HMS Westminster deploys to Middle East

Roy­al Navy war­ship HMS West­min­ster sailed from Portsmouth today, 23 Jan­u­ary 2012, for a sev­en-month deploy­ment to the Mid­dle East and Indi­an Ocean.

HMS West­min­ster leaves Portsmouth for a sev­en-month deploy­ment to the Mid­dle East and Indi­an Ocean [Pic­ture: LA(Phot) Gary Weath­er­ston, Crown Copyright/MOD 2012] Source: Min­istry of Defence, UK Click to enlarge

The Type 23 frigate will be act­ing as part of the Roy­al Navy’s stand­ing com­mit­ment in the Mid­dle East, pro­vid­ing reas­sur­ance to the UK’s allies in the region, polic­ing busy ship­ping lanes and car­ry­ing out mar­itime secu­ri­ty and counter-pira­cy patrols. 

Her Com­mand­ing Offi­cer, Cap­tain Nick Hine, said: 

“It takes a tremen­dous amount of effort to get a com­plex and sophis­ti­cat­ed war­ship ready for oper­a­tions and I am extreme­ly proud of my ship’s com­pa­ny for the work they have done in get­ting us to this point; but oper­a­tions are what the Roy­al Navy is all about and we are itch­ing to get going. 

“We sail into a region of height­ened ten­sions and great chal­lenges and we are ready and up for it.” 

Last year HMS West­min­ster was deployed at short notice to the Mediter­ranean to assist in evac­u­at­ing UK nation­als from Libya and to con­duct oper­a­tions in sup­port of Unit­ed Nations Secu­ri­ty Coun­cil res­o­lu­tions against the Gaddafi regime. 

Many of the ship’s com­pa­ny who are deploy­ing to the Mid­dle East are still on board from the mis­sion off Libya, includ­ing Oper­a­tions Offi­cer Lieu­tenant Com­man­der Andy Brown: 

“We learnt a lot last year on our suc­cess­ful involve­ment in the Libyan oper­a­tions and we will car­ry that expe­ri­ence for­ward to our next mis­sion,” he said. 

“The ship’s com­pa­ny are excit­ed about the deploy­ment ahead and we are all deter­mined to make it a success.” 

Press release
Min­istry of Defence, UK 

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