The commander of the boarding party doesn't have the radar capability that the Frigate has. The helo would also be pretty much useless as a picket to force the Iranian ships to go around in order to reach the boarding party.
The Frigate had to have known where the Iranian ships were, and should have put itself between those ships and its boarding party.
The Iranians are clearly not our friends as they have shown in the past, and there is no excuse for the commander of the frigate leaving his people exposed like that.
The rules of engagement would prevent any direct action in such circumstances. In that situation nothing would be done to endanger the lives of those detained.
Which is why that situation, which could have been foresee, since it has happened before, should have never been allowed to occur. Those men were surrendered without any chance to stop the Iranians because of gross strategic incompetence by the commander.
This was foreseeable, and preventable.
He left his men exposed to a far superior force from a nation that has shown past aggression in the area, and is actively working to undermine their mission in the area.
Bear in mind that they would be under U.S. control.Even U.S. commanders wouldn't have wanted to escalate and endanger the RN guys detained in such circumstances by violating Iranian waters or airspace.
You're missing the point. The circumstance where the Iraninas were able to get to those boats without having to confront the Frigate should have never been allowed to occur.
Your argument is that after he had already grossly failed in his duty the situation became such that there was no longer anything that he could do about it, so he shouldn't be held accountable for his original failure.
But you fail to see that putting Cornwall between the merchant vessel and the Iranian patrol boats might have meant Cornwall would be inside Iranian waters.
No Captain will be relieved of his command over this. It is the rules of engagement that are fault.
Even after the events in 2004 Iranian naval vessels were allowed to shadow all the way upto their territorial waterway limits. That both sides did. It has been seen consitantly since then as is the rights of both sides to do so. In this case the Iranians had an alterior motive in detaining the Royal Navy team.