The Ministry of Defence has set out its thinking behind cancelling the Type 83 destroyer, saying the classified analysis that shaped the decision drew on lessons from ongoing conflicts and concluded that a mix of crewed and uncrewed vessels will deliver greater missile capacity and mass, where an expensive, exquisite platform would have left the Royal Navy with too few ships to cover its tasks.
The rationale came in written parliamentary answers from Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry Luke Pollard on 10 July, responding to Andrew Bowie, the Conservative MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, who asked what assessment has been made of the impact on the Royal Navy’s high-end air defence capability of cancelling a planned class of up to eight Type 83 destroyers intended to replace the Type 45 fleet, and what analysis was used for the decision to replace the programme with the hybrid navy approach.
“The decision to move to this hybrid approach was taken after detailed analysis of current and future threats, including lessons from ongoing conflicts,” Pollard said. “The specific analysis is necessarily classified, but the mix of crewed and uncrewed systems will produce a more flexible force, with greater missile capacity while also improving mass. The alternative, an expensive, exquisite platform such as the Type 83, would have resulted in too few ships to cover all the Royal Navy’s tasks, increasing risk.”
The maritime air defence role currently delivered by the Type 45s will in future fall to “a mix of crewed Common Combat Vessels and uncrewed, autonomous missile (Type 91) and sensor (Type 94) ships,” the minister said.
The up to eight ships referenced in Bowie’s question would have exceeded the six Type 45 destroyers the class was to replace, and the answer’s argument is one of affordability and numbers rather than capability, holding that the cost of a high-end crewed destroyer would have constrained the fleet below what the Royal Navy’s tasks require, where the hybrid mix of six Common Combat Vessels operating with Type 91 missile platforms and Type 94 sensor platforms offers greater missile capacity and mass for the money, and the uncrewed escorts extend beyond the air defence group, with the eight Type 26 and five Type 31 frigates each expected to operate accompanied by a number of drone escorts, making the family the underpinning of the whole surface fleet rather than of the Common Combat Vessels alone.
The department has addressed the cancellation’s other dimensions in parallel answers, telling Parliament the same day that the Type 83 was an early-stage concept on which no decisions had been made about where or how it would be built, and that detailed planning for the transition between the Type 45s and the hybrid maritime air defence capability will determine whether a life extension of the current destroyers is implemented, with a final decision not expected until 2027-28.
The answers do not say how many Type 91 and Type 94 vessels will accompany the six Common Combat Vessels in the air defence role, how the combined missile capacity of the hybrid force compares with what eight Type 83s would have carried, or what the classified analysis concluded about the survivability of uncrewed platforms against the threats the destroyers were designed to meet.
Basically, the only thing that’s changed is that they’ve realised using a cruiser as the control node was too expensive, and have swapped to a frigate.
So the obvious answers, first don’t replace the 45s fix them and keep them in addition to the 83s and add the drone boats as well. It is a humiliation that a maritime country doesn’t have a navy that could defend it’s own harbour never mind our trade routes.
Run that past me again?
So 6 x T83 is ‘not enough to cover all the tasks’.
But 6 x CCV can magically cover all these tasks?
MOD logic
There wasn’t the budget for six Type-83. They could afford maybe 3 or 4, which means there would at best be 1 available.
The statement from the MoD is total garbage. It completely ignores the issue of marginal costs and relies on magical thinking to suggest that the new “solution” will be cheaper. Given that the requirement for radars and missiles is driven by the threat and must stay the same, it will ALWAYS be cheaper to put a few extra feet into a hull for the missiles than buy another hull, propulsion system, etc. The proposed solution will cost MORE not less than the conventional solution.
Yes the type 83 was looking to cost around 2 or 3 billion so we simply couldn’t afford 6 on the budget we would of got 4 at best probably 3.
Same as the Germans have just cancelled their F126 frigates due to cost estimated over 18 billion euros for 6 ship and arriving year late! Wasting 2 billion euros in design work.
Least we have stopped before we have pissed away billions in an ideal world we would get both but not happening on our budgets I’m afraid.
£2Bn+? Well yes, you take the propulsion system from a carrier, build it into a cruiser sized hull, a a proper ABM capable radar and a lot of missiles and that’s the entry price for a modern AAW DDG/CG.
Are deluding ourselves we’ve found the magic beans that buys us cheap warships.
Th money is there, HMG is just choosing not to spend it.
Yes you could be correct a lot of unknowns and risks.who knows another 3 or 4 years down the road they may of changed their minds again and type 83 may be back with more funding.
At least the type 45 should be in good nick to excellent air defence shit well into the 2040s if required.
Ship🤣🤣
The MOD has gone drone happy.
Surely a large ship such as the Type 83 would be able to carry larger more sophisticated radar and comms
as well as having better capacity for high powered DEWs in the future?
CCV should complementary not a replacement.
Yep they have learnt no lessons. Its not any longer about the minimum we can get away with, it’s now what we NEED. No other country is dumping high end equipment for drones they are increasing spending. How many ballistic missiles can drones shoot down.?T45 etc could. Type 45 starts to go out of service 2035 it means the carriers go with them, no FAD.. How many MIGs can drones shoot down, but they are getting rid of meteor and any successor. This undermines GCAP because in the air to air role I doubt without such missile it can compete with adversaries. But look on the bright side Mohammed can put his feet up as we give him 60 k a year to look after his 4 wife’s and 11 kids !
A drone equipped with the same weapons systems as a T45 could perform the same air defence function, so long as it is able to obtain the required targeting information.
Meteor is not being canned.
The carriers are fine.
The thinking…. Oh it’s cheap and we can justify buying foreign instead of developing our own. Ok, so it’s not effective but when did that matter