New frigate HMS Venturer, the Royal Navy’s first Type 31 frigate, was gently lowered into the River Forth at the Port of Leith this weekend.
As of June 2025, three of the Royal Navy’s 13 new frigates under construction in Scotland have entered the water: HMS Venturer (Type 31), HMS Glasgow, and HMS Cardiff (both Type 26). In total, eight have reached the steel-cut stage—five Type 26 vessels (Glasgow, Cardiff, Belfast, Birmingham, Sheffield) and three Type 31 ships (Venturer, Active, Formidable).
The moment, captured by press drone photographer Dave Cullen, capped a precise float-off process that began with its journey from Rosyth aboard the submersible barge CD01.
www.davecullenphotography.co.uk
?? Dave Cullen Photography 2025
Venturer will now be towed back to Rosyth’s Dry Dock No. 3. There her weapons, sensors, and propulsion systems will be installed during an intensive outfitting phase expected to span 6–9 months, with sea trials projected for 2026–27.
www.davecullenphotography.co.uk
?? Dave Cullen Photography 2025
Recently, I spoke with Sir Nick Hine KCB, Chief Executive of Babcock’s Marine division, about what comes next for Venturer, for the Type 31 programme, and for Rosyth itself.
“So we’ll take her from where she is behind us on the hard standing. We’ll put her on the barge. We’ll take her into dock. She’ll be in dock in the next sort of ten days or so, and we’re putting her into dock because that’s the best place to do more fit-out work.”
“So we’ll fit her out over the next sort of six to nine months. And then once we’ve done that, we’ll look to start vessel acceptance, and we hope to start having that done in the next sort of 12 months — hand over to the Navy. I mean, I’d hand her over to the Navy as quickly as we can. We need to be smart about that. We need to be clever about how we do acceptance so that we can get her into the fleet as quickly as possible.”
“But we maintain our ambition to have five ships in service, from contract award to five in service in ten years, which is unheard of.”
Babcock to upgrade military capabilities of Type 31 frigates
I asked next about the second ship, HMS Active, as it is already structurally complete, and work on HMS Formidable is underway. The programme seems to be gaining real pace, I noted.
“I mean, those people who know me will know nothing in the world ever goes fast enough for me. So I’ve already said to them, we’ve got one boat out today. And I said, ‘Why isn’t number three in the yard? What are we doing? Why is it still not there? Why have we got a ship gap in the shed?’ You know?”
“But the answer is, it’s going much faster than any other shipbuilding programme in the UK or anywhere in the world actually, in terms of complex warships. As I say, five in service from contract in ten years is astonishing.”
“Could I go faster? Probably. Would I like to go faster? Yes, of course, because the Navy needs the ships. These will be vital elements of national security. So I’d like to deliver that as quickly as possible.”
I then asked about the long-term ambition for Type 31.
“I’m on record as saying I want to sell 31 Type 31s by 2031. I want to make sure that this is a programme that lasts and runs, and we get the benefit of all the investment that we’ve made here — the £200 million of investment that we’ve put into Babcock, into our site, by Babcock, and the skilled workforce we now have here.”
“The engineers, the apprentice programme that we run, our production service operatives — all of those things that we’ve put together are clearly dependent on work.”
“So whilst my team build ships as greatly and as well as you can see here today, it’s my job to go and win work. I need to win work and persuade the UK Government that it needs more platforms like this, and I need to persuade other governments that they need platforms like this. But I am convinced that this is the ship that navies need.”
Image Credit & Disclaimer
All drone footage and images used in this report were captured by Dave Cullen, a local drone photographer. They were shared with UK Defence Journal only after Cullen had completed all required legal & safety checks. No official sanctions were pending at the time of publication.
To rebuild critical mass and a reserve, once the first unit has been thru trials, a follow-on batch should be ordered, and then again once the first 2 units of the 2nd batch are in build, rinse and repeat.
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I would order the first AUKUS boats now, so construction can start once the new hall is constructed. Waiting for the new SSBNs to complete is a build cycle too long.
What is the plan at Barrow, are we actually getting a new building assembly hall? If so what time scale is that looking like ?
It looks like the T31 program will be finished by about 2029. Possibly it is time for the MoD to either or further batch of 5 T31s or 6 Babcock stretched 31s as the T32. I would prefer the stretched T31 design with a few small tweeks e.g increase the 16 cell Mk41 vls to 32 cell + 8 NSM.
Apart from that Babcock have done a good job when you think they started from scratch and within 10 years built the work force, completed the redesign, have one in the water, one almost ready to go in the water a third in the build hall and the fourth started.
Something tells me if Babcock got a follow on order of either T31s or 32s they would have the five or six completed by 2035.
Stretched 31 looks good with more usable mission deck.
Would agree though re more vls being needed.
The other improvement i would like, same as for type26, is better hangar access for a manned and unmanned system.
I see it’s FDFF time.
“Fathers Day Fantasy Fleets”.
Good looking ship: almost the size of a WW2 light cruiser, and with Mk41 VLS you could argue, equivalent armament. Its a fast changing world. It will be interesting to see what ships Babcock are tasked to build when the 5 T31 are finished.
Big ship with the armament of an OPV. With so few surface escorts in the RN unless it’s properly equipped it’s a floating coffin that wouldn’t survive against a sustained air threat or subsurface threat.
Let’s see…
The most heavily armed OPV in Europe is probably the Dutch Holland class. Those have a single 76mm gun, a single 30mm RWS (equivalent to our 30mm) and various lighter mounts.
T31 has a single 57mm, two very capable 40mm guns, at least 12 25km range air defence missiles with a secondary surface attack role, and will very likely have 8 120km range anti-ship missiles with a good chance that they will have 32 mk41 for a whole range of air defence and surface attack missiles.
The lack of a sonar is a serious flaw, but to describe it as an OPV is ridiculous.
PPA class OPV might disagree?
The PPA’s are only even vaguely OPV’s in the Light configuration, where they are armed only with a 127mm and a 76mm gun. The FULL and Light+ versions are Corvettes, displacing 5000t, and coming with a full 16 cell Aster Farm (same as the FREMMs), 8 TESEO anti ship missiles, a double hangar for Helicopters, and torpedo launchers. Even the ships they are replacing aren’t OPVs, they’re replacing Corvettes and Light Frigates. They’re really only called OPV’s in English because it’s a rather poor translation of Pattugliatore Polivalente d’Alture (Multipurpose Overseas Patroller)
To be fair the PPA Class is nearly as big, indeed a little longer in one layout than the T-31. It also is fitted ‘for but not with’ an awful lot of offensive kit which generally doesn’t go down too well on here. So calling one a Frigate and the other an OPV is rather misleading other than noting that the frigate is called a frigate because it has nearly twice the range of the OPV. Different purpose but both require a decent level of lethality and OPV rather understates the PPA purpose as a defensive platform rather than some form of coastal patrol vessel.
That would be the PPA frigates, which cost £100m more than a T31 when built at an established shipyard?
Those PPAs?
The PPA is NO AN OPV” it’s a frigate.. it was designed to replace a frigate and is a frigate..it’s just the fact as the Italians speak a different language they name ships in different ways.. Italy is building OPVs and they are completely different.
For the next Italian OPV search for PPX. Italian OPV have hangar for NH90 and 76mm gun and 25mm guns.
PPA was contrieved way to get frigates past politicians.
Note that PPA full is a anti ballastic missile capable frigate with Aster 30 B1NT. It has 8 fixed antenna AESA in 2 bands.
@TorpedoJ, yes yes yes but
Have they got any Torpedo’s ?
I’m hoping they get a Walrus.
@Spyinthesky, actually a modern Cat launched Drone version would be a great addition to our new fleet of cutting edge, world class ships. (complete with torpedo’s).
“I am the Walrus, goo-goo g’joob”.
Don’t forget the fact it can carry and operate the largest most effective small ship flight ASW helicopter in the world.. OPVs don’t do that..
R2’s can carry Merlins, I read it here !
“Could it be magic ?”.
Carry and operate.. not just act as a spat pad… details matter.. especially when you cast a spell on me.
@rmj. As other posters have said, for a variety of reasons I disagree. What interests me is to what extent is the T31 a kind of modern day reincarnation of those 1930s ships whose roles were things like diplomatic presence, support for amphibious operations, intelligence gathering, protection of merchant shipping, fleet screening and air defence. If so, how many do we need and how should they be armed?
That the commentators here gloss over the short comings of the type 31 in terms of armament and capabilities is dangerous for a country that relies on its maritime assets for security. Commentators have clearly no idea as to how enemy J2 and N2s work. They will plan for and exploit weaknesses making the T31 in its current guise a death trap in a peer to peer conflict. I wouldn’t want my son or daughter serving on one.
rmj, it’s just a comments section, no-one actually takes it serious.
“or do they ?”
They should do a dump and role like the North Koreans.. far more exciting all round.
“ … gently lowered into the River Forth”.
That’s how it’s done; nothing falling over.
The question for me is how does it get its upgrade MK41 cells and 32 CAMM..
Now I know everyone is exercised that the ship has not started with them…. But in reality what was ordered was ordered..remember this ship will spend its first two years of life undertaking the testing and commissioning trials then the very long first in class trials.. that’s probably two years of doing nothing but sailing around the UK before it’s fit for operational activities.. and the RN needs a ship for that first in class trail ASAP… so in reality let it do the trials with a minimum fit…then it can get its upgrade…no real stress involved.
The Capability Insertion Program (CAP) is a separate contract and Babcock were adamant that the existing contract be honoured, i.e. no changes to requirements or specifications once the build had started. So there will be no up lift in capability until the ships are handed over to the RN.
My guess is that the new kit will be fitted during routine maintenance periods. The approach means the fit is might be spread over a longer timeframe but the ship remains available to the RN. Given the state of the T23’s any new frigate that can take on some the T23 tasking is very much needed. Hopefully, Babcock and the RN can work out how to get the job done as quickly as possible, it will be quite the challenge juggling maintenance, CAP and operational tasks but my sense of it is that Babcock have been able to focus on the task in hand at least as far as timescale is concerned. We will know more about the build quality once the acceptance trials start, remembering of course that Venturer is the prototype and will have some teething problems…
Good news for the T31 program anyway.
Cheers CR
Indeed, that’s what people forget.. this ship is not really doing anything operational for a very long time, so I would imagine she will get her Mk 41s in good time..
Being first of class she can ‘test’ and ‘prove’ the ME equipment as well as the combat system using the 57 mm and 40 mm guns. That’ll be an intense 6 months of working out and creating the ‘drills’ and understanding the kit in a ‘real’ environment. ‘Dropping’ the Mk 41 launcher into the hole that’s already there and setting it to work should hopefully be relatively quick.
If they can get her fit out completed in under a year that would suggest that the extra time spent in the build hall was time well spent. It also compares well with the T26 fit out times, although the T31 is no way as complex as the T26 it is still Babcock’s first ever frigate and they will have done well if they can get her into acceptance trial in 12 months.
Now the RN / MoD need to order a few more, 3x T31 if the T32 isn’t ready to go and then follow up with T32 which I would base on the A170 concept which reportedly Babcock have actually done quite a bit of work on anyway. 4x T32 / A170 with bow sonar and an uplift in VLS would be a quick way to create a mid range frigate. If they were all eventually fitted to the new networking system being developed by BAE System for the FADS program these ships along with the rest of the fleet, could be significantly up gunned using arsenal ships.
Anyone, seen any more about the RN’s PODS program as these were supposed to be a key part of the mission bay concept that is supposed to be part of the new frigates to a greater of lesser extent?
Cheers CR
I thought all new “Vehicles” had to be Electric ?
Plenty of space for Solar Panels and Sails.
“Splice the mains wires”.
is that boaty mcboatface next to it ?
Question is, when Venturer is commissioned, will the MoD decom another T23, or will we use the delivery to build up mass again before we do that?
DP, it’s odds on that at least one more (probably 2-3) will be silently taken out of service by then. T23’s have been on borrowed time for many years and I doubt anymore money will be thrown at them now.
“There may be trouble ahead”.
The Type 23’s will not now be withdrawn on a whim – it will be their physical condition ( or lack of ) that will dictate when they go out of service.
I sincerely hope so Paul T. I can see the headlines now when Venturer goes in for its CIP, “dodgy new ships out of service no sooner as they are commissioned”. I think it’s been said on here before now, the time between contract sign-off and commissioning is such that upgrades of various forms are inevitable, shortly into a ship’s operational life.
Last two pictures are missing.