Britain will not be able to meet its Nato commitments next month because it does not have any available war ships in what has been branded a “national embarrassment”.
Ministers have had to turn to Germany to help fill the void left by the Royal Navy to meet its obligations in the Atlantic Ocean and Baltic Sea in April.
Sources told The i Paper that the UK will still be in command of the task force, but will be doing so from the German flagship.
It comes after Defence Secretary John Healey earlier this month insisted that the UK would fulfill its Nato commitments.
The Ministry of Defence was forced to rapidly send its Type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon to the eastern Mediterranean earlier this month to deal with the fallout from the Iranian crisis.
It has left the UK with just one other Type 45 HMS Duncan in service, but the destroyer is due to take part in Operation Firecrest in the High North. HMS Daring has only just returned from eight years of maintenance work and is going through sea trials.
The failure of the UK to provide a military presence in the Atlantic will reignite criticism of the decline of British defence capabilities.
The UK was due to take up its role as flagship on Standing Nato Maritime Group One next month, which is a permanent reaction naval force operating mainly in the North Atlantic and Baltic Sea.
In a post on X, the German embassy in London said Germany is “increasing its military presence in the North Atlantic under Nato”.
“As the UK deploys HMS Dragon to the eastern Mediterranean, German frigate Sachsen will take over from HMS Dragon as Nato maritime task group flagship – an expression of the close German British partnership,” it added.
The issue is likely to cause red faces within the Royal Navy and the wider Ministry of Defence and lays bare the “hollowing out” of the armed forces, as former defence secretary Ben Wallace described it.
Tory MP and former serviceman Ben Obese-Jecty branded the situation as a “scandal”.
“It is a national embarrassment that the Royal Navy has run out of ships. Britannia most definitely does not rule the waves,” Obese-Jecty told The i Paper.
“I have repeatedly raised the issue of a potential lack of Type-45s to fulfil our Nato flagship commitment. Earlier this month in response to me asking the Defence Secretary if he could guarantee a Royal Navy ship would conduct this role he assured me that we would fulfil our Nato commitments. It doesn’t look like it now.”
The Conservative blamed the failure on the previous Labour government’s decision to halve the number of type-45s from 12 to six in its original order.
Responding to questions in the Commons chamber earlier this month, Healey refused to spell out when the UK would be taking part in the Nato operations.
But he highlighted to MPs the “balance of threats and responsibilities that we have to manage”.
“We are doing that, and we will always fulfil our Nato commitments,” he added.
The MOD has been approached for comment.
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