HMS Dragon returned to Portsmouth today, ending the HMS Dragon return after 214 days away on a short-notice deployment that took the destroyer from Cyprus to the Arabian Sea. Around 230 sailors came home with the ship after a seven-month run that began on 10 March.
Portsmouth and 10 March
Dragon sailed with around 230 sailors after six weeks of planned work were compressed into six days at Portsmouth naval base. The ship steamed 56,550km and visited 7 countries, with stops in Cyprus, Crete, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the Seychelles, Kenya and Malta.
Its final port call before coming home was Gibraltar, where Dragon off-loaded munitions in a first-of-class de-ammunition serial at the base. That sequence ended the deployed phase and prepared the ship for the return leg to Portsmouth.
Middle East and the Gulf
Dragon had been expected to join Standing NATO Maritime Group One, but was already in dry dock when a one-way attack drone struck RAF Akrotiri on 2 March. Portsmouth naval base staff and the ship's company then completed six weeks of work in six days to get her back to sea, and the MoD said the ship remained available if required.
Later in March, Dragon arrived in the eastern Mediterranean to strengthen the defence of Cyprus. In May, it was retasked to pre-position for the proposed UK-French-led multinational mission to restore safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, then operated with the French carrier FS Charles de Gaulle and supported the passage of RFA Lyme Bay and German ships into the region.
A US-Iran ceasefire reached on 17 June collapsed within weeks, and the US reinstated its blockade of Iranian ports in July. France and the UK never judged conditions suitable to send their forces into the Strait, while Dragon and Lyme Bay remained available from Duqm, exercised in the Arabian Sea and later spent time in Mombasa.
HMS Dragon in the Middle East
The ship's return leaves no announced replacement warship for the Middle East, even as RFA Lyme Bay remains operating off Mombasa in the Indian Ocean with mine warfare personnel and autonomous systems embarked. All six Type 45s are now in Portsmouth, and HMS Dauntless has just completed FOST, including Sharpshooter air and drone defence exercises, and is at high readiness.
Dragon will go back into a maintenance period. For the sailors who spent 214 days away from home, the immediate change is simpler: the deployment that began on 10 March is over, and the ship is back where it started, with the next move now shifting from operations to upkeep.
