Work has started on the second section of the first Type 26 ‘City class’ frigate HMS Glasgow in her namesake city.
The Type 26 represents the future backbone of the Royal Navy and eight of the class are planned, starting with HMS Glasgow. The UK Government say they are committed to eight of the type, this was outlined in the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review.
The Type 26 programme currently employs more than 1,200 people in the UK supply chain, with a number of contracts already in place for the manufacture of major equipment for the first three ships. In total, there are already 33 UK and international companies working in the supply chain to deliver the Type 26 ships.
We have also commenced manufacture on the second hull section of #Type26 frigate, #GLASGOW. This will house the main machinery space, aviation stores for embarked helicopters and a recreational area for the ships’ 59 senior rates pic.twitter.com/YZ5dEwqmMY
— BAE Systems Maritime (@BAES_Maritime) January 25, 2018
Admiral Sir Philip Jones, First Sea Lord said when the name of the first vessel was revealed:
“The Clyde was the birthplace of some of the greatest fighting ships the world has ever known and so cutting steel there today for the future HMS Glasgow is symbolic of a Royal Navy on the rise once again.
As an island nation, we are utterly dependent on the sea for our security and prosperity and the City-class names have been chosen for the Type 26 to provide an enduring link between the Royal Navy and our great centres of commerce and industry.
The name Glasgow brings with it a string of battle honours, stretching from the Arctic Circle to the South Atlantic.”
It will be the ninth HMS Glasgow in the Royal Navy’s history, dating back to 1707.
Good. More please in the defence review.
Thou is good at cracking jokes, thou is.
Actually I agree Ian
The NSS is a 30 year plan – surely we will need to replace the T45’s in this timescale, so 8+6 = 14 which could all be fully loaded with the T31 becoming task specific.
It would be nice to get a sense of some actual forecasting and planning going on… but I dont get that sense and for me its one of the reasons everything is so expensive. too little – not often enough and no comfort the order will not be reduced or cancelled = lack of credibility in the customer.
Let’s face it – the T26 is pretty much a destroyer. It would make an excellent platform for the T45 replacement (it’s practically as big – a good thing and one of the reasons I love Mrs W.)
We either need way more than 8 or shed loads more T31 hulls.
Someone else suggested a scaled down T26 would be an excellent T31 – I tend to agree, it would make training a lot easier and cheaper.
Looking at the cut outs on the constructed piece they are using P beams not I beams for the longitudinal stiffeners . P beams are just as strong as the old I beams but save weight and cost which is nice to see. P beams are pretty much standard fare nowadays and have been used on just about all vessels since T22s.
I know steel is cheap, but that is an engineering sculpture. The design and acoustic modelling were probably not so cheap.
Can we please speed up the type 26 programme? Get all 8 built before 2025 and then move onto type 31e.
Agree with many posts here that the type 26 hullform should be the basis for type 45s replacement.
If we get all 8 type 26 and at least 10x type 31s I would reasonably satisfied.
And are we all complacent that the current RN has no ability to deploy aircraft, a ‘best in the world’ Air Defence destroyer which can’t be trusted due to propulsion issues and a ‘best in the world’ nuclear submarine which can’t detect merchant ships before surfacing?
I just hope that potential conflicts will wait for us to get our act together.
And we’ve still got an SDR waiting!!!!