Britain has increased its permanent military presence at Gibraltar with the arrival of two fast patrol vessels

Britain has increased its permanent military presence at Gibraltar with the arrival of two fast patrol vessels, formerly on service in Northern Ireland.The two armed vessels will join another two, smaller patrol vessels, bringing to four the number of patrol vessels in the Gibraltar Squadron. This squadron is the only resident sea-going Royal Navy unit here. It operates 24 hours a day to "primarily provide maritime security and a visible presence within territorial waters along with search and rescue," said a spokesman at British Forces Gibraltar.The First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Sir Alan West, together with the Deputy Chief of Joint Operations, Air Vice Marshal Paul Robinson, will be taking part on Friday in the commissioning ceremony of the two new ships, formerly the Greyfox and the Greywolf, which are being renamed HMS Scimitar and HMS Sabre.The new craft carry twice the armament of the two smaller vessels, HMS Ranger and HMS Trumperer, and have a maximum speed of 30 knots.Apart from this resident presence, British warships are known to be in the Gibraltar area on a regular basis and also call here to take on supplies, as did the frigate HMS Westminster on Thursday.Ships of the British task force on their way to the Iraq crisis area were last week provided with logistical support in an operation involving Sea King and Chinook helicopters which "on and off loading passengers and equipment," said a military spokesman.Referring to additional security at the RAF airfield, a military spokesman said: "While there was no specific intelligence of an increased threat to the British forces in Gibraltar, prudent counter terrorism measures were taken against the background of the continuing worldwide Al Qaida threat."Although the British military presence here has been shrinking over the years (from representing over 60 per cent of the economy to about 10 per cent at present), the British ministry of defence will be spending pounds sterling 62 million at Gibraltar in the current financial year. Its main functions include recently-refurbished nuclear submarine berths and extensive communications/intelligence gathering facilities. The new British Governor and Commander-in-Chief, from April, will be Sir Francis Richards, until now the director of the British Government's electronic spy centre (GCHQ) at Cheltenham, England.
The British base here has a total of 1,800 personnel, about half of whom are members of the armed forces, the rest being civilian support staff.