The River-class offshore patrol vessel HMS Trent (P224) passes the Vorontsov Lighthouse while arriving in Odesa, Ukraine to participate in Exercise Sea Breeze 2021, July 2, 2021. Exercise Sea Breeze is a multinational maritime exercise cohosted by the U.S. Sixth Fleet and the Ukrainian Navy since 1997. Sea Breeze 2021 is designed to enhance interoperability of participating nations and strengthens maritime security and peace in the region. (U.S. Navy photo by Damon Grosvenor/Released)
Britain will deploy a naval ship off Guyana later this month, its ministry of defense said on Sunday, as the South American nation faces a border dispute with neighbor Venezuela over the oil-rich Essequibo region.
The deployment follows a visit by a British junior foreign minister to Guyana earlier this month, intended to offer the UK’s support for the country, an ally and former British colony.
We have talked about Venezuela’s claim on territory internationally recognized as part of Guyana. There is a recent BBC report here.
I found it interesting that the Royal Navy is sending an Offshore Patrol Vessel to this region of potential conflict. HMS Trent is about the size of a 270 and is armed with a 30mm gun in what is essentially the same mount the US Navy is calling the Mk38 Mod4.
It is likely 4th Fleet will also have some units (probably CG cutters and maybe an LCS) in the area.
None of these ships is likely to be a match for the Venezuelan Navy, but the US could quickly have overwhelming amounts of airpower over the area.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
I am so embarrassed by this.
How far we here in the UK have fallen.
How things used to be. HMS Ajax…….
That is about all we have there as well. But as I said, we could get aircraft down there pretty quickly.
The UK has lost its way. I could go on and on about this but I won’t.
If you combined all the navies of nations that used to be part of the British Empire, it would still be a pretty big navy.
I think the West would have been more stable as a block if the White Commonwealth had sustained itself as a military alliance.
I agree with you. How far the RN has fallen.
The RN is still a very professional organization filled with talented, competent people.
It’s been so starved of resources though for so many years that it’s nolonger able to contribute much.
Hopefully the Brits find their way and that changes.
The Western World would benefit from a strong RN right about now.
I do feel the UK would be better off putting a higher percentage of their Defense budget into their Navy, but the UK has been spending a higher percentage of their GDP on defense than most NATO counties.
It is unrealistic to expect the UK to have a Navy comparable to the US because they are no longer an Empire controlling a huge portion of the world’s population. On the other hand, they have managed to build highly effective SSNs and SSBN and two VSTOL carriers.
Chuck the other month we didn’t have one SSN at sea.
Our carriers are very nice. But problems with generating F35b numbers means they are just very expensive flagships. Australia has had twice the number of F35a delivered and are in service. Look at the situation in Guyana. What would have done in the past? Sent a carrier. Even a CVS. But can we do that right now? No. We don’t have the fleet train to support a carrier group in depth. Support systems like Crowsnest are poor.
I expect if the balloon goes up our carriers will be filled with USMC Bravos to free up LHx hangar capacity.
Our MCM capability has been ravaged. Dumping systems into containers isn’t going to work. Are the Dutch and French doing this? No. Our Oriental allies doing this? No.
Type 31 will go to sea without ASW equipment. Supposedly a ‘general purpose’ frigate that can deal with submarines……… What happens when a non-state actor has a go with torpedoes?
The RN is in a right mess.
The Australian LHDs cannot operate F-35s at all.
Canadian and Australian submarine forces both have serious problems.
The French and Germans are also operating frigates without ASW capabilities.
Even the US is building general purpose frigates without ASW capabilities. We call them Coast Guard cutters.
Good point! And the UK’s Type 31 frigate is a real bargain at £268 million in 2019 dollars (that’s less than $300 million per ship). It’s cheaper than the Coast Guard’s NSC or OPC, far cheaper than the USN’s Littoral Combat Ships, and is also more heavily armed than any of these. The Type 31, in addition to three medium-caliber guns, also has missiles (32-cell Mark 41 VLS). The US Navy would be better off replacing all of its broken and overpriced LSCs with the Type 31.
Yes, I realize the Constellation Class frigate is superior (it ought to be, for four times the cost!), and so is the UK’s Type 26 frigate (again, it ought to be, for five times the cost), but a nation can only afford so many gold-plated weapons, and there’s something to be said for the “high-low” mix advocated by Admiral Zumwalt.
Really, I believe all frigates should have an ASW capability, but in the case of the Type 31 there are variants of the same ship that do have ASW capability.
We get in trouble when we look only at the capabilities of the ship in isolation and don’t look at how it fits in the fleet as a whole.
People complain about the lack of self-defense capability of the LCS, but if its role is to be a mine countermeasures ship, it is much better armed than the MCM ships that preceded it. They had only .50 caliber machine guns, but they were never intended to go in harm’s way without other units protecting them.
Maduro is portraying this little ship as a threat to Venezuela. https://www.defensenews.com/training-sim/2023/12/29/venezuela-to-hold-military-drills-off-its-shores-amid-border-dispute/
A commentary about why sending an OPV to Guyana was appropriate. https://thinpinstripedline.blogspot.com/2023/12/a-textbook-example-of-small-gun-gunboat.html
The US has been in talks with Guyana.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2024/01/11/guyana_turns_to_us_to_defend_against_venezuelan_aggression_1004206.html