{"id":948523,"date":"2026-05-09T15:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T15:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/948523\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T15:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T15:08:14","slug":"hms-dragon-heads-to-middle-east-for-potential-strait-of-hormuz-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/948523\/","title":{"rendered":"HMS Dragon heads to Middle East for potential Strait of Hormuz mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas uses the crucial waterway, whose blockage has sent prices soaring globally.<\/p>\n

A ceasefire has been in place between the US and Iran since April but a lasting solution to the conflict has not yet been found. Both sides this week have accused the other of launching attacks in the strait. <\/p>\n

HMS Dragon is one of the Royal Navy’s six Type 45 destroyers purpose built for anti-aircraft and anti-missile warfare and is of Britain’s most advanced warships.<\/p>\n

It has recently been in the eastern Mediterranean as part of the UK’s defensive operations there. Its primary role has been to defend British air bases in Cyprus after RAF Akrotiri was hit by an Iranian-made drone in March<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Commenting on the decision, announced on Saturday, to send HMS Dragon to the Middle East, the MoD said the deployment was “part of prudent planning” and meant the warship could contribute immediately if needed as part of a “future defensive mission.”<\/p>\n

The new Middle East mission “provides the UK Armed Forces with additional options for the defensive multinational Hormuz mission”, the MoD said.<\/p>\n

Last month, 51 countries met to discuss how to protect commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, with Sir Keir saying afterwards that dozens of them had offered to “contribute assets” to the joint operation with France.<\/p>\n

Sir Keir’s position on the conflict has been that the UK will not be “dragged” into it. He has previously said the UK would not support a US blockade of Iranian ports, which is still in place.<\/p>\n

The MoD added: “Cyprus remains well defended, as we’ve bolstered the significant defensive capabilities we had already pre-deployed to the region since January.”<\/p>\n

HMS Dragon had to be docked shortly after arriving at Cyprus<\/a> after experiencing what the MoD called a “minor technical issue”. At the time, the UK government faced accusations of not responding to the conflict in the Middle East quickly enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas uses the crucial waterway, whose blockage has sent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":948524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-948523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116545251371626476","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/948524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}