The Royal Navy has been left without its only ice patrol ship after HMS Protector suffered two engine failures while sailing from the UK. The ship was towed back to Devonport in Plymouth, the “Daily Telegraph“ reported.
The Navy is assessing whether the damage can be repaired. A Royal Navy spokesman said: “HMS Protector has returned to its home port of Devonport while an investigation into the damage is carried out. It remains part of the fleet, and decisions about its immediate future will be made in due course.“
If repairs prove impossible, the UK could be left without a replacement ship until the 2030s. The Royal Navy has already said that HMS Protector will be replaced by a more modern version, but it has not said when the new ship will enter service.
The ship maintains the British presence in Antarctica
HMS Protector mainly patrols the South Atlantic and around Antarctica. It carries out hydrographic surveys, supports British and foreign scientific stations and works in conjunction with the British Antarctic Survey. The ship is part of the British presence in the British Antarctic Territory, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
According to the Royal Navy, HMS Protector is at sea for an average of around 330 days a year. The ship has a crew of 88 and can remain without external support for more than three months.
Commander Tom Sharp, who commanded the previous British ice patrol ship HMS Endurance, described the decommissioning of Protector as “bad timing”. He said the withdrawal of the ice patrol capability in the South Atlantic comes against a backdrop of tensions over the Falklands Islands and the growing importance of the Arctic.
HMS Protector was refitted less than a year ago
The ship was built in Norway in 2001 as MV Polarbjorn and was commissioned into the Royal Navy in 2013 as HMS Protector. In late 2025, it underwent extensive repairs and modernization, after which it returned to Devonport for trials before a new deployment.
In January, ship repair company UK Docks announced that after a five-year planned overhaul, the ship was ready to begin trials and training before resuming its missions as an ice patrol ship. The new damage was discovered during the subsequent voyage.
Sources: aol.com, news.rambler.ru