UK Prepares to Dispatch Royal Navy Vessel to Strait of Hormuz

(MENAFN) Britain is secretly preparing to dispatch a Royal Navy vessel armed with a fleet of autonomous mine-clearing drones to the Strait of Hormuz, The Sunday Times revealed Saturday — as the world's most vital oil artery remains choked and global energy markets reel.

The ship at the center of the contingency plan is RFA Lyme Bay, a 580-foot Bay-class amphibious landing vessel currently docked in Gibraltar for routine maintenance. Last week, British ministers publicly announced the ship would head to the Mediterranean for training exercises — a cover story that sources have now directly contradicted. According to The Sunday Times, UK Defense Secretary John Healey has privately authorized plans to reroute the vessel to the Strait of Hormuz to lead mine-clearance operations in the strategically vital waterway.

Before departure, RFA Lyme Bay is set to be fitted in Gibraltar with a comprehensive suite of autonomous warfare tools, including underwater drones and mine-hunting boats, effectively converting the vessel into a command mothership capable of orchestrating seabed scanning and mine neutralization across a stretch of ocean that carries roughly 20 million barrels of oil daily.

Despite the visible preparations, officials remained guarded. A defense source stressed to The Times that "no decision" had yet been taken on deployment to the Strait of Hormuz, while framing the readiness measures in calculated terms: "This preventative step gives ministers options should they be needed to help resume the normal flow of merchant shipping."

The contingency builds on earlier groundwork. The Times had previously reported that Royal Navy Mine and Threat Exploitation Group drones already stationed in the region were under active consideration for deployment — units that would operate in coordination with RFA Lyme Bay's onboard capabilities. The vessel can accommodate up to 500 troops and carries integrated medical and weapons systems, making it a formidable forward operating base.

London's accelerating preparations come after President Trump publicly turned up the heat on Britain this month, declaring he was "not happy" with the UK's engagement with the Middle East crisis and asserting that Britain "should be involved enthusiastically" in efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz — a rebuke that appears to have jolted Whitehall into action.

Washington, for its part, has already committed significant firepower to the region. US Central Command confirmed Saturday that the USS Tripoli (LHA 7), a full-scale amphibious assault ship ferrying thousands of expeditionary forces, had entered its area of operations two days prior. "US Sailors and Marines aboard USS Tripoli (LHA 7) arrived in the US Central Command area of responsibility, March 27," CENTCOM said in a statement.

The broader regional conflagration driving these deployments has been relentless. Since February 28, a joint US-Israeli air campaign against Iran has killed more than 1,340 people — including then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Tehran has responded with a barrage of drone and missile attacks against Israel, Jordan, Iraq, and Gulf states hosting American forces, inflicting casualties and structural damage while hammering global shipping and aviation networks.

The economic fallout has been severe. With the Strait of Hormuz effectively shut down since early March, freight costs have spiraled and crude oil prices have surged worldwide — and with no diplomatic resolution on the horizon, pressure on Western navies to restore safe passage through the corridor is growing by the hour.

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