Royal Navy Special Forces join US carrier strike group near Iran.

The Royal Navy Special Boat Service (SBS, the Royal Navy equivalent of the SAS) has apparently joined the US carrier strike group currently deployed in the Persian Gulf, near Iran, in order to counter potential Iranian attacks on UK merchant ships.

The Royal Navy SBS corps training off the coast of Pembrokeshire (Picture Source: UK MoD)

According to The Express, two units from the Royal Navy SBS, the UK's elite amphibious special forces, have joined the UK registered oil tankers transiting the Persian Gulf south through the Strait of Hormuz, where they will have to monitor Iranian activities around the Island of Qesham (home to Iranian warships).

"Both teams will collate information as the ships move south through the Strait of Hormuz and into the Gulf of Oman, where it is understood they will be airlifted off by Royal Navy Merlin helicopters operating out of Oman," reports the Express.

This comes after the U.S. government took the decision to deploy one of its carrier strike groups (CSG 12), which comprises the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) with its embarked Carrier Air Wing Seven (CAW 7), the guided-missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf (CG 55), the guided-missile destroyers from Destroyer Squadron Two (DESRON 2), along with the Spanish Navy Alvaro de Bazan-class frigate, ESPS Mendez Nunez (F-104).

Last week, the Spanish frigate as been pulled from the CSG. Spanish Defence minister Margarita Robles said that Spain had never given its blessing for the frigate to go on a mission in the Persian Gulf when it had taken the decision of the two-year cooperation agreement in which this frigate is implicated. Though, the frigate will return to the CSG when this one goes back to its scheduled deployments.