Royal Navy frigate arrives in Japan on three-year deployment to Middle East

Royal Navy’s Type 23 Frigate HMS Montrose arrived in Japan on March 8, becoming the fourth Royal Navy ship to visit the country in a year.

HMS Montrose pulled into Tokyo for a six-day stay at Harumi Wharf before starting exercises with Japan’s Maritime Self Defence Force and the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet.

Such joint operations are intended to generally support peace in the western Pacific Rim and specifically to put pressure on North Korea and Pyongyang’s illegal nuclear program.

The frigate is in the final stages of a mammoth journey from Devon to Bahrain which has taken her to the Caribbean, South America, numerous South Pacific idylls, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore.

Eventually she’ll take up station in the Gulf where she’ll be based for up to three years at the RN’s new support facility, with crew being replaced every four months to sustain her long-term security/peacekeeping presence.