. navy decided to keep 2 warships forward-deployed Indo-Pacific tilt

 

   Two British warships, the HMS Tamar and HMS Spey, are on a five-year deployment to the Indo-Pacific. Instead of the ships periodically returning to the U.K., the Royal Navy has decided to keep the ships forward-deployed for the whole duration and rotate their crews. From Tonga to Bangladesh, the vessels have been making port calls across the region, demonstrating a permanent presence.
 
From the cost of flying the crews back and forth to the diesel that the ships guzzle, as well as the fees the Royal Navy pays dockyards in Japan, Singapore and Hawaii for maintenance, the bill is significant. Yet the Royal Navy's highest-ranking admiral says the operation fits Britain's national interests.
 
"We consider that cost to be a price absolutely worth paying, for the signals we want to send and the obligations that we feel out here," First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff Ben Key told Nikkei Asia in an interview aboard the Tamar.
 
"We can't expect America to be the world's policeman, by any stretch of the imagination. We all have an obligation to protect free and open oceans," he said. That burden-sharing includes the joint operations of submarines under the AUKUS agreement, together with Australia.