England's
capture of Gibraltar in 1704 provided an essential operating base for the Royal Navy at the entrance to the Mediterranean and led to the establishment of a strong naval presence in the territory. This permanent British fleet presence at Gibraltar was maintained in varied forms through the centuries until the rundown and abolition of the British
Mediterranean Fleet in 1967. From the 1970s, the British naval presence in the region took on a more intermittent character, though Gibraltar remained important as a British naval staging base and was so used, for example, during the
Falklands War in 1982. The importance of ensuring the security of Royal Navy facilities in Gibraltar was illustrated by the mooted but thwarted Argentine special forces
Operation Algeciras which envisaged an attack on British ships using Gibraltar during the War. Gibraltar remains an important staging base for the Royal Navy, for instance hosting some 79 ship visits during 2022. All told, between 12,000 and 14,000 British military personnel are said to transit through Gibraltar in any given year. Gibraltar incorporates underground weapon storage facilities suitable for holding munition stocks that can be drawn on to replenish Royal Navy vessels. In 2024,
HMS Diamond transitted to Gibraltar to replenish its stocks of
Aster 15 and/or 30 missiles after
operations in the Red Sea against Houthis rebels. The current Gibraltar Squadron, focused on the role of base and coastal security, was established on 28 August 1985 following the withdrawal of the
RAF Marine Craft Unit No. 1102. The two motor launches attached to the previous unit, HMAFV
Sunderland and
Stirling, remained however and were subsequently renamed HM ships Hart and Cormorant respectively. In August 2011 the unit moved into its new facilities in the Old Boathouse on the Gibraltar waterfront. HM Ships
Scimitar and
Sabre, previously known as MV
Grey Fox and MV
Grey Wolf respectively, had previously served in Northern Ireland. The two boats were capable of 30 knots and were armed with two General Purpose Machine guns (
GPMGs). They were deployed with the Gibraltar Squadron from 2002 until 2020, when they were replaced on an interim basis by the
Archer-class boats,
Dasher and
Pursuer. The
Spanish Navy and
Civil Guard regularly and repeatedly enter Gibraltar territorial waters and vessels of the squadron are routinely dispatched to intercept them. In April 2024, a patrol boat belonging to the Spanish Civil Guard crashed into runway lights adjacent to the runway at the Gibraltar airport after reportedly pursuing suspected smugglers into Gibraltar territorial waters. Despite serious damage, the boat managed to return to Spain. The issue of sovereignty over Gibraltar has been a matter of contention between the
United Kingdom and
Spain since the territory first became a British colony and latterly an overseas territory. In 2012, the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government undertook a review of the facilities and services associated with British Forces in Gibraltar. The review, known as Project EUSTON, has established that the three service units (the Gibraltar Squadron,
RAF Gibraltar and the
Gibraltar Regiment) will remain whilst some facilities and services will be handed over to the civilian government. In July 2017 it was revealed that the squadron would receive two new warships which will be more "capable", "faster" and have "bigger guns", to replace HM Ships
Sabre and
Scimitar "within the next two years". In June 2020, pending further news of the new-build vessels, and , a pair of patrol boats previously attached to the
Cyprus Squadron, were transported to Gibraltar to serve as interim replacements for
Sabre and
Scimitar. In July 2020, a contract was signed between the MoD and
Merseyside-based boat builder
Marine Specialised Technology for the construction and delivery of two new boats for Gibraltar. The first boat arrived in Gibraltar in November 2021 and the second arrived in March 2022. In May, 2022 the two
Archer-class patrol boats,
Dasher and
Pursuer, departed Gibraltar and returned to the U.K. In April 2021, pursuant to a decision announced in the
2021 defence white paper, the 2000-tonne Offshore Patrol Vessel
HMS Trent also arrived for permanent posting at Gibraltar. == Current organisation ==