Chief of the General Staff Knighton: Britain will create an anti-Russian maritime alliance
Britain and nine of its allies intend to conclude an agreement on joint counteraction to Russian submarines. At the same time, London is trying to accelerate the renewal of its own fleet, despite mistakes in the construction of new ships. What is known about Britain's plans is in the material of Gazeta.Ru».
The UK is preparing a naval cooperation agreement with nine European countries. This was announced on November 8 in an interview with the Financial Times by the Chief of the British Defense Staff, Air Chief Marshal Richard Knighton.
According to him, the document will be signed within the framework of the Joint Expeditionary Forces (JEF). The participating countries intend to cooperate more actively in the North Atlantic, the Arctic and the Baltic Sea.
"JEF will go beyond memoranda of understanding, exchanges of views and meetings, moving on to truly practical steps regarding how our fleets, air forces and armies will work together," said Knighton.
The allies intend to pay special attention to threats from Russian submarines.
The agreement is scheduled to be signed on November 10 in Oslo aboard the British aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales.
It's time to increase defense spending
The Joint Expeditionary Force JEF was created in 2014 at the initiative of the United Kingdom. Initially, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Norway joined the cooperation. Finland and Sweden became participants in 2017, and Iceland in 2021.
Currently, the association includes ten states. All are members of NATO, but JEF operates as a separate format of military cooperation under the leadership of London.
The participants are conducting joint exercises and preparing for possible crises in Northern Europe. They can coordinate the actions of the armed forces without having to coordinate every decision with all NATO countries.
The new agreement will expand cooperation between the fleets, aviation and ground forces of the JEF participants. One of the tasks will be the protection of sea lanes and underwater communications.
As the Financial Times notes, the importance of the North Atlantic and the Arctic for NATO is growing. Important underwater communication cables pass through these areas, and the melting of the Arctic ice opens up new opportunities for navigation. Knighton also pointed out that the security of the North Atlantic is important for protecting the east coast of the United States.
The head of the British General Staff believes that European states need to strengthen their own defenses more actively. In his opinion, the UK is not yet taking the threat from Russia seriously enough compared to other European countries.
He called on European states to increase military spending. The British authorities intend to bring the defense budget to 3% of GDP by 2030.
Knighton also noted that the United States is gradually paying more and more attention to the Indo-Pacific region. According to him, this process began even before the presidency of Donald Trump, so Europe should develop its own armed forces regardless of Washington's policy.
They rush, make mistakes, and spend millions.
The UK intends to accelerate the renewal of the military fleet. As The Times reported on November 2, the British military wants to shorten the construction time of five Type 31 frigates.
The new ships are to replace the aging Type 23 frigates. Some of them have been in service for more than 30 years and increasingly require repairs.
However, the construction of the Type 31 has already been delayed due to mistakes by shipbuilders. As The National Interest wrote, when assembling two frigates, HMS Venturer and HMS Active, Babcock disrupted the sequence of work. Because of this, some of the already assembled structures had to be redone.
Ship delivery dates have shifted: The first frigate, which was originally expected to be received much earlier, is now planned to be transferred to the fleet no earlier than 2028.
To speed up the construction of the remaining ships, Babcock is considering hiring additional staff at the Scottish Rosyth shipyard or increasing the number of work shifts. According to The Times, both options will require additional funding.
Type 31 frigates are designed to perform various tasks, including patrolling, anti-surface warfare and air defense. In the future, they plan to equip them with additional rocket launchers. In addition to the Type 31, the UK is building eight Type 26 frigates, designed primarily for the search and destruction of submarines.
Irina Markova
