HMS Kent made history this week when she became the first British warship to sail into the Persian Gulf as part of a joint UK/French carrier strike group.
At 42,000 tonnes the French aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle is the pride of the French Navy and on her current deployment she is being escorted by Royal Navy anti submarine frigate HMS Kent.
It is the second time that Kent has supported an aircraft carrier in the Gulf as she recently worked with the US Navy’s USS Carl Vinson in the same region.
Their entry into the Gulf begins a three month period during which the Portsmouth-based ship will protect the French carrier from threats lurking under the water as she launches jets striking ISIL targets.
Having completed a series of exercises to get used to the way each country does business, the combined French and British carrier strike group, consisting of the aircraft carrier, her British anti-submarine escort HMS Kent, her air defence destroyer FS Chevalier Paul and her oiler support ship FS Meuse, stopped in Djibouti en route to the Gulf.
HMS Kent has since departed from Djibouti and escorted Charles De Gaulle through the Straits of Hormuz and into the Gulf.
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Image: LA(Phot) Simmo Simpson