The Ministry of Defence has declined to give a commissioning date for the Royal Navy’s first Type 32 frigate, saying future capability plans are being considered as part of the forthcoming Defence Investment Plan (DIP).
In a written answer to Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell, who asked when the first Type 32 would enter service, Defence Minister Luke Pollard said the department was “continuously evaluating its capabilities, including potential enhancements to the Royal Navy’s fleet.”
He noted that under the Strategic Defence Review, the Royal Navy is moving toward a “Hybrid Navy,” combining crewed and uncrewed vessels. Pollard said this shift would be supported by modular and reconfigurable technologies, allowing for “faster, smarter procurement and scalable platforms to increase mass and effect.”
He added that future naval procurement decisions would be set out under the Defence Investment Plan, stating that “it would be inappropriate to provide further detail at this time.”
The Type 32 programme was first announced in 2020 as part of the government’s National Shipbuilding Strategy, intended to follow the ongoing Type 26 and Type 31 frigate builds. Its role and design remain under review as the Navy adapts to new operational concepts and automation technologies.
As previously reported by the UK Defence Journal in January, the Ministry of Defence confirmed that the Type 32 remains in its concept phase, with no defined timetable for design or procurement.
Since then, there has been little sign of progress on the project while decisions await the outcome of the wider Defence Investment Plan review.
This has looked like a fantasy project ever since Boris announced it. We have no clear idea what the mission might be anyway. If we want to icrease the number of frigates without breaking the bank, how about a Batch 2 Type 31 with a proper ASW capability, or is that far too logical to ever happen?
Logic is not a word understood in gooberment or political circles.
There is a need for a platform that can deploy drones for ASW and MCM missions in a contested environment. That’s what T32 was outlined for.
On the positive sight T32 is still being considered and is not totally dead.
No it wasn’t, the “t32” is and always has been a floating name with no actual real purpose or money ever spent on it. Almost certainly a slip of the tongue by good old Boris which he never admitted to and the RN and MoD paid lip service to in the hopes of using it as some sort of stepping stone or lever to a reality hence the fairly frequent statements about what it might be ….
There is no money!
Chagos, rising wages and inflation means there already is an extra £2bn hole that needs filling before we even begin to look at things like T32. There isn’t even an order for RCH155 despite the army only having 14 interim Archer howitzers.
Defence is utterly broken. A $70bn budget should get us more than a fleet of escorts.
They won’t place an order yet for RCH-155 until they are sure of the jobs it’s going to create or maintain in the U.K., as they’ll want them produced here.
So that means Rheinmetall getting the new gun barrel factory built – which will supply both Chally 3 and then RCH-155.
They’ll also want to see how well U.K. Boxer manufacturing is going, as RCH-155 uses the same chassis. While the first 100 were mainly built in Germany the remaining 500+ will be built here. Plus the army is interested in at least 3 more variants, such as self-propelled mortar, bridging, recovery.
That’s all really sensible to build-up and maintain industrial capacity in peacetime, but it doesn’t fit with the urgency of NATO possible being at war within the next few years…
That’s all reasoned well enough. Is there a published date for the factory to be built if we’re hanging on that?
The UK has a new 155mm gun barrel factory in Sheffield as reported on here and elsewhere.
It opened back in June this year by BAE Systems and employs 200 people in Sheffield. Initially it will produce M777 barrels but will eventually support other systems. My guess is that it will be the factory that supports RCH-155…
Cheers CR
Original story reported on UKDJ 12 June, 2025.
Honestly, I’m still convinced this was a slip of the tongue that they just never wanted to admit to, and continuous governments have not wanted to be the ones who look like they are cancelling a project.
I agree. And it’s a myth that’s useful for the MOD to keep running because they can look good hanging all sorts of fantasy projects off it that they can ‘cancel’ when it eventually suits them. “Hey look, the government have saved billions cancelling Boris’ silly project.”
Spot on, I’m amazed at how many people believe otherwise.
Probably because the Prime Minister annouced it as part of a growing navy and there was much speculation as to what role it would play.
Quite agree with you, the Polish type 31 frigates have hull and towed sonar.
Yes, there is probably merit in considering a quietened version of T31 with the CAPTAS 2 sonar to fulfill the T32 role.
Sonar 2087 (CAPTAS 4) is world class but expensive, having 8 of those supported by 5 T32 operating CAPTAS 2 would go along way to taking pressure off the escort force. The 5 T31’s could then handle non ASW tasking in the Mediterranean, south Atlantic and Gulf.
when venturer finally joins the fleet I want to know how much it actually cost from laying down to going operational £250mimllion ? methinks maybe double that figure. and will no doubt have an effect on class order sizes for many years or decades to come. export deals won’t be helped when a customer asks how much are they? imagine that when you go to look at it new car not when you’ve no idea what it will cost. T31 £250 muulimllion? no, double that and far longer to actually get. and will greatly increase the fitting out period
/googles what is word salad -and please give an example > “shift would be supported by modular and reconfigurable technologies, allowing for “faster, smarter procurement and scalable platforms to increase mass and effect”
maybe we should send some of these grand orators to Ukraine with a speaker phone because they will quite possibly put the Russian troops to sleep or kill them with boredom
So It’s taken 5 years so far, just to say/confirm nothing is happening.
Anyone know how much money has been spent getting us this far ?
Nothing will ever change, doesn’t matter what government is in power, no party will truely take defense seruously.
Feels like the West is hoping Ukraine does enough damage to ruzzia they wont be able to fight for years.
I fear you are right, if this actually war ends the Govt will be shi..ting itself hoping all those big words don’t make them the next target with only paper tigers as a shield. It’s like being at the back bigging it up, hoping beyond hope the kids in front are tough enough to stop the big bully getting through to you.
“Fight, fight fight fight” oh shit, “run away”.
The excuse will be we won’t need as many conventional warships as we now have a hybrid navy.
I can see it coming.
Question.
Can these mass of uncrewed or optimally crewed assets deploy thousands.of miles away and operate in the same sea states of a Frigate or Destroyer?
As if they’re only for the Atlantic Bastion we have in effect withdrawn to a defensive stance, leaving the sea lanes of the world to others or our small fleet which is needed to be mothers to the uncrewed stuff.
Ha, Toy Boats capsize rather easily on a bloody boating lake, hell I even have trouble playing Pirates of the Caribbean in the bath.
We really don’t need that mental image 🫣
I keep getting that image of the Iranians towing those US sail drones (which I now hear the US are planning to arm) back to port while real ships try to stop them. Hardly encouraging in face of this drone navy we are planning or even barely manned versions, which would be even more humiliating if they were captured. Remember the Marines getting taken by Iran years back which we were totally unable to stop so what confidence can we have in these circumstances even if there is a frigate near by and not wanting to provoke a war?
Just had another even more humiliating thought, I can see a future Daily Mail Headline. “1000 illegal immigrants arrive off Dorset Coast on RN drone ship that was ‘mislaid’ on Tuesday”. Then the headline 6 months later “No one found accountable for drone ship loss that brought known ISIS terrorists to Britain now living it up in ‘Princely’ fashion in Royal Lodge”.
Any others, or do we need a Committee?
You’d think that “surely” those in the MoD are grown ups who consider all eventualities.
My worry always remains that HMG conclude that, yes, that threat exists, but we’ll do it anyway as its cheaper so we’ll take the risk.
It’s all a balance juggled against the threat and what they are prepared to spend.
I’m pretty sure the underwater drones won’t care about the sea state.
As for surface drones vs frigates , Sonar 2087 can only operate in sea state 6 even if the frigate can handle more.
Most of the large USV’s seem to be tailored to operate in a similar sea state.
I do think having a single £1 billion frigate with 200 crew onboard towing a £100 million towed array is not necessarily the best way to defence an entire ocean.
In the past we relied on SOSUS sensors and aircraft more to operate as a force multiplier.
Atlantic bastion is no different it’s just that the SOSUS sensors are moving on drones now.
I think it’s far better having one or two high end frigates in the North Atlantic at the head of dozens of sensors and drones rather than having half a dozen lower end frigates trying to do the same job.
CAPTAS 4 (2087) has a 150km range vs CAPTAS 2 that has a 60km range.
CAPTAS 4 can cover an area of 8 times the size of CAPTAS 2
That’s defence economics in the works.
As good s CAPTAS 4 is it can still cover an area of less than 20,000 SqKM which is a drop in the ocean.
Every small drones with an attached small towed array can add a moving detection bubble of 1000 SqKM to the detection picture.
Agree with subsurface. And all that sounds excellent for GIUK defensive posture.
My post asked about elsewhere.
South Atlantic. APT (S) gone.
North Atlantic. APT(N) gone.
Indies. Deployed River.
Med. Occasional passing through.
Gulf. Lancaster, about to be withdrawn.
The RN has vanished from the world’s oceans on an enduring basis just as China spreads its wings, Russia is rising, and the west is in retreat.
I want to see this new stuff for Bastion AND assets for elsewhere.
And I can see HMG cutting further on this tech excuse, just as they did in 1995 and 2010.
I agree, hopefully we can see the T31 carrying out APT (s) however I think the B2 rivers being forward deployed has generally improved a number of roles especially in the Caribbean, west Africa, Mediterranean and pacific where event the large frigate fleet of the 90’s toiled to have regular cover.
Muck fire issue is what we called a frigate in the 70’s is now an offshore patrol vesell and what we call a frigate today would have been a cruiser in the past.
Personally I think we would be better to designate the T26 as a destroyer and the T83 as a cruiser
T26 if armed with CAMM MR probably as the air defence capability to be consider a general heavy surface combatant like and Arleigh Burke but with better ASW capabilities.
Here we go again…
Amazing, no actiion this day…AGAIN. The so called DIP is just going to be a press release and nothing else.
There is a possibility that 2 of the T26 frigates under construction might go to Norway’s navy and no replacements ordered.
Navy lookout site discusses this.
Ah but that’s because we can then call on Norways.
It’s all about Ship Building, Aircraft Building and Manufacturing to sell not to buy any ourselves.
That’s how it’s even being presented, putting money into defence to rebuild British Industry, after all we can’t present it as providing the means to actually defend ourselves, because that’s a provocation apparently. Reminds me of the policy of putting money into British Leyland just to keep jobs going over any attempt to modernise the business or actually build worthwhile cars people wanted to buy.
Navy Lookout’s source is ‘rumours’.
It would not surprise me if it happened, the first Norway Frigate has to be delivered by 2030.
Yes, a ship might be pulled from the RN line. However, planning to not replace that ship would be contrary to everything the government has been saying for the past year.
All it would result in is a cut to British manufacturing. The shipyards would be receiving fewer orders and therefore, the jobs about which Labour care would disappear. I’ve seen it suggested that we might produce all 13 ships, but sell more than just five to Norway. This is also ridiculous, primarily because Norway can’t afford to operate a six-frigate force, let alone a force of eight frigates. We know the 13-ship joint force is being planned, so by all accounts, the RN will receive all eight ships.
What’ll likely happen is that one of the British ships will be given to Norway, and a replacement ordered on top of the current batch.
Navy Lookout are just posting unfounded rumours and fearmongering due to the lack of actual news to post about on their website. They do similar things whenever there’s a downturn in the news cycle – post something controversial (rage-bait, perhaps) and watch the engagement grow.
There’s obviously a chance of it happening. There’s very little evidence to suggest it will happen, though.
All sounds reasonable, I hope you’re right.
I did read someone suggesting that with the new hall the Norwegians ships could be built alongside ours, negating the need to give RN slots alway. But if they neee theirs early then there you go.
Funnily enough, with our Frigate force fallen from 20 to 7 since 2004, the RN needed its ships yesterday.
Funny how Norway, and the MIC, again take precedence over British military numbers.
There’s a ”possibility” I’ll win the EuroMillions lottery too, or that the guy who works down the chip shop really is Elvis…
You can mock, but where is the extra manufacturing capacity for these foreign orders going to come from?
Are these countries going to wait until all of the RNs orders are complete before work starts on their ships ? I doubt it.
There’s exactly one foreign customer for British-built Type 26 frigates, and that’s Norway. BAE are expanding their workforce and their production line, primarily for the reasons you mention. You should also remember that the government is purposefully slowing down the build rates for these ships, to preserve the workforce. Now new orders are coming in, the rate of production on each hull can be increased whilst keeping the line open long term.
They’ll be able to cope.
Yes I can mock because you’re maths are 2 + 2 = 137
I’ve no doubt that some of the later T26s will be delayed to allow Norway to get one or two T26s into service. No problem there, as their ships will be doing the same job as ours, hunting Russian subs.
What I do take issue with is people then flying to the unsubstantiated conclusion that the RN won’t get all eight that have been ordered.
So much for ‘bringing facts’…
Just crack on and churn out a steady supply of T31s and river B3s.
Cheap and relatively simple to build and operate these are useful in the way they will free up high end platforms and can act as a go between unmanned systems. Once they are no longer required sell them on and keep production open for the replacements.
Forget River B3s, continuous build of T31s with regular capability insertions.
According to this site, ‘Royal Navy assessing options to replace patrol vessels’, well, the title gives it away.
Doesn’t have to be like for like replacement… unless you believe the RN should still have 3 decker man o’ wars, the RAF Sopwith Canels, etc, etc.
Not to mention, we enjoy free expression in the UK. So even if the RN decides to order River B3, it doesn’t mean I have to agree.
You must be new here, as actually most on here disagree with everything the RN, RAF, Army, decide to buy 🤣
Are you sure that was meant for me? I have been here nearly 10 years. I font it suggests a batch 3 but a new option platform.
T31 only ever existed in Boris Johnson’s imagination. Of much greater importance is MRSS, T83,. OPV replacements and perhaps a few more T31.
*Should be T32 at the start.
I think you did a ‘Boris’ there 🤣
In a way, yes; but Boris was likely giving snap response to a real RN ambition for an increase in the fleet. He just added one to Type 31 to catch the attention. Threats and technology have moved on. The increase in the fleet is still needed but we can no longer assume that 5 more frigates is what we need. I would go for some batch 3 ‘Rivers’: 3-4000 tons, 95m, flight deck, mission bay, crane, slipway, 57mm, 24 knots, global endurance, capable of launching and recovering UUV drones. Something like the Icelandic Thor OPVs or the concept sketches produced for the Black Swan sloop or war discussion paper.
Paul, T32 was pretty much a Platform for Autonomous Vehicles, You’re replacing it with another T32 ?
It’s a case of ‘what’s in a name’. As you say, the original requirement was ‘for a platform that can deploy drones for ASW and MCM missions in a contested environment.’ Taken at face value that would point to a variant of T31;bigger mission bay and/or slipway say. But if you relax the ‘contested’ bit, prioritise Atlantic Bastion, smaller crew, lower cost for more platforms to supplement scarce expensive T26, and have seconday opv role you get something that looks more like a North Sea supply vessel than a pointy frigate. The next class needing replacing are the R1s. You can re-use the T32 designation or call them batch 3 Rivers depending on your preference. Also, I think govt and Babcock would prefer Rosyth building T31 exports and these new, smaller ships being built perhaps by Ferguson?
A lot of conjecture and I am probably wrong, the simple solution is make T31s do the job. We’ll see I guess.
If you don’t know the score by now, you never will.
This government will never publicly scrap planned orders, no no no that would look bad. Far better to kick the can down the road.
“Scalable platforms to increase mass”. So has the Black Swan sloop of war thinking of 2012 morphed into Type 92 drone or Kongsberg Vanguard?
When they announced the MRSS changed from support to strike ship, I had a feeling Type 32 would be scrapped. At this rate I’m worried we might not even end up with 8 Type 26’s.
So what’s the next delaying ‘Vommittee’ after the DIP?
(I think my spell check for once got it right there so decided not to change it, my iPad has clearly gone all Ai on me and more scary has unexpectedly reached AGI, probably been studying my cat).
Someone’s alarm on their phone went off in the MOD to remind us that the Type 32 might be a thing.
Boris, on looking at a Type 23, said : ‘Is that a Type 32? ‘
He had all the right numbers, but not necessarily in the right order
I don’t understand the point in spending time and money on a third frigate class, which would create a third platform for training. Why not just use the money to buy more of the T26 or T31? The design and development is done, they are in production as we speak, so instead of 5 or 6 of a third class, increase the numbers of the two classes that we are already building.
T32 was envisaged at the time to be a different platform for different uses.
The T32 has already been eclipsed by a potentially new generation of lean manned warship..
I think we all know that the next major RN surface combatant will probably evolve into a 3,000 ton vessel, have no more than 30 core crew and reconfigurable for different tasks via Special equipment modules.
Hopefully, allowing it to be built in quantity…
Yes the type 32 has been dead for some years now
And it doesn’t look like we will be moving past 19 escorts
Once the new frigates arrive by 2035 hopefully!
I can see type 83 delayed as long as possible and type 45
Serving into the 2040s before being replaced.
The FSS is priority now after the frigates then MRSS
Supposed to be early 2030s first ships that’s our lot
I think no money for anything else!
If we are very lucky 3 purpose built drone ships with dual
OPV role maybe.
I am sure it can wait, no need to hurry the world is a safe place under the guardianship of Uncle Donald and his friend Vlad the Mad and Xi the inscrutable. Starmer is a liar… sorry auto spell meant to say lawyer and all they do is obfuscate and delay so he is just transferring that system to government. Everything can wait until after lunch or tomorrow…oh no we are not sitting tomorrow ….well next week sometime will do I suppose. Bring on the Tesla robots what harm can they do? Nothing is getting done but lots will be done……honest. The urgency Rutte is calling for is falling on deaf ears in Whitehall and much of southern Europe too.
My fear is that the Type 83 will also be kicked down the road…
starmer we’ll have 12 more submarines trust me the girl in accounts won’t stump the money for that one. but trust me, the nation will be safer under this Labour Circus of a government well have to get rid of everything else before you’ll see an ambitious project like that.
Frankly we need a couple of more T26, a few more T31 and up arm the T31 to survive in a more highly contested battle space. Not another class we have no idea what it is for.
Rank stupidity an evolved type 31 should be ordered and built even if one is built and the earlier one is sold as the new hulls come online if only to incrementally improve and hopefully reduce the required crew numbers by increase automation.