The U.K. had little choice but to call in support from its NATO allies—Canada, France and the U.S.—to help hunt for the suspected submarine, which was understood to have been spotted by a fishing trawler in late November.
Without its own organic fixed-wing anti-submarine warfare capability, the U.K. had to wait for foreign maritime patrol aircraft to touch down at RAF Lossiemouth in Northern Scotland on Nov. 26 before the hastily organized search could begin.
A limited hunt by Royal Navy surface warships was already underway, but Aviation Week understands that ultimately the two-week long hunt proved unsuccessful.
Details of the operation remain sketchy, however.
While the British Defense Ministry confirmed that it had requested assistance from allied forces, it will not state how the assets were being used.
“The aircraft are conducting Maritime Patrol activity with the Royal Navy; we do not discuss the details of maritime operations,” a spokesman said.
At the height of the operation, aircraft involved in the hunt included two U.S. Navy Lockheed P-3 Orions, a single CP-140 Aurora from the Royal Canadian Air Force and aDassault Atlantique 2 of the French navy.
Also involved was one of the U.K.’s Raytheon Sentinel radar-reconnaissance aircraft.
The incident has emerged at a critical time for the U.K.’s politicians. They are currently mulling the next Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR), readying themselves for a general election, and continuing to deal with economic uncertainty, with defense and other public services bracing themselves for potentially more cuts during 2015 and 2016, as the U.K. continues to deal with its challenging budget deficit.
Throw in Russia’s new wave of hostility and military activity focused on the West—levels not seen since the mid 1980s and the Cold War—and something of a perfect storm has emerged. Sweden’s widely publicized but also unsuccessful search for an alleged mini-submarine in its territorial waters in the Stockholm archipelago, just over a month earlier, has also increased public awareness that the Russian bear has reawakened.
Sweden appeared woefully equipped to carry out the hunt. Its own anti-submarine warfare helicopters were retired earlier this decade, and their replacement, in the form of the NH90, is now years behind schedule.
The U.K. has anti-submarine helicopters, but the Royal Navy is in transition to a new version and it is unclear how many of the new AgustaWestland Merlin Mk.2s were available or deployed to support the hunt. Three of the aircraft are currently deployed to West Africa supporting efforts to tackle the Ebola outbreak.
The operation may have touched a nerve because of where the search was conducted. The waters around the Firth of Clyde are where Britain’s submarine-based nuclear deterrent is able to slip away into the Atlantic for their regular patrols, and it is possible the intruder may have been waiting to attempt to track one of the Vanguard-class boomers, vessels that have taken on a greater relevance in NATO’s deterrence vision as the U.S. Navy has downsized its fleet of Ohio-class SSBNs.
Several questions have been asked in the U.K. Parliament about the submarine sighting and the country’s ability to screen its ballistic missile submarine movements since the Aviation Week story was published on Dec. 9.
Britain’s decision to remove the Nimrod MR2 from operations as part of SDSR 2010, and to scrap its replacement, the Nimrod MRA4, was not an easy decision for defense officials. The loss of one of the aircraft over Afghanistan in 2006, killing all 10 onboard, prompted a wholesale examination of airworthiness processes across the military. The MRA4 was blighted by technical problems and years of delays, and may have faced many more months or perhaps years of development before it was ready for actual operations.
Few in 2010 would have ever foreseen the reemergence of Russia, its activities in Ukraine and an increased level of air and naval operations.
Britain has been fortunate that it can call on support of friendly nations for help in such situations, and it has been able to pay it back, as with the U.K.’s loan of C-17 airlifters to support the French operation in Mali. But friends will not get you out of a bind every time.
Britain is investing billions in new naval ships—the new aircraft carriers—and also in the Successor program to build a new fleet of ballistic missile submarines, and these will need protecting.
It seems likely that a need to re-build a maritime patrol capability will emerge as a requirement in next year’s SDSR—perhaps in the form of a multi-mission aircraft, but November’s submarine hunt may come as timely reminder of what is at stake.