DESPITE BRITAIN’S SMALLER GLOBAL ROLE and military footprint in the 21st century, the world could still rely on the country to keep some semblance of order in the world’s waters. Perhaps understandably, subsequent generations of politicians decided that maintaining a globe-roaming fleet was too ambitious for a midsize country. In 2022 (the last year covered by the U.K. Parliament’s research service), the Royal Navy had two aircraft carriers, 12 frigates, six destroyers, two amphibious vessels, as well as offshore patrol vessels, mine-countermeasure vessels, and smaller vessels. “That means that putting three ships in the Red Sea as we have done now is a stretch,” West said. But it’s more than most countries would be able to manage, especially since China, which now has the world’s largest navy, seems uninterested in using it to maintain global maritime order.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels—once a relatively obscure group—are suddenly dominating the Red Sea and threatening global trade, and Britain’s Royal Navy—once the world’s preeminent military force—appears to be back on center stage.
When World War I broke out, the Royal Navy had the world’s largest and most powerful fleet, as it did during the preceding Georgian, Victorian, and Edwardian eras.
Indeed, the Royal Navy had famously allowed Britannia to rule the waves—and, as a result, to build extraordinary globe-spanning trade.
Back then, the Royal Navy’s tasks included escorting British vessels—which still made up a large part of the global merchant fleet—through perilous waters, such as those in the Red Sea and its neighborhood, and it did so using an impressive fleet. During its peak in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Royal Navy had all manner of battleships and other vessels.
The world wars were exceptional periods, of course, but in 1960, the Royal Navy had 156 destroyers and frigates, as well as 54 submarines, two battleships and large amphibious craft, 14 cruisers, eight carriers, and smaller vessels.
“For the Royal Navy, protecting global shipping has historically been one of its major roles,” said retired Royal Navy Adm. Alan West, who served as Britain’s first sea lord and chief of the naval staff.
“It started when Britain dominated global shipping but continued later as well.”
Though the Royal Navy is much smaller today compared with half a century ago, the Red Sea may be the proud navy’s moment. Now Washington and London have opted to strike the Houthis in Yemen from the air and the sea. Such is the global maritime disorder that the Royal Navy will once again be needed to keep order. . .
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A security guard stands aboard the Galaxy Leader cargo ship, seized by Houthi fighters, in a port on the Red Sea.
A grab from handout footage released by Yemen's Huthi Ansarullah Media Centre on November 19, 2023, reportedly shows members of the rebel group during the capture of an Israel-linked cargo vessel at an undefined location in the Red Sea.
The strikes may convince the Houthis’ maritime fighters to withdraw for
now. But the maritime order in the world’s oceans is deteriorating. Indeed, the Houthis may well retaliate against shipping in the Red Sea, and other militias may decide to do the same in other waters—either out of solidarity or because these days attacking merchant vessels brings global attention. And if that happens, the Royal Navy may soon be regularly called on to do what it did in centuries past. It would, however, need a fleet somewhat closer in size to that of the Georgian, the Victorian, and the Edwardian
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