Britain prepares destroyer-led mission to reopen Strait of Hormuz

Britain has put a Type 45 destroyer, HMS Dragon, on a forward path to the region as Europe tries to build a multinational force that could reopen the Strait of Hormuz without waiting for Washington to take the lead. The ship’s deployment is meant to keep the United Kingdom ready for a future mission to secure the waterway and protect freedom of navigation once conditions allow.

The operational outline is still taking shape, but the work has already moved beyond rhetoric. Military planners from more than 30 nations gathered at Northwood on April 22 for a two-day conference aimed at reopening the strait when the environment becomes permissive. Britain and France are set to host the first meeting of defence ministers for the coalition, while the UK government has said the mission would complement diplomacy and de-escalation and would still be subject to national caveats and parliamentary procedures.

That matters because the strait is not a symbolic lane. The U.S. Energy Information Administration says it carried an average of 20 million barrels a day in 2024, about 20% of global petroleum liquids consumption. Its latest outlook says the strait has been effectively closed to shipping since military action began on February 28, and Brent crude climbed as high as $138 a barrel on April 7. The Royal Navy said shipping traffic through the passage had fallen by more than 90% and that more than two dozen ships had been damaged or suffered casualties trying to transit the area. It also said about 20,000 sailors were trapped in the Gulf.

The wider energy shock has already reached deep into the Gulf’s producers. Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain collectively shut in 10.5 million barrels a day of crude oil production in April, a reminder that any failure to restore the route would keep pressure on prices far beyond the region. If reopening stalls, oil markets would likely stay tight, marine insurance would remain expensive, and U.S. consumers would feel the cost through fuel, freight and higher import prices.

Britain’s posture also builds on earlier multinational practice. A March 19 joint statement backed the Strait of Hormuz effort with support from leaders across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific and the Americas, and Operation Sentinel, described by the Royal Navy in 2021, showed how an international staff in Bahrain can coordinate deterrence with assets and expertise from eight nations. For Europe, the test is whether a Britain-backed mission can turn that model into a real escort and clearance operation fast enough to matter.