The deployment of British warship HMS Dragon to the Mediterranean was delayed while software updates were carried out on the ship’s weapons system, The i Paper understands.
One of six Royal Navy Type 45 destroyers, Dragon finally set sail on Tuesday to defend against drone and missile attacks a week after it was ordered to be deployed and 10 days after the war in Iran began.
The ship’s primary role will be protecting RAF Akrotiri on Cyprus, which was hit by an Iranian drone earlier this month following the beginning of the US and Israeli war on Iran. It is expected to arrive in the region within a week.
Royal Navy and private military contracting sources familiar with the preparations of the ship have said the hold-up in its departure was partly due to issues with software that commands the Sea Viper weapons system as well as the AI-driven Sycoiea defence and missile-tracking technology.
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Sea Viper, the primary anti-air warfare system used on Type 45s, is designed to protect from supersonic missiles, drones and aircraft. Sycoiea (System Coordinating Integrated Effect Assignment) is an AI tool used to enhance threat assessment and weapon allocation on the destroyers.
A private Royal Navy contractor source said: “One of the main reasons it took a week for HMS Dragon to sail was down to issues and upgrades to the weapons and defence systems’ software.”
Loading supplies onto the ship – from food to missiles – had also been slowed by the availability of private contractors, another Navy source said.
“In days gone by, the sailors would be seen physically loading the kit onto ships,” he said. “Since the logistics operations were farmed out to private firms, the Royal Navy is now reliant on the availability of things like trucks and cranes from those companies.”
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) denied there was any delay to the ship’s departure, despite announcing its deployment a week ago.
The MoD said it completed six weeks’ worth of preparation in six days to launch the vessel. However, critics claim Dragon should have already been ready for deployment.
An MoD spokesman said: “HMS Dragon has departed for the eastern Mediterranean and Royal Navy and civilian personnel have worked around the clock to prepare her for deployment, delivering in six days what normally takes six weeks.”
One former Navy chief said the slow deployment of HMS Dragon was “bizarre” and due to a lack of preparation and funding.
Admiral Lord West, former chief of the naval staff, said: “I just think it’s appalling that, of our six Type 45s, there isn’t a single one of them that’s available to go to sea at two days’ notice. It’s bizarre.
“It’s because money has been cut from defence year after year, and they haven’t had the ability to do the maintenance that’s required on them and needs to be done.”
When then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher ordered 127 warships and support vessels to defend the Falkland Islands from the Argentinian invasion in 1982, the fleet set sail within two days. It included two aircraft carriers and nine destroyers.
Military sources also suggested that one of Britain’s two aircraft carriers, HMS Prince of Wales – which was placed in an advanced state of readiness on Saturday but now looks unlikely to be deployed towards Iran – has also been hit by problems with its weapons software.
This would not be the first problem to hit Prince of Wales since being commissioned in 2019. It, as well as the Royal Navy’s other carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, have faced persistent mechanical, maintenance and operational issues.
The MoD denied there had been any change in the decision to prepare Prince of Wales for deployment in the Iran war, despite Donald Trump’s recent claim that the UK’s support is not required.
“No decisions to change the deployment of HMS Prince of Wales have been taken,” said the MoD spokesman.
“HMS Prince of Wales has always been on very high readiness, and we are increasing the preparedness of the carrier, reducing the time it would take to set sail for any deployment.”