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The Royal Navy destroyer HMS Dragon departed Portsmouth on Tuesday afternoon for the eastern Mediterranean after six days of hasty preparation and a week after its deployment was announced by the prime minister.
The warship is expected to take between five and seven days to arrive off the coast of Cyprus, where it will be able to defend against drone and missile attacks from Iran or its proxies in Lebanon or Iraq.
Its departure came as the Lyme Bay, an auxiliary vessel with medical and aviation capabilities, was on heightened readiness in Gibraltar in case it is needed to support any humanitarian efforts in the Middle East.
There is still no immediate expectation that the UK will participate in any naval convoy to protect oil tankers crossing the strait of Hormuz because British military chiefs believe the US and Israel’s war against Iran is too intense for now.
On Monday, Emmanuel Macron said France would help set up a “purely defensive, purely escort mission”, ready to help provide safe passage when the worst of the fighting came to a close.
The French president said he hoped European and non-European states would help with the escort of containers and tankers through the strait, which has been largely shut since the US and Israel started attacks against Iran on 28 February.
There has been no immediate sign of the fighting abating, while the US position on convoying has so far been confused.
The White House said the US military was drawing up additional options to keep the strait of Hormuz open. Karoline Leavitt, the White House spokesperson, said Donald Trump had offered for the US navy “to escort tankers when necessary”.
The UK believes that only a continued US military intervention would make the strait safe enough for ships to begin to pass through, because there remains a residual threat from Iranian drones and small ships operating in the Gulf.
Gen Dan Caine, the head of the US armed forces, said on Tuesday that 50 Iranian vessels had been knocked out in the war, which he described as “substantial progress” in destroying its navy. Efforts were being made “to hunt and strike mine laying vessels and mine storage facilities”, he added.
The British preference is for a de-escalation of the conflict, but RAF support could be provided on a defensive basis to protect civilian ships from the air. Officials said the UK would “play a role” in any operation to help make the strait safer once it was possible.
Keir Starmer spoke to the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, on Monday night about the blockade of Hormuz, saying they would “work closely together in the coming days in the face of Iranian threats”.
Although Dragon has been committed to the eastern Mediterranean and Lyme Bay is being prepared for a possible deployment, there are few other British warships that could be dispatched to the region if needed.
Earlier this week Downing Street played down reports that the Prince of Wales aircraft carrier could be dispatched amid reports that its readiness time had been cut to five days. Officials hinted it was due to be sent to the northern Atlantic as part of Nato commitments to patrol the Arctic.
At the time Dragon was selected for deployment, only two out of five other destroyers were considered available. HMS Anson, Britain’s only available nuclear-powered attack submarine, set sail from western Australia on Monday and could be heading to the Middle East.
John Healey, the UK defence secretary, said that HMS Dragon, which had to be hauled out of dry dock maintenance, had been readied by crews working day and night. “What is normally six weeks of work was completed in just six days – a remarkable effort delivered around the clock,” he said.
The announcement of the deployment of the ship came after a small Iranian-designed Shahed-type drone struck the runway of the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus shortly after midnight on 2 March. Two other drones were intercepted heading in the direction of the base the next day.
Critics have said the UK should have had a warship deployed in the eastern Mediterranean as it became clear the US was building up for a potential attack on Iran from late January. Trump also accused the UK of acting too late. “We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!” he posted on Sunday.
