JAKARTA - Six British Royal Navy Type 45 destroyers have been grounded, at a time of heightened tensions with Russia on the Ukrainian border.
The guided-missile destroyer has been plagued by engine problems since launch, with ships in the class now undergoing a power upgrade (PIP) project.
Announced in 2018, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said it was intended to "provide a robust solution to the force and propulsion problems observed in the Type 45".
The Defense Choice Committee warned in December 2021, "the low availability of British Type 45 destroyers and recognized problems in their propulsion systems are a major cause of concern," quoted from The National News 9 February.
HMS Dragon (D35) was seen entering the HMNB Portsmouth Naval base on Monday, joined by HMS Defender (D36), Diamond (D34) and Duncan (D37.
Meanwhile, HMS Dauntless (D33) and Daring (D32) docked at Birkenhead, receiving modifications as part of the PIP. However, HMS Defender and HMS Diamond 'can still sail' as long as they are together.
Tom Sharpe, a former Royal Navy commander, said availability was "unlikely to improve in the near future".
"It's about alliances versus redundancy. On the one hand, that we have allies that we can plan and then call on to prove surface-to-air coverage is good," he said.
"On the other hand, our fleet is now so thin that the adoption of key set-pieces like CSG21 (Carrier Strike Group 21) reducing subsequent availability to zero, is clearly bad. This is also unlikely to improve any time soon, despite promises to increase spending and quantity stomach."
"Playing a song about what constitutes availability, or worse, switching to 'if there's a war, we can jump' doesn't improve how tense things are and how hard the Navy is made to work to manage it," he said.
Meanwhile, Vice Admiral Sir Chris Gardner told the Defense Choice Committee in November 2021, the six ships would be deformed by 2028.
He also confirmed that HMS Diamond while deploying with HMS Queen Elizabeth in July 2021, experienced "one of the gas turbine failures and we had to replace it".
"The inability of any of our six Type 45 Destroyers to go to sea is a reflection of how small our surface fleet is," criticized Defense Choice Committee Chairman Tobias Ellwood.
"Our world is becoming more dangerous no less. The operational task for our surface fleet is increasing not decreasing."
"As our recent Defense Selection Committee report concluded, our Navy will soon become too small to defend our interests and face emerging threats."
"We must seriously consider doubling the size of our maritime power if our hardened powers are to stay ahead of the emerging challenges to our security and access to international waters that are so critical to our economy."
"The Royal Navy meets all of its operational requirements, managing ships across the fleet at various readiness levels in the usual way. The Type 45 is a world class Destroyer and an important part of the Navy's Carrier Strike capability, making a major contribution to the defense of the UK and our partners, "said a representative of the Royal Navy.
For information, Western countries led by the United States are worried that Russia is preparing to attack Ukraine. Meanwhile, Moscow said it was not planning an invasion, but could take unspecified "military-technical measures" unless a number of security demands were met, including a pledge from Nato never to recognize Kyiv.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
