Probe into warship's lack of missiles 22.11.11
3It has emerged that a Royal Navy frigate held only two rounds of missiles when it carried out operations off Libya. HMS Westminster was armed with just four missiles during Operation Ellamy despite being equipped to carry 32 Seawolf and eight Harpoon missiles. Ursula Brennan, Permanent Under Secretary of State at the MOD, said: "The assessment of the risk to HMS Westminster would have taken into account the other capabilities that we had in terms of submarines, aircraft and surveillance and so on and said 'in those circumstances, do we think that is a risk worth taking?' "That is a judgement our operations people take on a daily basis." But Penny Mordaunt, Conservative MP for Portsmouth North and HMS Westminster's home city, said: "I'm absolutely convinced and so are other warfare officers I've spoken to that Westminster would have been in danger. "We've hollowed out the capability to a dangerous level." A Royal Navy spokesman said: "The air threat to Royal Navy ships on humanitarian operations off Benghazi was low. "HMS Westminster could defend itself with Sea Wolf missiles, and could have been resupplied if necessary. "The assessment of risk for that particular operation was correct and the Sea Wolf capability was not used."