The Royal Navy’s contribution to the recent Libyan campaign was thus an expression of modern sea power – flexible, hi-tech, indispensable and in today’s jargon, a unique source of both hard and soft power. Sixteen warships and Royal Fleet Auxiliaries were deployed. The first task was the rescue by the frigates Cumberland and York of some six hundred civilians, both British and foreign, as well as landing medical and food supplies to agencies in Benghazi. Cumberland was returning from the Persian Gulf to be de-commissioned under Defence Review plans while York was diverted from her passage to the South Atlantic.

 

Harder sea power was exercised by the early, stealthy presence of the nuclear attack submarines Triumph and Turbulent which with the US launched salvoes of Tomahawk cruise missiles against Ghaddafi’s air defence missile sites, helping to make the sky safe for Nato strike aircraft. By Day 3 – 21st March – all fixed anti-aircraft missile sites were neutralised and, using the capabilities of US electronic surveillance, intelligence gathering and target-indicating assets, Nato aircraft, which included the RAF’s gallant Tornadoes and Typhoons, started the process of eliminating the regime’s capability to oppress its own citizens.

 

President Obama having decided to keep a low national profile, the US navy did not deploy a large aircraft carrier, but the US Marine Corps used AV-8B Harrier jump-jets from the USS Kearsage assault ship. Britain was unable to use its own Harrier aircraft because they had been withdrawn from operational service by October 2010’s Defence Review. France and Italy also used their carriers.

 

However, for the first time, Army Air Corps Apache gunship helicopters joined the force embarked in the helicopter carrier Ocean. The air group commander, Jolyon Woodard, said: “The challenges of integrating the Apache into the naval air group and the Ocean were fewer than we anticipated. With an outstanding team of detachment commanders combined with a well drilled ship’s air department, we faced down pretty much everything that came our way. Thus I could relax, look busy and take all the glory”. Escorted by Fleet Air Arm Sea Kings, Apaches attacked 107 targets and flew as far as 50 miles inland, averaging about an hour’s flying time per target. Here once more is the well-worn argument; a moveable deck in international waters does not need the proximity of a friendly country, basing rights, overflying rights, Status of Forces Agreements, ‘boots on the ground’ sensitivities and hugely expensive in-flight refuelling.

 

Meanwhile several Royal Navy destroyers and frigates patrolled the coast to enforce the embargo on arms sales in accordance with UN Security Council Resolutions, a well-practised activity which involved countering attacks by armed small boats and boarding and inspecting merchant vessels. Command and landing ship Albion carried a contingent of Royal Marines in case of need.

 

During her 147 days of operations close to the enemy coast, the destroyer Liverpool, with for periods the frigates Iron Duke and Sutherland, came under fire on ten occasions and with her phenomenally accurate gunnery system, fired more rounds at shore batteries than any British warship since the Falklands War thirty years ago. “It was very humbling to see my young ship’s company working so calmly and quietly” said Commander Colin Williams; “There was no jingoism, no shouting, the atmosphere was cool and professional”.

 

When enemy forces were spotted laying mines off the port of Misrata, threatening the flow of humanitarian aid and evacuation of civilians, the minehunters Brocklesby and Bangor painstakingly cleared them using their mine detection and destruction systems. World-wide, coastal waters and major ports are inevitably in water shallow enough for ground mines; mine countermeasures is a particular Royal Navy expertise.

 

Invaluable logistic support was provided by stores ship Fort Rosalie and tankers Wave Knight and Orangeleaf.

 

Libya was conducted over and above the regular drumbeat of naval operations around the globe; ships, helicopter and submarines are on operations east of Suez from the Horn of Africa to the Persian Gulf, providing reassurance and security; the multi-national anti-piracy campaign now has 1200 Somali pirates incarcerated or awaiting trial; from April to October, 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines was deployed in command of Helmand, with the percentage of naval personnel serving in Afghanistan peaking at 25%; ships are on patrol in the North and South Atlantic; and somewhere out there, in its 43rd year, is our guard against a ‘break-out’ from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.