Armed Forces: East of Suez

Lord West of Spithead Excerpts

Thursday 9th March 2017 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

My Lords, there is no question but that the UK and US military facility in Diego Garcia contributes significantly towards regional and global security. The UK footprint may not be major in size, but it represents a significant contribution to our bilateral defence and security relationship with the US. At the moment the Royal Navy has 41 personnel permanently deployed in Diego Garcia, with a capacity to surge that for contingent operations in the wider region from 2021. That could include a carrier strike task group, should the situation change.

[Lord West of Spithead (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Lord Robathan (Con)]

My Lords—

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach (Con)]

My Lords, we will hear from the noble Lord, Lord West, and then from my noble friend.

[Lord West of Spithead]

My Lords, a carrier battle group is the perfect platform for power projection east of Suez, but whenever one goes east of Suez one might be going in harm’s way. A carrier battle group is not a carrier on its own. When I took a battle group to the Far East for the Hong Kong withdrawal, it was 14 ships, including two nuclear attack submarines, because of those sorts of risks. Does the Minister really believe there is sufficient money in the naval programme to ensure adequate support shipping for a carrier operating in the Far East?

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

Yes, indeed. The noble Lord will know that these matters are kept constantly under review. The new class of Queen Elizabeth carriers are going to be the biggest and most powerful warships ever built for the Royal Navy, so the capability is certainly there. Their deployment to the Gulf will depend very much on what the demand will be.