The Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) is a naval auxiliary fleet owned by the UK's Ministry of Defence. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service and provides logistical and operational support to the Royal Navy and Royal Marines. The RFA ensures the Royal Navy is supplied and supported by providing fuel and stores through replenishment at sea, transporting Royal Marines and British Army personnel, providing medical care and transporting equipment and essentials around the world. In addition the RFA acts independently providing humanitarian aid, counter piracy and counter narcotic patrols together with assisting the Royal Navy in preventing conflict and securing international trade. They are a uniformed civilian branch of the Royal Navy staffed by British merchant sailors. The RFA is one of five RN fighting arms.
Standing Royal Navy deployments is a list of operations and commitments undertaken by the United Kingdom's Royal Navy on a worldwide basis. The following list details these commitments and deployments sorted by region and in alphabetical order. Routine deployments made by the Navy's nuclear-powered submarines and their location of operations is classified.
The Sandown class is a class of fifteen minehunters built primarily for the Royal Navy by Vosper Thornycroft. The Sandown class also serve with the Royal Saudi Navy, the Estonian Navy, and the Ukrainian Navy. The first vessel was commissioned into Royal Navy service on 9 June 1989 and all the British ships were named after coastal towns and cities. Although the class had a primary mine countermeasures role, they have had a secondary role as offshore patrol vessels. As of early 2024, only one vessel of the class remains in active service with the Royal Navy.
HMS Bangor is a Sandown-class minehunter commissioned by the Royal Navy in 1999. Designed to hunt naval mines in depths of up to 200 m (660 ft) using the Sonar 2093 Variable Depth Sonar (VDS) meaning that she can conduct mine clearance operations throughout the continental shelf. She is named after the Northern Ireland seaside city of the same name, and the second Royal Navy vessel to bear the name. As of January 2024, she was the last vessel of her class in active Royal Navy service.
HMS Grimsby was a Sandown-class minehunter of the British Royal Navy, serving from 1999–2022, and the second ship to bear the name.
HMS Ledbury, the second ship of the name, is a Hunt-class mine countermeasures vessel of the Royal Navy. She was launched in December 1979 and commissioned on 11 June 1981, the second ship of her class. She cost £65 million at time of building, which was at the time the most expensive cost-per-metre for any class of ship built by the Royal Navy. Most of this cost went into the research and development of Ledbury's glass reinforced plastic hull.
HMS Cattistock, the third ship of this name, is a Hunt-class mine countermeasures vessel of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1981 and commissioned on 5 March 1982, the third ship of her class.
HMS Pembroke was a Sandown-class minehunter of the Royal Navy (RN), the second ship launched from the class' second batch, with several improvements over the first five built.
HMS Ramsey was a Sandown-class minehunter of the British Royal Navy. Like other vessels of the Sandown class, Ramsey was built of glass-reinforced plastic and other non-magnetic materials so that her hull does not trigger naval mines as easily as standard warships.
Sublocotenent Ion Ghiculescu (M270) is a Sandown-class minehunter of the Romanian Naval Forces. She was built as HMS Blyth (M111), for the Royal Navy, the eleventh of this class of twelve Single-Role Minehunters (SRMH) ships. She was laid down on 30 May 1999 by Vosper Thornycroft at their Woolston, Southampton shipyard, launched in May 2000 and entered service for the Royal Navy in February 2001. She was the second vessel to carry this name, the first being a Bangor-class minesweeper of the Second World War, wearing pennant number J15. Blyth served in the Middle East as part of the 9th Mine Countermeasures Squadron.
HMS Shoreham was a Sandown-class minehunter of the British Royal Navy. She was the fifth vessel to bear the name. From 2018 to 2021, Shoreham was deployed at UKNSF Bahrain together with three other mine countermeasures ships as part of 9 Mine Countermeasures Squadron on Operation Kipion. In 2022 she was decommissioned and was transferred to Ukraine.
HMS Brocklesby is a Hunt-class mine countermeasures vessel of the British Royal Navy, her primary purpose is to find and neutralise sea mines using a combination of; Sonar, Mine Clearance Divers and the Seafox remotely operated vehicle (ROV). The class are the largest warships of glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) construction, which gives the vessels a low magnetic signature. In addition to her mine countermeasures activities, Brocklesby acts as an offshore patrol vessel, undertaking coastal patrol and fisheries protection duties.
HMS Middleton is a Hunt-class mine countermeasures vessel of the British Royal Navy. As of 2021, she forms part of 9th Mine Countermeasures Squadron operating out of HMS Jufair in Bahrain.
HMS Chiddingfold is a Hunt-class mine countermeasures vessel of Britain's Royal Navy. She was launched in October 1983 by her sponsor, Lady Anne Kennon, and formally entered the service of the Royal Navy in October 1984. Chiddingfold is a minehunter, and her purpose is to find and destroy mines, not only in a time of war but also in peacetime. There are about a quarter of a million mines still active from the Second World War alone and they pose a major threat to both military and civilian ships. Chiddingfold is able to enter some types of minefields without magnetic mines detonating because she is made of glass-reinforced plastic, and all fixtures within the ship are made of non-ferrous metals, keeping the ship's magnetic signature to the bare minimum.
EML Admiral Cowan (M313) is a Sandown-class minehunter. Formerly HMS Sandown, lead ship of her class of the Royal Navy, she is now an Estonian Navy ship. Renamed EML Admiral Cowan, she is the flagship of the Estonian Navy and part of the Estonian Navy's mine sweeping flotilla. Admiral Cowan is the lead vessel of the Estonian Navy Mineships Division and also the first of the three modernised Sandown class minehunters received.
The United Kingdom Naval Support Facility is a Royal Navy base established in Bahrain on 13 April 1935, as part of the port at Mina Salman. In 1950, the United States Navy leased space in HMS Jufair and following Bahraini independence in 1971, took over the base. On 6 December 2014, it was announced that HMS Jufair would be reestablished as a permanent Royal Navy base. On 5 April 2018, the UK Naval Support Facility was officially opened by the Crown Prince of Bahrain, Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa and The Duke of York, representing the United Kingdom.
Operation Kipion is a long-standing air and maritime presence by the United Kingdom in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean to promote enduring peace and stability in the region, and ensure the safe flow of oil and trade. Up until the early 2020s, a permanent presence of 4 minesweepers formed the Mine Countermeasures element of this tasking. With the gradual withdrawal of the Sandown-class minehunters from the Royal Navy, and their planned replacement with autonomous minehunting systems, the configuration of 9 Mine Countermeasures Squadron is likely to change. The Royal Air Force operations in the broader Middle East also fall under this operation.
The 9th Mine Countermeasures Squadron is a front-line squadron of the Royal Navy with responsibility for mine warfare in the Persian Gulf region. The squadron is based in Bahrain and, as of 2023, is equipped with three mine countermeasure vessels and a Royal Fleet Auxiliary support ship.
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