MoD tight-lipped on British role in Iran

The Royal Navy’s spokesperson has refused to confirm whether UK sailors are aboard American ships bound for Iran. This is despite one ship in the USS Gerald R. Ford’s carrier group always having a British navigator, according to the Royal Navy’s own website.

The denials persist despite previous confirmations by the Defence Secretary himself – albeit to a much more pliable media outlet than the Canary: Murdoch’s Sky News.

The USS Gerald Ford Carrier group is Iran-bound in the Mediterranean. The supercarrier and its accompanying destroyers are headed for the Suez canal. The group will join with other US warships in the Gulf as the US threatens to attack Iran.

British navigator

The Ford has been in the Caribbean for several months. The carrier took part in the kidnap of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.

Star and Stripes broke down the carrier group’s composition:

The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and presumably its escorts, the destroyers USS Winston S. Churchill, USS Bainbridge and USS Mahan, transited the Strait of Gibraltar on Friday, photographs posted by local ship watchers show.

As the Royal Navy’s own website bragged in September 2025:

USS Winston S Churchill is always deployed with a British navigator as a nod to the destroyer’s name but also to the close bond between the United States and the UK.

Note: “always”.

UK personnel may have been involved in the Venezuela raid in larger numbers. We asked the Ministry of Defence (MoD) about Venezuela operations in November 2025. We couldn’t get a straight answer then either.

Multiple UK personnel aboard

In November 2025, Sky News reported:

A small number of British military personnel – single digits – are understood to be deployed on USS Gerald R Ford, a giant US aircraft carrier, and other warships that form part of the carrier strike group that has been sent towards Venezuela.

The Murdoch-owned outlet said:

The defence secretary was asked whether these British personnel would be allowed to take part in any US attack on the country.

Healy replied:

We will make sure as we always do that our British military are consistent with international humanitarian law.

In terms of military and intelligence operations and sharing with the US, they are out closest security defence and intelligence partner and they will remain so.

Iran armada

The Canary asked the MoD if this was still the case on 23 February:

Can I confirm it is still practice/policy to have a British navigator on the USS Winston Churchill? And that there is one aboard currently?

And:

Can I also confirm the number of British personnel in the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier group overall? Article from November say ‘single digits’

Royal Navy spokesperson Commander Serena Brotherton replied:

I can only point you in the direction of a recent PQ [parliamentary question] on this topic, which is below.

Brotherton linked us to this exchange recorded in Hansard on 6 January 2026 – three days after the Caracas kidnap operation.

Labour MP Brian Leishman’s question ran as follows:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether UK armed forces personnel are embedded in the US Gerald Ford carrier strike group in the Caribbean.

Defence minister Al Carns replied on 12 January:

Personnel from His Majesty’s Armed Forces routinely serve on long‑standing exchange programmes with NATO Allies and key international partners. These arrangements strengthen interoperability, enhance mutual understanding, and support our shared security aims.

For reasons of operational and personnel security, the Ministry of Defence does not comment on the specific roles, locations, or units in which UK personnel may be embedded.

Either UK personnel are aboard the US warships being positioned to threaten – and possibly attack – Iran or they are not. Self-evidently, there is a public interest in knowing it this is the case. And Carns’ claim that the MoD does not comment on “specific roles, locations, or units in which UK personnel may be embedded” is clearly inaccurate.

Carn’s own boss, John Healy, and the Navy’s own website have both publicly commented on the presence of British personnel on US warships.

The MOD is contradicting itself again.

Featured image via the Canary