Stakes are high for HMS Argyll as she joins in major Gulf exercise

Fresh from honouring those who safeguarded the Gulf in the past, frigate HMS Argyll knuckled down to the task of safeguarding the Gulf present in a major exercise to protect the region’s crucial oil rigs.

The Devonport-based warship was Britain’s participant in the annual Stakenet exercise – taking her place alongside Kuwaiti patrol craft KNS Mobark and Maskan, American Arleigh Burke destroyers USS John Paul Jones and Sterett and patrol ships Chinook and Typhoon for five days.

Stakenet has a singular aim – to enhance the ability of regional and visiting navies to work together and protect the oil rigs and gas terminals which pepper the 97,000 square miles of the Gulf from the shores of Kuwait and Iraq to the sands of the United Arab Emirates.

The region is responsible for between one fifth and one third of the world’s oil – while the UK relies on natural gas from Qatar for a sizeable proportion of its energy supply – so the stakes of Stakenet are pretty high…

Run under the banner of Combined Task Force 152 – responsible for maritime security in the entire Gulf and currently under the command of Kuwait’s Colonel Khalid Abdullah – Stakenet tested tactics and procedures of the participants to ensure they were well-practised and understood by all.

Argyll, which has been in the Gulf since last autumn, joined Stakenet after a few days’ break in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, where, among other things, her ship’s company restored the graves of British personnel who died while serving in the Middle East four decades ago.

From break to breakneck. The five-day exercise, said Cdr Paul Stroude, Argyll’s Commanding Officer, offered “valuable lessons” for his ship’s company – and all the other participants.

“Stakenet provided valuable lessons in the realistic scenario of highly specialist coastal defence vessels of nations, such as Kuwait, having to integrate into task groups with Royal Navy and US Navy blue-water assets deployed in the region.

“This is particularly pertinent since Royal and US Navy units regularly operate together and have a long-standing familiarity developed through NATO – but this is not always the case for the broader combined maritime forces.“

“It was a typical example of the exercises that we have been participating in – and which are critical to the ability for the combined maritime forces to operate effectively together.”

Colonel Khalid Abdullah hailed the exercise as a “great success”.

He continued: “Stakenet showed how well the Kuwait Navy can work at sea with coalition partners. Vessels from the Kuwait Navy, Coastguard, and Marines combined with US and UK ships and air assets, working as one team to defend critical maritime infrastructure.

“We even successfully tested newly acquired communications gear that worked wonderfully. I’m very proud of how all the units assigned to CTF 152 performed during this exercise.”