Linda Reynolds, the Australian Minister for Defence, has visited the Govan shipyard to witness the build progress being made on GLASGOW, the first in class City Class Type 26.

Australia is building 9 ‘Hunt class’ variants of the Type 26 Frigate.

During her visit, BAE say that she announced the latest Type 26 supplier contract with Airspeed, an Adelaide-based company specialising in ‘design and build’ applications of composite materials for aerospace, maritime and energy-related projects.

Airspeed has been awarded the contract to provide the replenishment at sea stump mast (RASSM) for the first batch of three Type 26 ships which will run until 2023.

The RASSM allows for the resupply of ammunition and small of amounts of stores whilst the ship is at sea.

BAE said in a release:

“This is the second supplier from South Australia to supply into the Type 26 programme as part of our Global Access Program, joining: Electro Optic Systems, Liferaft Systems Australia, Thales Australia, Mackay Consolidated Rubber, Rowlands Metalworks and CBG Systems (Moonraker).”

The Australian Defence Minister

Steve Barlow, Airspeed Managing Director, said:

“In recent years, we have evolved our aerospace background to roll out lightweight structural composites for the Collins class submarines and local warship programmes. This latest contract with BAE Systems to design and build a lightweight replenishment at sea stump mast (RASSM) for the Type 26 is a great opportunity to showcase the talent and technology innovation we have in our company.”

Minister for Defence, Senator the Hon Linda Reynolds CSC, said:

“It was fantastic to be hosted by BAE Systems today at Govan shipyard where I witnessed the progress of GLASGOW, first in class Type 26.”

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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45 COMMENTS

  2. And go back in a years time and not much will have changed. I have images of bae employees sitting around having extended tea breaks being told to work slower.

    • LOL?, I wonder what they are looking at exactly?
      Answers on a postcard to, HMG, care of the defence select committee!

    • don’t deserve the contracts in the first place ffs 4 years to build an opv, the pompey yard built a battleship in under a year. the clyde should be producing two ships per year

      • I think they are just trying to spread the build over a long period of time so the shipyards dont go bankrupt because of lack of activity.
        I am not sure that it is a good idea to build 10 ships in one year and then lay off everyone. It is not like there is a war and the ships are needed urgently. But shipbuilding know how and competence will be needed for years to come and develop the future ships of the navy in the upcoming decades. And if a war breaks out, it is easier to scale up production then to start from 0 because all your shipyards went bust years prior

        • The government and shipyards both need to get their act together. Ordering as few ships as possible is crippling our navy and giving us the least value for money possible.
          Then even when we do order ships we pay through the roof regardless of quality and capability. The R2s are not much cheaper than the Dutch Holland opvs but are worlds apart in terms of technology and capability.

        • I don’t think there is any danger of this particular Shipyard going bust due to lack of orders – quite the opposite.With a potential 5 more T26’s to be ordered plus the prospect of a T45 replacement the future looks good,the main threat to the yard is a lack of efficiency and more importantly quality surely.

    • As someone who lives just across the river from BAe Govan there is certainly a module there which is larger than those of the OPVs.

  4. Minor glitch in the works: The first RAN Type-26 will be HMAS Hunter, named for Vice Admiral John Hunter, the second governor of New South Wales. So the class will be known as the ‘Hunter’ class, not ‘Hunt’ (what a silly bunt).

  5. In a few years maybe our defence minister can visit our Aussie friends to see what a completed Type 26 looks like ?‍♂️?‍♀️?‍♀️?‍♂️

    • I live around the corner from the buildings that are currently under construction for this contract. The prototype modules are due to be built during the latter part of 2020. So assume keel laying of the future HMAS Hunter in early to mid 21. Allow a 3 year build, so maybe a projected launch date around mid to late 24, commissioning 2 years later. 1st of class always runs late, so perhaps add a year. That’s a least 7 years from now. HMS Glasgow and at least one sister ship will be in the water well before then.

  8. Might have been covered elsewhere but not been on for a while ….does anyone have an accurate picture of the UK build percentage of these Australian vessels?…
    Obviously will be built down under but wondering as to UK contributions..build/kit/systems etc?
    Cheers in advance

    • On the Hunter class i understand the weapons will 100% US supplied, the sensors i think will be US/Australian, the hull 100% Australian assembled but the propulsion gearboxes are to be made in the UK. I’m guessing there will be a lot of other auxiliary parts UK made.

    • Scale in common systems driving costs down, ability to spread the R&D across a larger fleet and even at times fully recoup the R&D thus driving costs down oh and gives the RN a little more operational maneuverability if other nations also operate the same/similar ships if they are deployed together.

      • Very good points, but how does using another nations design work? The UK has invested god knows how much into BAE to produce the design. How is it good sense that other nations can then simply just decide they want a Type 26 Frigate and just gain access to its sepcs to build in their own nations? There’s no kind of payment at all?

        • Australia paid plenty of millions to BAE (and the other competitors) to modify and finalise the design for the SEA5000 competition. They would be paying BAE more for design clarification now the Australian version Type 26 is about to be built here. This is only fair.

        • There actually would be a payment. Think of it like a licensing fee. Nation X will pay nation Y an agreed upon amount for the design to build ?? number of ships or at times will pay a higher amount to acquire full IP (Intellectual property) rights to the design. For the purchasing nation this can be a benefit as it gives them free will to change the design as they see fit without the nation that designed it chucking a hissy fit (Happened with Australia when we modified the propeller on the Collins class Sweden started winging and ended up in court over it) while also giving the original designing nation a big pay day covering the design mostly if not fully though there are also risks as giving away full IP can also put the original design nation in competition for exports. In regards to the Type 26 Austalia has acquired full IP rights and we are doing that with almost everything defence related these days after the hassles we went through with the Collins class and the premium we had to pay just to get partial IP rights when Sweden released they had leverage over us, However I dont see Australia and the UK competing against one another for exports but rather concentrating on either there respective regions or jointly bidding utilizing both nations industries made easier as BAE is the prime in both. UK build certain sections, Australia others, Which ever nation with the best efficiency/cost.available yard space to join it all up etc. Both have similar plans in broad terms on building a continuous shipbuilding industry so wouldnt put it past both to work together to gain exports as we would both have a better chance if doing it together rather then separately.

    • Apart from comments already made, the Hunter class will be equiped with, at least, RR MT30 gas turbines, Ultra bow Sonar, Thales array sonar, GE propulsion units. All built in the UK. These are high value pieces of kit.

    • Good show indeed Helions. What needs doing as a matter of urgency is to ‘up-arm’ the OPV’s to help cope with an escalation in these sorts of incidents. This would be the quickest(in fact virtually ONLY) option available to provide more teeth in the short term, although the Archers fitted for but not with 20mm cannons could also be deployed in some areas

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