HMS Active, one of the Royal Navy’s new Type 31 frigates, being built by Babcock, has entered the water for the first time at Rosyth.
The float-out of the vessel was carried out entirely at the Rosyth site, representing a first for the Type 31 programme and reflecting maturing shipbuilding capability at the yard. The ship had previously been rolled out of the build hall in February following construction inside the Venturer Hall.
HMS Active is the second of five Type 31 frigates being built for the Royal Navy, with all ships expected to enter service by 2030. The class is intended to support forward deployment, maritime security and general-purpose operations worldwide.
HMS Active is now in the water at Rosyth.
A complex operation delivered entirely at our Rosyth site for the first time on the Type 31 programme.
A sign of how our shipbuilding capability continues to grow. pic.twitter.com/tV1DPEDOGl
— Babcock International (@Babcockplc) March 23, 2026
The ship takes its name from a Type 21 frigate that served during the Falklands War, with the name intended to reflect the Royal Navy’s focus on persistent global presence. The programme forms a central part of efforts to expand and modernise the Royal Navy surface fleet.
Babcock said: “HMS Active is now in the water at Rosyth. A complex operation delivered entirely at our Rosyth site for the first time on the Type 31 programme. A sign of how our shipbuilding capability continues to grow.”
The Type 31 design displaces around 5,700 tonnes and will be equipped with a 57mm main gun, Sea Ceptor air defence missiles and a mission bay to support a range of modular payloads. It will also operate a Wildcat or Merlin helicopter and is designed to accommodate a core crew of around 110 personnel. The programme is being delivered as part of the UK’s National Shipbuilding Strategy, with Rosyth acting as the build hub for all five vessels in the class.
Image via Babcock.
That’s four frigates in the water fitting out, four laid down any being built and 1 having steel cut..
It’s just possible we might have 5 new commissioned frigates by 2030.. ( 2 T26 and 3 Type31)… the real battle and what may be a budget black hole is can the keep 3-4 of the T23s running beyond 2030 as well as bring into commission 4 frigates in 2-3 years.. big ask and big stakes… Cameron and Brown you arses..
The danger is that the RN will be overwhelmed by new ships needing sailors, having pared back during the slump. Are we doing enough to create the new crews? If not, should we sacrifice old expensive-to-operate ASW frigates for new GP frigates. I would argue not on the promise of unproven autonomous ASW systems, but I suspect I’d be in the minority.
Given the state of the “old expensive to operate ASW frigates” I don’t think there’s going to be an either/or situation, they will be lucky to still be operational by the time the new frigates start coming online at the rate the 23’s are dropping.
That’s the killer really ASW.. we loss those last T23s and it’s all down to 2 T26s… that’s going to struggle to manage even the TAS ship role.. let alone a carrier deployment..
The only flip side to Trump having eyes on Greenland is that the northern European members may put more frigates patrols in the area of the GiUK.
The Govt has spoken about defence agreements with the French in relation to our respective SSBN fleets, so that might mean we rely on a French vessel to help flush out any Russian SSNs . Germany and Norway P8s are operating in coordination with the RAF.
Our ship issue isn’t ideal but hopefully they have a plan in place.
Yep that’s why we are sending a carrier battlegroup it’s got a few meanings behind it.. the main text is that look ENATO is defending Greenland don’t worry..but there are a couple of subtexts
1) we are going to make it politically hard to annex Greenland because we are all there not just you and the Danes..
2) If you do this there will be blood.
Trouble is I’m not sure the present US administration reads the subtexts…
Totally agree Jonathan, but that piece of work Blair paid his part too, I remember the early T26 concept drawings from 2022, (when it looked like an enlarged T23) just at the time our commitment to Iraq and Afghanistan were ramping up.
Blairs government froze T26 in its tracks and the nightmare we have now was set in place.
Yep all three of them get a good solid F-.
Absolutely, that said, its a slight relief to us all to see actual hardware creeping towards service.
Yes I remember Tony Blair preparing for the Iraq war in 2022 as well.
I have heard Tony Blair blamed for many things but the T26 frigate delay 🤦♂️
The reality is the frigate delay was 30 years in the making..
The first issue was the navy did not know what it wanted in a frigate and went down a rabbit hole of experiments and concepts between 1998 and 2005 it got delayed and sidetracked… by 2007 the RN had come up with a plan sustained Surface Combat Capability S2C2..an 8000 Ton high end.. 5000 ton GP and a 3000 ton ocean going patrol.. going into the 2008 equipment plan..it would essentially have been 20 frigates and 10 patrol… this got a treasury bin job and by 2010 had moved to a single 17 frigates ( as 3 had been binned along the way).. brown did not step on it and get a contract in place so when Cameron came in he basically told them it was to big to expensive and to many .. 5 years of arguments later they finally got the big but not the many with only 8 ordered.. so they dusted off the C2 concept any ordered 5 from Babcock in 2017.. and along the way they picked up 5 C3s to keep BAE in work due to not ordering in 2010..
So in order of fuckery
1) Cameron who is the main architect of the disaster.. and was leader when the risk shot up so he should have done most..
3) Brown.. because he could have pushed and got the contracts signed..
4) Blair because he did slow it all down to allow budge for the sand war
5) the RN for spending a stupid amount of time pissing around with made concepts instead of going.. give us 10 6000 ton Normal looking ASW frigates and 10 GP frigates.. If they had been focused in 1997 when the money was free and the defence review said they needed 20 it would have been better…
This is why I cut across the party political crap we see here when I say, BOTH are to blame.
Facts remain, 35 to 14. From 97 to now.
I blame Atlee myself or even the philandering Loyd George and that peacenik Churchill, I mean who can forget the ‘we want 8 we won’t wait’ that forced those two to lay down more than the 4 Dreadnoughts they thought sufficient because war was unthinkable in 1908. Aah back to the future eh.
Good news is the new vessels all have reduced crew requirements and not having to rotate multiple crews to Bahrain is also helping but it may become necessary to pull back on some of the B2 foreign deployments.
Basing warships in theatre is good for increased ship availability but it plays havoc on crewing. Some of the OPV’s are at sea for 300 days a year and that all means multiple crews flying to the other side of the world.
I’m willing to give up a two OPV’s in the pacific if I can crew two frigates in the Atlantic.
And with these five coming out pretty quickly in succession won’t they’ll need some new orders line-up? Any news on Denmark or Sweden? Ireland? To leep the momentum going. And few more for the RN at bargain prices?
Congratulations to all at Babcock. I hope she’ll be a lucky ship for everyone involved with her over the years, with the obvious exception of her enemies.
Great news. Now place a batch 2 order of 5 T31 and keep the line going.
Given the leaks about the DIP, hope for export orders to keep the line going.
What leeks are those? (Twats in Cabinet delayed it again, citing wanting to add the Iran War results into the whole thing, so even more fucking delays).
The Times defence reporter has it that the 83 is to be kicked into the long grass with the 45’s to serve longer, but even with that there’s still something like 10 billion in savings needed in the DIP.
Yes, the argument goes is that as most have been tied up broken for a decade, they are still ‘new’ ships and can run on to 2045-50
I’ll take that with an option for UK to add to the order and take one or two preferentially if National need arises.
Good news for sure, but I’m still surprised how long it takes to build frigates here. China build warships in about a third of the time.
China is not a comparable nation.
France or Germany are the nations you ought to compare the UK to (not that the UK is particularly better than either).
So, can we infer from this news that the fitting out of Venturer is nearing completion?
Apparently when Venturer is moved out of dry Dock to make way for Active, it will still need more work to be finished off alongside.
We have to hope so we need them out on sea trials ASAP and in service to prevent the perfect storm created by all previous incompetent governments with replacing the t23s!
THE T45 were always likely to be extended into the 2040s with a £billion of upgrades not finished until 2032 and will be in good nick to do so at least.
MRSS I think is the worry now for cancellation or greatly descaling if the treasury gets its way and the navy had already offered it up as the sacrificial lamb previously to keep both carriers!
We are on a war footing my arse 2 years and still no substantial orders for major equipment!🙄
If MRSS goes a bit south could fixing up Albion be an option just for an extra fill in ship sooner than later? Could be made a super mothership of sorts with podded sytems. I know it’s 20+ years old but wasn’t Argus 45-50?? Then you can sell it later on.
Albion has been stripped for parts to supply the former Bulwark. Putting her back together is a non-starter.
Ha no I think that ship has sailed pardon the pun.
The manning levels prevent this option.
I can see us getting 3 purpose built mother ships for mine warfare mother ships and drones built by Norway as part of the t26 deal and that plus the 3 replenishment ships being the navies lot myself.