Although the Royal Navy’s base in Bahrain will formally remain open, with an officer commanding it, it will lack a vital element of most modern naval bases: ships.

The Royal Navy once “ruled the waves,” maintaining a presence around the world. This is hardly true today, and the ambitious “Global Britain” vision launched by the former Conservative government has faded, replaced by a far more pragmatic focus on Europe and the challenge posed by Russia.

Accordingly, Royal Navy warships based in the Middle East could sail home as soon as March—leaving the UK without any naval fighting presence in the region for the first time since the early 1980s. It has been a slow but steady withdrawal of Royal Navy forces.

The Royal Navy’s Last Minesweeper Is Coming Home

The Royal Navy has indicated it would withdraw its final warship in the region, the Hunt-class minesweeper HMS Middleton (M34), which is based at the United Kingdom Naval Support Facility (UKNSF) in Bahrain.

Formerly known as HMS Juffair, the facility was first established as a Royal Navy base in 1935. The British naval presence dates back even further to 1853, when it signed maritime agreements “with local rulers of what later became the United Arab Emirates,” Maritime Insight reported.

In some ways, this is history repeating itself.

The British “formally withdrew” from the region in 1971, even as Royal Navy deployments continued—leading to the independence of Bahrain, Qatar, and the seven Gulf emirates that later fused into the United Arab Emirates. The US Navy took over as the stabilizing force in the region, and the British returned to a now-independent Bahrain following the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War in 1980. The Royal Navy’s presence was formalized under Operation Kipion, and British warships remained even during other conflicts and flare-ups around the globe, including the 1982 Falklands War.

However, there has been a steady decline in the number of warships deployed to the Middle East.

The Royal Navy’s naval base in Bahrain will remain open, and the UK’s senior service will retain an officer in Bahrain—but by spring, that officer won’t have any ships to command. It is a clear indication that London doesn’t exactly want to “retreat” from the Middle East, but the British military has few other options for now.

HMS Middleton has been in service for more than four decades and is slated for maintenance, possibly retirement, when it returns to the British Isles. To add insult to injury, the 42-year-old Hunt-class minesweeper will be loaded on a heavy-lift vessel and brought back to the UK rather than sailing there under its own power.

The UK’s Last Forward-Deployed Frigate Was Decommissioned Last Month

The withdrawal of HMS Middleton follows the similar decommissioning of HMS Lancaster, one of the Royal Navy’s longest-serving modern warships. Unlike the minesweeper, the Type 23 Duke-class frigate was retired in Bahrain last month, marking the end of her 35 years of service with the Royal Navy. Some of her crew flew back to the UK—likely not the way any sailor wants to return home!

“The 4,500-tonne warship powered down her engines after completing 4,097 days at sea and travelling 816,000 nautical miles—equivalent to 37 1/2 times around the world or almost two return trips to the Moon,” the Royal Navy announced.

HMS Lancaster was launched in a ceremony attended by the late Queen Elizabeth II in Clyde in 1990, and commissioned in May 1992. A total of sixteen Duke-class frigates were built for the Royal Navy, and the vessels are now in the process of being replaced by the newer Type 26 City-class and Type 31 Inspiration-class frigates, which are expected to enter service through the early 2030s, marking the end of the line for the older Type 23 vessels.

About the Author: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu has contributed over 3,200 published pieces to more than four dozen magazines and websites over a 30-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: Editor@nationalinterest.org.

Image: Shutterstock / Kevin Shipp.

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