Don't send a carrier just for the sake of it, former Royal Navy commodore warns
While Royal Navy flagship HMS Prince of Wales is in a high state of readiness, she should not necessarily be sent to the Eastern Mediterranean, a former Royal Navy officer has warned.
Commodore (Ret'd) Steve Prest told BFBS Forces News the purpose of a carrier like HMS Prince of Wales or her sister ship HMS Queen Elizabeth is to conduct strike operations against targets.
HMS Dragon, in contrast, is a Type 45 air defence destroyer – a warship designed for the task in hand.
Defence rather than attack
Cdre Prest explained: "So if we wanted to join in attacks against targets... in Iran itself, or if we thought there was a threat from Iranian proxies in, say, Lebanon, and we wanted to engage those sorts of targets from the air, then the carrier strike option might be a useful addition to what's already out there.
"But of course, we have an air base in Akrotiri where the Air Force are well practised using a variety of platforms that are delivering missions in that part of the world.
"And of course, the Israelis are busy wading into Lebanon.
"So whether a carrier will offer us any utility for the thing we're trying to achieve in this circumstance is part of the judgments about whether it's worth sending one or not."
Choosing the appropriate platform
He said of HMS Dragon: "Actually, the mission that we're sending the destroyer out to conduct is an air defence mission.
"It's an air defence mission – it's an anti-air and anti-missile mission, and therefore the destroyer is the appropriate platform to do it.
"And the answer isn't just a carrier for a carrier's sake. They've got plenty of other things that they're doing.
"They're working up in their programme to do a whole bunch of other stuff for Nato. And so why would you disrupt that?
"Because there is still a war going on in Europe, of course, and Russia is still a threat."
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