Ship may be platform for SAS raids

Sending the Ark Royal, the Navy's leading surface ship, to the eastern Mediterranean puts it in position to lead any British task force against Iraq from either the Mediterranean or, more likely, the Gulf.

"We realise this move would create a great deal of excitement at this time," said an MoD spokesman this morning, but he declined to go into detail.

The Ark Royal can carry up to 12 FA2 Sea Harriers and RAF GR7 strike Harriers, and is the first major ship to deploy the new Merlin anti-submarine helicopter, the most powerful of its kind.

The ship has undergone a major mid-life refit. It carries the Navy's latest data-link equipment. This means a commander can run whole operations from the ship, and be in touch with the Americans via satellite and encrypted email. The Ark Royal is about the best British ship for leading a complex operation in the build-up to any mission in Iraq.

In the Mediterranean the exercise, scheduled for some months, will test the ability of the Navy and allies to build up forces rapidly. For any serious operation against Iraq, the Ark Royal and its task group is likely to move to the northern Gulf or the Arabian or Red Sea.

It would be joined by a second capital ship, most likely the 29,000-ton helicopter assault carrier HMS Ocean, which recently led the British naval task force in operations against al Qaeda in the Gulf and the Arabian Sea.

It also helped launch leading elements of 45 Commando Royal Marines when it was sent into Afghanistan.

Ocean only returned from the region two months ago, leaving the British naval blocking force to be led by a frigate, HMS Argyll.

In a long operation, HMS Ark Royal might be converted into a special forces and commando assault carrier. The fixed wing aircraft, the Harriers of the Navy and RAF, would be taken off. Decks would be converted to storage and training areas for Marines, and the SAS and SBS.

Up to five RAF special forces Chinook helicopters would be embarked along with more than a dozen commando-carrying Sea King helicopters.

Ark Royal's sister ship HMS Illustrious was converted rapidly into a commando carrier last autumn to help the Americans move special forces at the beginning of action in Afghanistan. The conversion was regarded as a great success and Illustrious proved highly effective working in tandem with the American fleet carrier Kittyhawk.

An offshore task group led by the Ark Royal and Ocean would be an effective operational base as Gulf states are becoming increasingly sensitive about hosting American and British forces as rumours of war with Iraq gather pace. Both the British and Americans-have forward bases and artillery and tanks stored in Kuwait, where up to 20,000 US forces are due to be deployed on exercise this month.

But Kuwait, along with Saudi Arabia, has said it would not like to be used for offensives against Iraq unless there was a full UN mandate to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Traditional British allies in the region such as Bahrain and Oman are almost as reluctant.

British and allied maritime aircraft patrols have picked up the movements of known Taliban and al Qaeda supporters fleeing back to the Arabian Peninsula, according to reports.

One nightmare scenario being taken seriously is that radicals could try to close the Straits of Hormuz, the choke point in the Gulf, to tankers from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

The biggest clue about what Britain and its allies intend for Ark Royal and its escorts is who they send to command the group. If they send a senior admiral, it will mean business.

Any move of the Ark Royal towards the Gulf may prove the prelude to a long operation to squeeze Saddam Hussein, with the US leading operations from the north of Iraq and the British leading operations in the south to blockade Bazra and the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates.

"There'll be a lot of excitement and rushing around but we may not be fully prepared until the spring," said a senior British commander in the past few days.