British sailors will be forced to use German ships on a key Nato mission in what has been branded a "national embarrassment".
The UK is unable to meet its commitments in the Atlantic Ocean and Baltic Sea due to having no warships available.
The Royal Navy is set to lead the Standing Nato Maritime Group One, a permanent naval immediate reaction force operating in the Baltic Sea and North Atlantic Ocean.
But it will do so using a German vessel - though one carrying British personnel.
"As the UK deploys HMS Dragon to the eastern Mediterranean, German frigate Sachsen will take over from HMS Dragon as NATO maritime task group flagship - an expression of the close German-British partnership," the German embassy in London confirmed on Wednesday.
The Type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon was deployed to the eastern Mediterranean and arrived to the coasts of Cyprus earlier this week.
This left the UK with just one other Type 45 in service, the HMS Duncan - with the HMS Daring only just returning from eight years of maintenance work and is undergoing sea trials.
With the HMS Dragon in Mediterranean waters, Britain has been left with very few ships to fulfill its Nato commitments
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The German frigate Sachsen will take the place of HMS Dragon in an upcoming Nato deployment
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Earlier this month, Defence Secretary John Healey claimed the UK would be able to fulfil its Nato commitments.
But yesterday a senior Labour MP said the UK's inability to deploy a ship for the Nato mission highlighted worries about "lack of mass and capabilities" in Britain's defence.
Conservative MP and veteran Ben Obese-Jecty said he had repeatedly raised the issue of missing Britain's Nato commitments.
"It is a national embarrassment that the Royal Navy has run out of ships... Britannia most definitely does not rule the waves," he told The i Paper.
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Defence Secretary John Healey said the UK would fulfill its Nato commitments despite deployments to the Strait of Hormuz
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He said earlier in the month, Mr Healey assured him the Royal Navy would fulfill its Nato commitments.
Mr Obese-Jecty blamed the failure on the Blair Government's decision to halve the number of Type 45s from 12 to six in its original order.
HMS Duncan was the last of the six destroyers to be completed from the 2010 order - and is set to take part in Operation Firecrest in the High North, an operation led by HMS Prince of Wales, which was prepared to be deployed to Iran earlier this month.
The former head of the Royal Navy and Labour peer Lord West urged the Government to prioritise defence spending.
Ben Obese-Jecty said it was a 'national embarrassment' for the Royal Navy to be run out of ships
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He told The i Paper the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz showed how "maritime is extremely important", with a Navy incapable of doing what is expected by the British public.
The Royal Navy has considered sending civilian ships instead of military vessels to the waterway to clear Iranian sea mines.
"The flow of traffic over the oceans of the world is something we have always put huge effort into, and now we’ve got so few ships – we’ve been so cut back. But I don’t think people realise how much that puts us in peril," he said.
"Money needs to be spent today. This has got to be done with real seriousness. We are almost at the stage where we have to go to a war footing to get things done."
A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman said: "Our commitment to Nato remains unwavering, and the UK will fulfil its leadership role in SNMG1 as planned, with a Royal Navy Commodore assuming command next month."