HMS Prince of Wales enters the Red Sea as part of Operation Highmast, an eight-month UK-led deployment aimed at strengthening partnerships. Despite ongoing ceasefires, the ship has no combat role.
The Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, entered the Red Sea over the weekend after passing through Egypt’s Suez Canal. It marks the latest milestone for Operation Highmast, the UK’s largest naval deployment since the 2021 CSG21 that saw HMS Queen Elizabeth travel to the same region.
The deployment is scheduled to last eight months. The carrier will then head to the Indo-Pacific, participating in joint exercises and regional security operations with regional allies and partners, including Australia, Japan, and the United States.
Port visits are also scheduled in India, Singapore, Japan, and Australia.
The warship and her escorts departed from Portsmouth, England, on April 22 and participated in NATO exercises in the Mediterranean earlier this month. Satellite images show the HMS Prince of Wales transiting through the Suez Canal.
The Royal Navy Will Not Do Any Combat Operations
The Royal Navy flagship will not likely take part in any combat operations while in the Red Sea, as her arrival comes after the United States and the Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen agreed to a ceasefire earlier this month.
Until that point, US Navy warships were often targeted by the Houthis, while the US carried out strikes on Houthi positions.
Reports from Iranian media have claimed that the UK is outside the scope of the ceasefire agreement; however, if HMS Prince of Wales were to come under attack, the US Navy’s Nimitz-class nuclear-powered supercarrier, USS Carl Vinson, would likely respond.
In early 2024, just months after the Houthis began to target commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in support for Hamas, which has been engaged in a war with Israel in Gaza, there had been speculation that the UK would deploy either HMS Prince of Wales or HMS Queen Elizabeth to support US Navy operations.
However, HMS Queen Elizabeth was sidelined and forced to undergo repairs in Scotland, which left the UK with just one carrier.
There have been questions about whether the British carriers are up to the task, as the Royal Navy lacks the support vessels for the carrier strike group. Operation Highmast is a multinational naval task group, supported by the Royal Canadian Navy’s Halifax-class frigate HMCS Ville de Québec, the Royal Norwegian Navy’s Nansen-class frigate HNoMS Roald Amundsen, and logistics support ship HNoMS Maud, as well as the Spanish Navy’s Álvaro de Bazán-class frigate ESPS Méndez Núñez.
The HMS Prince of Wales Will Go “East of the Suez“
Operation Highmast will mark the first HMS Prince of Wales “East of Suez” deployment since the carrier officially entered service in October 2021. This will also be the first visit of a warship named for the title traditionally granted to the UK’s heir apparent.
Though the conventionally-powered carrier is the eighth vessel named Prince of Wales, the deployment could see the boat lie over the wreck of the most recent predecessor, the King George V-class battleship launched in 1939 and sunk in a Japanese airstrike on December 10, 1941, off the coast of modern-day Malaysia.
“This new Prince of Wales will be going back, I imagine, through the same waters,” Professor Michael Clarke told Forces News last month. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there isn’t some sort of little memorial ceremony involved.”
About the Author: Peter Suciu
Peter Suciu has contributed over 3,200 published pieces to more than four dozen magazines and websites over a thirty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. He is based in Michigan. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: [email protected].
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Dane Wiedmann.
