The Ministry of Defence has adopted broader language when describing the expected in-service date of HMS Venturer, the first of the Royal Navy’s Type 31 Inspiration-class frigates, moving away from earlier references to a specific year.
In a recent Parliamentary written answer, the MOD stated that HMS Venturer is scheduled to be “in service and ready for operations by the end of this decade”, with all five Type 31 frigates expected to be in service by the early 2030s. The phrasing represents a shift from earlier ministerial answers which pointed to a 2027 readiness date for the first ship.
HMS Venturer is being built by Babcock at Rosyth and is intended to form part of a new generation of general purpose frigates designed to sustain fleet numbers while carrying out tasks such as maritime security, forward presence operations and escort duties. The Type 31 programme has also been positioned as an example of a faster and more cost-effective approach to warship construction.
However, the timeline has already been influenced by decisions taken during the build process. HMS Venturer was floated off in June 2025, later than some early industry expectations. The delay was not necessarily the result of stalled work, but rather a deliberate approach to keep the ship inside the build hall for longer so that more outfitting could be completed under cover before the float-off evolution.
This approach allowed significant internal work, including elements of cabling, structural fitting, and machinery installation, to be progressed in a controlled environment, reducing exposure to weather and improving efficiency. It also meant that the ship entered the water at a more advanced state of completion than might have been expected under a traditional build sequence.
Following float-off, HMS Venturer returned to Rosyth for continued outfitting and systems integration, a phase that will include major work on combat systems, sensors, propulsion commissioning and preparation for sea trials.
Another rather important factor in the programme’s delivery timeline, it seems, is the Capability Insertion Period (CIP), a contracted post-build upgrade phase intended to integrate additional military capability across the Type 31 class. Under this arrangement, equipment enhancements beyond the baseline build specification will be inserted after delivery, improving long-term combat effectiveness and future-proofing the ships as requirements evolve.
The inclusion of a CIP means the path from physical completion to full operational readiness likely includes structured additional integration work before the ships reach their required operational capability. The MOD’ shift to “end of the decade” language may therefore reflect both a cautious approach to public scheduling and the complexity of delivering modern warships with planned post-delivery upgrades, time will tell.
What a f**king nightmare.
David Cameron and George Osbourne should be forced to testify in front of a select committee on this and for all the damage they did to the country. If T31 isn’t in service by 2029 we may get to the point of having no frigates.
The Tories ordered 13 frigates. Labour ordered zero frigates in 13 years from 1997 to 2010. The Labour Government cut the order for Type 45 destroyers from 12 to 8 and finally 6. The Labour defence minister tweaked the design of the Type 45s to favour Vritush jobs and, as a result the Type 45s have spent half their operational lives being repaired and upgraded. Please top with thr myopic political rubbish.
Forgive the typos; this political nonsense grips my sh1t.
I commented on the selective amnesia on this site the other day, for anything pre 2010.
BOTH are responsible, thus, I vote for neither.
Simple.
Jim is right about those two, though,
“broader language” as in haven’t got a clue.
So, if I’ve got this right, The Tories are to blame for placing the existing orders but Labour are blameless for not ordering the others after eighteen months? Got it.
👍
(Right then, nobody post anything negative here, It’ll only atract the usual suspects ! )
Great news, it’s so reassuring to see this project Is still happening.
Positive news will be positive comments, otherwise, expect to hear our frustrations
Yup.
(did you spot the sarcasm ?) 👀
“ The delay was not necessarily the result of stalled work, but rather a deliberate approach to keep the ship inside the build hall for longer so that more outfitting could be completed under cover before the float-off evolution.”
And if you believe that is really the reason can you get me Santa’s phone number?
So. This means that are putting extra stuff on the ship now rather than later?
Keeping the hulls indoors for a bit in order to fit this “stuff” is a good idea surely… especially with space to build two at once??
I thought the contracts were reported as no touchy-touchy…sign on the dotted line and that’s what you get. Hopefully some of the extra capability insert is simply more sea captor silos..
AA
That’s optimistic!
Babcock made a very public statement which basically said hands off the contract. However, that wouldn’t stop the CIP contract from following straight on after acceptance…So basically someone in the MoD may have decided that the original planned outfit for the T31 was just ever so slightly tooooo thin and needed beefing up in today’s threat environment before going FOC…
If the year was 2027 and is now likely to be 2029 at the earliest, just what is in the CIP? Surely it doesn’t take two years to fit a few Mk41 VLS. A quick search online and google AI suggests that the new trainable decoy launchers are also to be fitted along with advanced ‘sensors’. My guess the final point is where the delay will come as that suggests changes to the combat management and information infrastructure as well. It also occurs to me that they may be added in the capability to act as a drone command ship if it was not already in the spec..?
And yes, I think they should have had those systems from the get go along with a hull mounted sonar.
I would scrap the T32 and order three more T31 with the CIP included and a hull mounted sonar.
As George says we’ll see, but damn we need those ships…
Cheers CR
T32 doesnt exist, nor does the funds for more frigates.
I doubt we will see mk41 fitted anytime soon, they have even bought any for T31
Yep, bracing for the inevitable delay. As usual.
What annoys me is the unnecessary lying this implies from all concerned. This is the very first warship manufactured by Babcock and I think people are willing to forgive some almost inevitable delay. The initial timeline of in service by 2023/4 was never realistic, nor was the £250m a unit. It took the government a long time to acknowledge that at least the first couple of ships would cost more than the subsequent ones, but we never even heard what the refinancing deal was. Nor can we say how much further delay is down to financial constraint.
Nick Hine, the former 2SL who left the Navy to front for Babckock Marine, said when the ship was rolled out of the hall in May 2025 that he expected it to be handed over to the Navy at about the same time next year (2026), which would have meant manufacturer’s sea trials starting around now or even earlier. Why say that if it was so totally unrealistic that Venturer won’t be operational until 2030 rather than 2028? How can Babcock expect to land the potential Danish or Swedish orders if they announce schedules they can’t possibly meet? Better to have come clean. Better even now to come clean.
They need to be clear in what the intention is, if the 31s are going to be fitted with the nice to have now, then I can understand the slippage in delivery dates. The RN cannot go on like this for much longer.
Now we hear build slots on the Type 26 could be open for the Norwegians. Not withstanding that the Royal Navys ASW capability is being severely eroded. Which build slots are being made available hasn’t been released but the more I hear about it, its profit before defence of the realm.
Is this an indication that some T31 slots will go to Denmark?
Hmm, interesting suggestion. I doubt that the first two ships currently in build would go to Denmark as they are probably too far along the road to RN requirements but subsequent slots quite possibly??? Depends on how much outfitting the Danes want to do themselves I guess?
Cheers CR
Offering Denmark earlier delivery would help to push their decision on an order over the line. Also, in light of the proven value of the B2 Rivers, how many ‘GP’ / ‘patrol’ frigates do we actually need? The RN might prefer to manage with just the first 2 and do joint development with the Danes on the spec for an AAW version; 32+ Mk41 and a better radar.
No chance, especially with nothing to put in Mk41 or any idea what our future radar will be.
I do think Denmark will be looking for a more focused AAW ship than the standard format T31.. it would not suprise if they did not stick a long range volume search radar on it as a second sensor, and the will want a medium range AAW missile.
For me it’s a great opportunity for the RN to get a Second tier AAW Ship.. by taking some of the same of whatever Denmark orders capability wise.
Yes. Mk41 needs to be ordered, alongside a second main radar. They can then be a backup for the destroyers.
It all lends credence to the worryingly reduced numbers of frigates. Delayed IOC, build slots to Norway and potentially Denmark. Yes, by all means increase lethality, but with what when we are loosing hulls quicker than we seem to be acquiring them.
Babcock building them i’m not surprised.
Is it Babcock though ? There could already be some Type 26 in service if the government hadn’t stretched funding across as many years as possible keeping build rate low by choice, Babcock have likely faced the same issue as BAE who for years have said build rate could be increased if the government wanted but opted not to.
Man I think we’re very very very lucky ukraine has tied down the Russians. Can you imagine a time line that Russia rolled over ukraine. With confidence threatens NATO focusing on naval ops and power projection. Now surely Russia can’t move again for 5 to 10 years, by which time we SHOULD have the fleet ready to contain Russians northern fleet
Just be honest.
State what the delays are, and what will be done to mitigate them.
Probably the usual elephant in the room, funding.
Unbelievable.
This news, in conjunction with Pollard’s comments about offering Norway earlier T26 slots to prevent them cutting the order, is going to see the RN without any frigates at some point very soon…
At Pace
Thankfully the new ships were ordered early whilst the current frigate fleet has been well managed, with plenty of its planned service life remaining so that there are more than sufficient type 23s for the next decade with no loss in capability while delays persist, oh wait … back to reality.
War footing
Depends how they do it.. most people forget that commissioning is not operational and for the first ship that will be a very very long gap.. first in class second stage trials is an 18months affair..
I would imagine therefore that venture will as planned get commissioned in late 2026 early 27.. bomb around doing first in class sea trials until say mid 2028 but before becoming operational go in for a refit.. because first in class ships always get pulled into a rectification period after first in class trials anyway.. active will then probably be commissioned and start her second stage sea trials, which will be about 6 months.. so in early 2029 she would go in for her refit and venture will pop back out and become operational.. it’s not really a big deal because commissioned it not operational, never has been.
Spoon, are we being led to believe that MK41 will be installed prior to entry into service, perhaps along with NSM from the batch of 11 sets already procured? If indeed this were the case, these ships would enter service with a far better weapons capability that we badly need. But even then, I wouldn’t expect it to take that long?
I doubt it, too much work needed and none of the kit ordered.