HMS Queen Elizabeth, HMS Duncan, HMS Iron Duke and RFA Tideforce are to be transferred to EU command.

**This is an April Fools joke, the reason for this specific topic being chosen is outlined at the end of the article. Also If you’re reading this because someone shared it after the 1st of April, that person doesn’t read the articles they share and you should probably be wary of their posts.**

British vessels are being transferred to temporary European Union command for the next 6 weeks, the reason for this according to the Government, is to enable better interoperability with allies and to gain favour in negotiations with the European Union.

Some however have expressed concern that the vessels will be used against the United Kingdom.

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said:

“The United Kingdom has voted to leave the European Union but opinions vary on this topic.”

According to the Minister for Naval Matters, Parking and Urban Planning, Ronald ‘Mr Suave’ Monsoon:

“It’s in our mutual interest to work closely with the EU and its member states to challenge terrorism and extremism, illegal migration, cyber crime, and conventional state-based military aggression.”

The Force Commander, Rear Admiral Hernández, recently visited EU NAVFOR ship ITS Carlo Margottini from his flagship, ESPS Navarra. Cooperation between nations increases capability. #counterpiracy #maritimesecurity ?????? pic.twitter.com/9BFV917C0k — EU NAVFOR (@EUNAVFOR) March 19, 2019

Previous efforts to strengthen links have been unsuccessful for decades due to Britain’s opposition to a combined European military.

“We’ve never come this far before,” a senior European Union official told Reuters, he said of EU defence integration efforts that date back to a failed bid in the 1950s. “We are in a new situation.”

The permanent structured cooperation on defence agreement (PESCO), seeks to tighten defence between EU members and improve coordination in the development of new military hardware. Aside from Denmark, which has opted out of all EU defence, only Austria, Poland, Ireland and Malta have yet to decide whether to join the pact.

Many NATO nations are also members of the European Union and the nations are trying to square the defence requirements for each alliance, the head of NATO noted at a conference.

“I welcome EU efforts on defence,” the secretary general of NATO said. “They are an opportunity to further strengthen the European pillar within NATO and contribute to better burden-sharing. But with opportunity comes risk:The risk of weakening the transatlantic bond; the risk of duplicating what we are already doing; and the risk of discriminating against non-EU members of the NATO alliance. The reality is the European Union cannot protect Europe by itself,” Jens Stoltenberg said.

The vessels will form part of a new fleet which will be based out of Calais.

If you have read this far, you will undoubtedly have noticed that the entire story is a fabrication put together by contributors from various parts of the UK defence community and is simply, an April Fools joke.

Did you also notice that a few well placed Tweets, a few intentionally created rumours and off hand comments were enough to create outrage over this news? People got wound up without any evidence, without any confirmation and without any research of their own.

The purpose of this article, aside from our usual April Fools day joke, is to highlight that reading beyond the headline should be the ‘done thing’ for every article and not only those published today. The real message behind this article is, be careful when you read news online or offline as sometimes it’s entirely false.