Questions from the Foreign Affairs Committee
Q. What actions and deployments were made before the hurricanes started to hit?
A. In July RFA (Royal Fleet Auxiliary) Mounts Bay was prepositioned in the Caribbean, undertaking the Atlantic Patrol Task (North) role, which it performs every year. One of its tasks is to provide an immediate response in case of a hurricane or other natural disaster. To support this role, it was carrying Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) supplies, together with a special disaster relief team comprising 40 military personnel including Royal Engineers and Royal Logistic Corps. Before Hurricane Irma hit the region, RFA Mounts Bay was positioned to follow the hurricane as it swept through the region.
Q. What actions and deployments were taken in response to the emergency, on what dates and precise times, following what decision making process?
A. Hurricane Irma passed Montserrat and Anguilla on 6 September, the British Virgin Isles on 7 September and the Turks and Caicos Isles overnight on 7/8 September. RFA Mounts Bay was prepositioned off Anguilla overnight on 6/7 September, arrived 30 Nautical Miles SW of Anguilla at 0800 local time on 7 September, and launched a Wildcat helicopter for an aerial reconnaissance. At 0930 the Governor and Governor’s Office representative were airlifted back to the ship for a planning meeting. RFA Mounts Bay then arrived in Road Bay and docked at 1145 taking up station close to the beach at Sandy Ground Village. It departed at 2200 having provided assistance all day, and headed west to the British Virgin Islands.
On the morning of 7 September, the Secretary of State for Defence directed the Ministry of Defence to prepare a Joint Task Force to be ready to deploy as soon as possible. This would comprise: an
Operational Liaison and Recce Team, headquarters, transport aircraft, the Royal Marines Lead Commando Group (LCG), a Royal Engineer Squadron or Group, and HMS Ocean with nine helicopters embarked.
An Operational Liaison and Recce Team (12 personnel) accompanied by a doctor and three medics flew to Barbados at 0900 on 8 September by a civilian flight, followed by two C17 and one A400M transport aircraft, and a Voyager troop carrier. The total deployed by the end of 8 September was 315, plus the 153 on RFA Mounts Bay. The first troops arrived in the British Virgin Islands and US Virgin Islands on 9 September taking the total deployed to over 500. The total deployment rose swiftly to 987 on 12 September, and once HMS Ocean joined the Task Force on 24 September the total deployed was over 2000. This made it the biggest UK military deployment of personnel in the world at the time.
Overall strategic direction was provided by COBRA, which also met on 7 September and directed the deployment of the Joint Task Force. Within the Ministry of Defence there are detailed processes for providing authorisation for generation and deployment of military forces, including for HADR operations which are led by DFID or the FCO.
In the Caribbean there was close coordination between military personnel, the FCO and DFID, which fed back to the joint team set up in the FCO’s Crisis Centre. The priorities of the Governors of the affected British Overseas Territories were fed back through the team in the FCO to MOD and Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) for inclusion in campaign development.
Q. How will planned changes in the composition of the surface naval fleet (including the announced retirement of HMS Ocean in 2018) affect the ability to provide a rapid response to future crises of this kind?
A. There is no endorsed plan to change the provision of a Bay class ship which can be supplemented by contingent capabilities for hurricane response in the Caribbean, but we cannot pre-judge the outcome of the ongoing lessons learned process and National Security Capabilities Review, which could result in alternative solutions.
November 2017