Arrest made after bomb hoax triggers lockdown at Faslane nuclear base
A source told The Daily Record said he had 'allegedly called up front to the main control room (of HMS Vanguard) and claimed there was a bomb on board'.
READ MORE: Scottish Tories splash £150k of taxpayer cash on MSP 'media training'
They added: 'It's not clear if he lost the plot or if it was a stupid prank that went horribly wrong.
The Royal Navy, meanwhile, said in a statement: 'We can confirm that a member of the Royal Navy is under investigation by the Defence Serious Crime Command for a bomb hoax.'
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Telegraph
3 days ago
- Telegraph
The Middle East is in turmoil, yet the Royal Navy is abandoning it for the first time in generations
Five plumes of white spray shot into the air with all the force of volcanic eruptions and the red cargo ship sank helplessly beneath the waves. This was how explosive charges laid by Yemen's Houthi rebels sent a freighter called Magic Seas to the bottom of the Red Sea, as shown in chilling footage released by the Iranian -backed group. Three days later, on July 9, the Houthis sank another passing vessel, Eternity C, with a fusillade of rocket-propelled grenades. These were only the latest attacks in a campaign against commercial shipping that escalated after the onset of the war in Gaza and has now forced a 60 per cent reduction in transits through the Red Sea. The Royal Navy used to keep ships on station to deter exactly this kind of assault on vital trade routes and the principle of free navigation. Yet Britain is about to withdraw its last frigate from the Middle East, leaving the region without a major Royal Navy warship for the first time in 45 years and possibly since the mid-19th century. HMS Lancaster, a type 23 frigate, will soon leave the Navy's base in Bahrain and steam home to be scrapped by the end of the year. Since 2022 she has patrolled some of the world's busiest shipping lanes, intercepting drugs that might otherwise have reached British streets, hunting for arms smuggled by Iran's Revolutionary Guard, and protecting the flow of trade on which British prosperity depends. In May, Lancaster seized heroin, hashish and amphetamines worth £30 million from a dhow in the Arabian Sea; in March, her boarding party confiscated another stash worth £5.4 million. In 2022 her sister ship, HMS Montrose, twice intercepted vessels carrying Iranian missiles to the Houthis. But soon there will be no British warship to perform any of these tasks. The job of countering the weapons and narcotics smugglers, and the Iranian threat, will be left to the navies of the United States and other allies. 'You take the ship away and you take all of that swathe of activity away,' says Tom Sharpe, a former Royal Navy officer who served for 27 years. 'You lose it all.' Any crisis in the Gulf would be a crisis for Britain No one would argue that the Middle East has suddenly become less important for Britain. On the contrary, more than 300,000 Britons live in the Gulf states – more than ever before – mostly in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. British exports to the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (which also includes Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman), totalled £36.7 billion last year, making these countries the UK's third biggest global market after the EU and the US. British interests in the region are so strong, in fact, that diplomats privately acknowledge that any crisis in the Gulf would be a crisis for Britain from day one. Keeping a frigate or destroyer permanently deployed was supposed to be the UK's contribution to preventing any such emergency. Hence the Royal Navy re-established a base in Bahrain in 2018, paid for by that country's government. HMS Montrose, a type 23 frigate, arrived there in 2019 and the value of her presence became clear after Iran captured a British-flagged tanker, the Stena Impero, and threatened all UK shipping. Montrose responded by escorting British vessels back and forth through the Strait of Hormuz, the vital choke point at the entrance to the Gulf, ensuring that no more fell prey to Iran's campaign. Back then, Britain also kept a squadron of four minehunters in Bahrain, designed to foil any Iranian effort to mine the Strait of Hormuz. In addition there was a 16,000-ton supply ship, RFA Lyme Bay. This force meant that Britain contributed more to regional security than any other Western country apart from the United States. In 2022, HMS Lancaster succeeded Montrose as the 'forward deployed' frigate in Bahrain, but Lyme Bay returned to Britain for a refit and was not replaced. Two of the minehunters were later withdrawn. Another was damaged in a collision. 'Removing your warship removes your voice at the top table' When Lancaster leaves, Britain's only operational warship in the Middle East will be a lone minehunter, HMS Middleton. Just four years ago, there were six British ships based in Bahrain; soon there will be one. That drawdown could have far-reaching diplomatic as well as operational consequences. Bahrain is the base of the US Fifth Fleet and of the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), a naval partnership between 46 nations dedicated to protecting 3.2 million square miles of ocean. The commander of the CMF is the US Admiral in charge of the Fifth Fleet and the deputy commander has always been a Royal Navy officer, reflecting the size of Britain's contribution. But what if that presence amounts to one minehunter? Sharpe predicts that questions will be asked about Britain's position. 'The Brits have always had the deputy role and one of the reasons why we've always had it, despite the French being after it for years, is that we've always had ships there,' he says. Removing your only big warship means 'you remove your diplomacy, you remove intelligence-gathering, you remove deterrence and you remove your voice at the top table,' adds Sharpe, who commanded HMS St Albans, another type 23 frigate, in the Gulf in 2011-12. At a time when Donald Trump's Administration is demanding that allies do more for their own security, Britain's near total withdrawal of naval forces from the Gulf could raise tensions with the US. There may also be consequences for Britain's relationship with Bahrain. King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa agreed to pay for the construction of the Navy's facility on the basis that a frigate or destroyer would always be present, reflecting Britain's commitment to the security of his country. 'A huge backward step in our global posture' The officer who was instrumental in securing that agreement and re-establishing the British presence was General Sir Simon Mayall, then the Senior Middle East Advisor in the Ministry of Defence. The square in the middle of the British facility in Mina Salman port is named Mayall Square in his honour. Sir Simon, now retired, is dismayed by what he calls the 'strategic failure' of Lancaster's impending departure. 'The establishment of the Naval Support Facility in Bahrain was based on the premise that the Royal Navy would now be able to sustain a permanent presence in the wider Gulf region, offering help to our allies, reassurance to our friends, and helping advance our own security and prosperity,' he says. 'The withdrawal of HMS Lancaster, with no dedicated replacement, is a huge backward step in our global posture and a shocking reflection on the current combat readiness and strength of the Royal Navy.' And it is the threadbare state of the Royal Navy, not a deliberate British decision to turn away from the Middle East, which explains the frigate's coming departure. Thanks to the parsimony and neglect of successive governments, the Fleet is simply too small to sustain its deployment in the Gulf. The newest type 23 frigate, HMS St Albans, was commissioned as long ago as 2002. In the 15 years that followed, no British Government even started to build another warship of this was only in 2017 that work began on the first of the new type 26 frigates, which will replace the type 23s. This ship, HMS Glasgow, is not expected to enter service until 2028. Lack of successor ships leaves a worrying gap The unprecedented 15-year gap between the last type 23 frigate joining the Fleet and the beginning of the construction of their replacements explains why the Royal Navy is desperately short of ships today. Put simply, the type 23s are going out of service while their successors are still being built. The older type 23s must be decommissioned because they were designed for a service life of 18 years, which can be extended – but not forever. Lancaster has been in the Fleet for 33 years and she cannot be kept at sea any longer. Once Lancaster is decommissioned later this year, the Royal Navy will be down to just seven frigates and six destroyers – a total of 13 major warships, fewer than the navies of both France and Italy for the first time ever. As for the last time when Britain had no frigate or destroyer in the Gulf, a permanent naval presence began in 1853 with the signing of a Perpetual Maritime Truce with the rulers of what became the UAE. British warships remained based in the region right up until 1971 when Bahrain, the UAE and Qatar became independent and Britain closed its military facilities in the Gulf. Even after the bases were shut, British frigates and destroyers continued to pay regular visits. In 1976, for example, the Royal Navy dispatched a Task Group to the Middle East consisting of two destroyers and six frigates. The following year, four frigates – Mohawk, Zulu, Cleopatra and Amazon – visited Salalah and Muscat in Oman and Basra in Iraq. Then, in 1980, Iraq invaded Iran and started a brutal eight-year war, causing Britain to create the Armilla Patrol to protect shipping in the Gulf. From then onwards, between two and four frigates or destroyers were kept in the region at any given time. Even in 1982, when the Royal Navy dispatched a Task Force to the South Atlantic to regain the Falkland Islands, there were never fewer than two British ships in the Gulf. The Armilla Patrol continued until 2011 when it was succeeded by Operation Kipion, which will have kept one frigate or destroyer in the Gulf right up until Lancaster's final voyage. Once she embarks for home, the Navy will have no such warship in the region for the first time, certainly, since 1980. If regular deployments happened throughout the 1970s – and the public records are not definitive – then this will, in fact, be the first time that Britain has not had a frigate or destroyer in the Gulf since 1853. A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said that the Navy 'continues to conduct complex operations around the globe', pointing to the deployment of the Carrier Strike Group, led by HMS Prince of Wales, which is now in the Indo-Pacific. As for the Gulf, the spokesperson added: 'The UK has a long-standing maritime presence in the Gulf, and the UK Maritime Component Command in Bahrain continues to be central to the UK's military operations across the Middle East.' Soon those operations will have to proceed without a frigate or destroyer for the first time in two generations – and probably for almost two centuries.
BBC News
5 days ago
- BBC News
Driver, 83, suffered leg spasm before fatal Skipton crash
An 83-year-old driver who killed a retired police officer when a leg spasm caused him to lose control of his vehicle has been given a suspended McPherson, 80, from Horbury, in West Yorkshire, died after he was hit by a Subaru Forester being driven by Christopher Pattinson in Skipton in March Crown Court heard Pattinson had an involuntary leg spasm moments before the crash, causing him to mount the pavement and run into Mr McPherson on Belmont former Royal Navy officer, from Skipton, was given a two-year jail term, suspended for two years, after he pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving. North Yorkshire Police said multiple witnesses described how Pattinson's car failed to give way at a junction and continued at speed, before mounting a kerb and hitting Mr wife, Marjorie, who was also injured, said in a victim impact statement they had been married for 56 years, describing him as a "beloved" husband who "was kind, caring, loving and dedicated to his family"."His death was untimely and tragic, and our greatest sorrow is that we were not able to say goodbye to him," she said the incident had shrunk her world and left her "afraid to visit Skipton" and "afraid to drive". The court heard Pattinson, who walks with two sticks due to a neurological condition which affects his mobility, told police that as he put his foot on the accelerator at the junction his leg went into a said it had only happened before when he was at home and never while court heard that professionals treating Pattinson's condition, known as spastic paraparesis, had not advised him to stop Langford, for Pattinson, said her client had been in "total despair" and was truly sorry for the said Pattinson, of The Spinney, in Draughton, near Skipton, had voluntarily surrendered his driving licence a week after the fatal told the court it was of significance he did not "carry on driving against medical advice" and she urged the Recorder of Bradford Jonathan Rose to suspend the inevitable prison Langford highlighted her client's age, his early guilty plea and his caring responsibilities for his wife. 'Unique and exceptional' Judge Rose said he had carefully considered the medical evidence in the case and it was right to observe that no clinician had advised the defendant not to drive."You have surrendered your driving licence and you will never drive again," the judge told Pattinson."To be certain of that I intend to disqualify you from driving for the remainder of your life."The judge explained that the "unique and exceptional" features of the case meant he could pass a sentence outside of the after sentencing, Det Con Laura Cleary, said it had been an "absolutely tragic and needless death"."It highlights the need for everyone to ensure they are fit to drive before getting behind the wheel – regardless of their age." Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
Daily Mail
14-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Royal Navy sailor arrested after alleged bomb hoax on nuclear submarine
A Royal Navy submariner who sent Britain's Trident nuclear submarine base into lockdown after allegedly staging a bomb hoax 'prank' has been arrested. The sailor - believed to be a Petty Officer on HMS Vanguard - reportedly triggered a major emergency response after calling a bomb warning to the 15,900-tonne sub's control room. It sparked a huge security response at HMNB Clyde, where Britain's nuclear doomsday boats are based - with the headquarters being placed into lockdown. A bomb squad was reportedly scrambled to the naval establishment in Faslane, Scotland, following the alleged prank. Speaking to The Sun , an anonymous source said: 'The suspect was working in the rear of the boat, in the engineering control room, and allegedly called up front to the main control room and claimed there was a bomb on board. 'It's not clear if he lost the plot or if it was a stupid prank that went horribly wrong. The person who took the call believed it was credible and triggered a full emergency response. 'They did a quick draw and the base piped orders to the Royal Marines to guard the jetty and the submarine hatches to make sure no one could come on or off.' A Royal Navy spokesman said: 'We can confirm that a member of the Royal Navy is under investigation by the Defence Serious Crime Command for a bomb hoax.' HMS Vanguard re-entered Britain's nuclear deterrence fleet last year following a seven-year refit of the £4billion boat. However, the 492ft vessel's upgrade - meant to only take three years - was delayed for a further four due to the Covid-19 pandemic and other factors. The hi-tech boat is one of four Vanguard submarines carrying Britain's nuclear doomsday weapons. Each of the craft can carry up to 16 Trident ballistic missiles that can hold multiple nuclear warheads each, capable of levelling a major city. As part of the Royal Navy's continuous at-sea deterrent, the submarines prowl the waters across the globe for months on secret missions. One is always at sea at anyone time, ready to deploy its nuclear warheads, if ordered to do so by the Prime Minister. However, HMS Vanguard hit the headlines last January when it was chosen to carry out Britain's first nuclear missiles test in eight years.
