By Lan Tian

Recently, the UK media reported that the UK is poised to send an aircraft carrier to the Red Sea to counter drone and missile attacks from the Houthi group. This move has attracted widespread attention at a time when tensions in the Red Sea are growing.

UK actively participates in Red Sea escort

Since the outbreak of a new round of Palestine-Israel conflict on October 7, 2023, Yemen's Houthis have targeted "Israel-linked ships" in the Red Sea to show support for Palestine. To this end, the US led the formation of a Red Sea escort alliance called Operation Prosperity Guardian in December 2023. The UK actively responded by sending its destroyer, the HMS Diamond, to join the escort fleet from the very beginning.

The reason why the UK participated in the Red Sea escort was far more political than military, and the purpose of deliberately showing its strength played a large part in it. However, due to its own weak strength, the UK is in the awkward position of lacking troops and forces and has achieved minimal "results". Most of the strikes against the Houthis have been undertaken by the US Navy.

UK finds it difficult to hide weak strength

Despite the UK Royal Navy's active involvement in the Red Sea escort missions, the fact of its continuous decline is hard to conceal. According to data from the UK Ministry of Defense, the British Royal Navy currently only has 18 surface combat vessels in active service, which is far fewer than the 296 ships of the US Navy and even less than the 40 ships of the French Navy. Due to frequent breakdowns and maintenance issues with its vessels, the actual number of available vessels may be even lower.

The fundamental reason for this situation is "lack of funds," which is directly related to cuts in defense budgets. According to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the UK's annual defense budget decreased from USD 54.5 billion to USD 48.1 billion between 2010 and 2020, a decrease of 11.7 percent. Its share of GDP also dipped from 2.5 percent in 2010 to 1.8 percent in 2020.

Due to insufficient investment, the Royal Navy suffers from a severe manpower shortage and it has become a crisis. According to the UK Ministry of Defense, the number of new recruits for the Navy and Marines decreased by 22.1 percent in 2024 compared to that of 2023. Earlier this year, due to manpower shortages, the Royal Navy even announced the premature retirement of two frigates, highlighting the severity of the manpower shortage.

Royal Navy makes its presence everywhere

Despite facing such a severe decline, the Royal Navy has been striving to make its presence everywhere in recent years for political reasons. As early as 2021, the Royal Navy deployed the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier strike group to the Western Pacific for a so-called "global deployment operation." In December 2023, during a visit to Japan, UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps indicated that a Royal Navy aircraft carrier strike group would visit Japan again in 2025. If it materializes, it will be the second deployment of a UK naval aircraft carrier to the Asia-Pacific region.

As the UK is a country outside the region, its move is intended to promote its own Asia-Pacific policy. On the one hand, as part of the implementation of the "Global Britain" strategy, it must demonstrate its influence beyond Europe in the Asia-Pacific region. On the other hand, as an important measure to strengthen the UK-US alliance, the UK must respond to the so-called Pacific Deterrence Initiative proposed by the US and follow the US's increased military presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

At the same time, the UK has begun to increase its investment in equipment construction and force building, intending to mitigate its overall decline as much as possible through "patchwork" capacity building. However, facing the awkward situation of lacking funds and personnel, whether the UK can sustain its ambitions and ensure the implementation of its global strategy remains to be further observed.

Editor's note: Originally published on zqb.cyol.com, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.