UK launches new maritime force to defend Europe

Naval chiefs from across Northern Europe have signed a statement of intent to develop a formal Northern Navies initiative, the First Sea Lord announced at RUSI on Tuesday, describing it as a multinational maritime force to defend Northwest Europe and the High North with the UK at the helm.

General Sir Gwyn Jenkins said he hosted naval chiefs from across Northern Europe last week and that during that meeting the assembled nations signed a statement of intent committing to work up detailed proposals for the initiative. He said he wanted all participating nations to have signed a formal declaration by the end of the year, “laying the foundations for what will be a vital and enduring partnership for many years to come” and pledged to set out more details later this summer on how he intended to deliver it.

The initiative would see member nations operating common systems and platforms, shared digital networks, logistics and stockpiles, trained through the Royal Navy’s Fleet Operational Standards and Training, supported through UK doctrine and integration standards, and commanded from Northwood’s Maritime Operations Centre. Jenkins described it as “a visible and persistent conventional deterrent, a force that is stronger, collectively, than the sum of its parts” and said it should complement rather than compete with NATO, functioning as a means for the Alliance to respond rapidly and seize the initiative in the region.

Jenkins said the Royal Navy was uniquely placed to drive the initiative forward, pointing to the Lunna House Agreement with Norway and the export of Type 26 frigates to Norway and Canada as evidence of the foundations already in place, saying he hoped similar deals would soon be struck with other Northern allies and that conversations with counterparts showed keen interest in the Hybrid Naval plans. He said the goal was the creation of “a family of allied fleets, something that has not happened in decades.”

On the strategic context driving the initiative, Jenkins was direct about the Russian threat, revealing that Russian incursions into UK waters had jumped by almost a third in the last two years and that in 2025 alone the Royal Navy was required to respond dozens of times in support of homeland defence against Russian Navy surface vessels. He said it was Russia’s reinvestment in its submarine programmes that posed the most acute threat, warning that all signs suggested the pattern of behaviour would only worsen, and pointing to the Defence Secretary’s recent announcement about Royal Navy disruption of Russian submarine activity as evidence of the persistent challenge.

Jenkins described the initiative’s ambition in terms of genuine interchangeability rather than mere interoperability, saying he wanted to create “a maritime force that trains, exercises and prepares together, a force designed to fight immediately if required, with real capabilities, real war plans, and real integration” in which interchangeability was made possible because member nations would be operating common systems and platforms.

Source: UK Defence Journal