Letter to the Editor: Military Data Gathering and the RFA

Sir, – Matthew Baylis [111/3, pg. 79] lays out a case for deployment of the new MROSS as a niche UK capability alongside key partners in the Indo-Pacific region. This step would take the vessels, under their RFA ensigns, into a theatre over which the shadow still hangs of the seizure of the USS Pueblo (AGER-2) in 1968. Despite that incident, the USN has continued its ocean surveillance and associated operations, including the hydrographic and oceanographic work of the US Naval Oceanographic Office, in ships commanded and crewed with civilians. Hence the RN’s ability to deploy warship hul…