HMS Daring has been out of service for over 3,000 days — longer than it took to build her. Now, after years of refit and regeneration, she is crewing up for trials and getting ready to rejoin the fleet.
The milestone, reached this week, highlights the length of time the destroyer has spent undergoing refit and regeneration since she was withdrawn from the fleet in 2017.
Daring was laid down in 2003, launched in 2006, and commissioned in 2009. From keel-laying to commissioning, the process took 2,307 days. In contrast, the destroyer has now spent more than 3,000 days out of service, exceeding the entire period it took to build and bring her into the fleet.
The ship was withdrawn in April 2017 to begin the Power Improvement Project (PIP) and a major refit. The PIP was introduced across the Type 45 class to address known limitations with the ships’ power and propulsion systems. The original WR-21 gas turbines, which included an intercooler unit, had caused reliability issues in warm climates.
This milestone has also been covered by the excellent Freddy Webb at the Portsmouth News, with whom we worked in following up developments.
The upgrade package replaced the two original diesel generators with three larger and more reliable units. For Daring, this engineering programme was combined with a broader refit carried out at the Cammell Laird shipyard, which concluded in late 2022. After returning to Portsmouth in early 2023, Daring entered the regeneration phase. Then-Defence Minister James Cartlidge confirmed in May 2023 that PIP work had been completed, alongside that of HMS Dauntless. Dauntless has since returned to active service, while Daring has remained alongside undergoing further work.
According to defence sources, HMS Daring has now begun crewing ahead of trials. Planning indicates that shakedown could begin in December 2025, though January 2026 is considered the more likely timeframe. This would mark the ship’s first time at sea since leaving service more than eight years ago.
The other five Type 45 destroyers are at different stages of the same process. HMS Dauntless has returned to operations after completing her PIP work, HMS Dragon is currently progressing through the upgrade, and HMS Defender is due to begin. HMS Diamond and HMS Duncan will follow. Current plans envisage that all six destroyers will have completed the programme by 2028. Parliamentary statements have confirmed that no PIP-related technical issues have been reported on ships that have completed the work.
Officials have also stressed that the Royal Navy continues to meet operational demands across the globe despite individual ships being out of action. A Royal Navy spokesperson said: “We do not comment on the material state of our ships, but the Royal Navy continues to fulfil all of its operational commitments.”
Perspective
The 3,000-day milestone places HMS Daring’s regeneration period in context when set against her earlier career. From commissioning in 2009 until withdrawal in 2017, she spent eight years in operational service. Since then, she has spent more than eight years out of service. If she returns to sea trials in early 2026, the balance between those two phases will be almost even.
The length of this period is not the result of a single factor. The Power Improvement Project required deep modifications to the ship’s machinery spaces, and this was combined with a major refit at Cammell Laird. After Daring’s return to Portsmouth in 2023, the focus shifted to regeneration: systems testing, certification, and assembling and training a crew for a ship that had been inactive for years. Each of these stages has contributed to the overall timeline.
Across the class, the PIP has been designed to deliver long-term reliability, ensuring that all six destroyers remain capable of fulfilling their role as advanced air defence platforms into the future. Parliamentary statements have noted that no technical issues have been reported with the ships that have already completed the conversion.
That said, the fact that Daring has now spent longer out of service than it took to build her is bound to draw attention. Some will see it as an unwelcome milestone or a source of embarrassment. For others, it will be viewed as a necessary stage in maintaining the Royal Navy’s most complex surface combatants.
Our role is not to smooth over or exaggerate either view, but to set out the facts as they stand. The purpose of this article is to inform, and that means reporting on both the positive progress and the difficult milestones alike.
Comments section about to get “lit”!
#Day3000
Not worth it is it? Just proves how incapable industry really is.
To be honest, I thought the headline was a joke until I read the full post.
Yup, politeness stops peoples true feelings I guess.
Huh?
Personally I think it appropriate that the first T45 should get all the upgrades which will set the benchmark for the whole type. We are nearly there and Daring is not needed at the moment. Seems a sensible move.
May as well upgrade her now.
It’s just very easy to blame industry but fact is its the Politicians who decide haow and when to spend the money needed for industry to do the job. No one mentions that the decisions made back then were based on cost, the entire WR21 Recuperative IEP system was an industry 1st and way beyond anything attempted elsewhere.
The main problem was someone in the Treasury (probably with a 1st calss degree in Ancient Greek), decided to save money and tell HMG to not fund an onshore test facility for this revolutionary system. And we are not alone in doing this sort of thing’ the US ordered the LCS1 class with a completely untried and new to the USN propulsion system a RR MT30 GT combined with 2 different makes of DG sets and with an untried Gearbox to combine them all and to provide a 40 + Knot ship.
Now you know why the New US Frigate is taking so long to build; as depsite it using the same propulsions system as the Italian FREMMS the US decided to test on shore 1st.
Oh and don’t go blaming RR either the WR21 worked just fine and the MT30 is rapidly becoming the No1 choice for GT in the western world.
The new USN Frigate is taking so long because the USN has basically thrown the FREMM design in the bin and making it up as they go along.
Exactly. The U.K. is not alone in any of these issues developing and deploying new and complex systems. Duds happen to everyone who tries new technology. I wonder if resident brains here know if running down our sovereign capacity in ship building this century has had an impact on this timescale? Only experienced need apply.
Geoff Hoon overrode BAe and RR to order the Northrop Grumman intercooler . Bae and RR wanted to use the tried and tested LM2500 produced by MTU .
Northrop Grumman gave Geoff Hoon a consultant job when he retired from parliament and also gave his son a job .
Embarrassingly poor..dire. A 3000-day (-10yr refit) not good enough.
Be better buying some Scottish ferries and putting Stingers and GPMGs on the rails.
If we thought that was at all useful we would do that to HMS Victory.
Actually closer to 8 years. I’ve told you millions of times not to exagerate.
Also it is difficult to judge how much of that time it was in refit and not just in reserve.
Wasn’t she a harbour training ship for a number of years.
The only silver lining in this and all the type 45s problems is they will be in a very good position to be serving into the 2040s as one of the best air defence destroyers in the world!
As there is no way the type 83 will be replacing them in the later 2030s.
They are indeed the comeback Kings.
Great point! Let’s put our 14 SP howitzers into storage so we can roll them out again in the 2080s…
They should last well into the 2050’s is my guess. Next up would be quieting them down and fully fitting them for ASW, then its job done and we can sell them 3 each, to Chile or Brazil each with it own glass case. That’s the life of an RN ship.
On the positive side, the T45s, having been lightly used, should have a long service life left.
If there is a wider lesson for an always cash strapped Royal Navy, it must be to keep platforms and power systems as simple as possible. Contrast the success of the long production run of the Arleigh Burke with the hugely expensive failures of the 2 LCS designs and Zumwalt.
We can only hope that T31, whatever its initial limitations, proves to be a reliable platform.
James, 2017 to 2025 is 8 years. 3,000/365 is 8.2. If you make snap responses like this, you just look like another troll. It’s a really poor outcome but the article does say that it looks poor and tries to explain why it’s happened in around 200 words. It wasn’t just a refit but a redesign and rebuild of the ME department. It goes all the way back to the original procurement where the politicians rejected the design recommendation in order to support British industry and jobs.
3000 is just a round number. It sounds to me that Daring is simply going the extra mile and having the things that will likely appear on the other T45s shortly. There is clearly no urgency in getting Daring to sea and if there were I would not be surprised if it happened quite quickly.
I also suspect that once at sea it might be many years before she needs another refit thus allowing her to become a workhorse allowing the work completed on Daring to be applied quicker to all the other T45s.
In short I agree that we should put all the bells and whistles on Daring and get her to sea in the new year. She and Dauntless can be the spine of the T45s for a while whilst work proceeds on the other ships. I am guessing that in the next few years we will have an increasing availability if the T45. Maybe all 6 by 2027-2028.
Is the plan for it to come out of refit with Sea Ceptor, NSM etc fitted?
No…has to go back in dock for this. Fifteen years scheduled including the fit of a machine gun in the bow to counter E boats in the channel. Only joking…Ithink!!
😂👍
Be positive. Daring’s past is water under the bridge, her future is yet to come (drops the mike twice!). And in three years time, all six will have been pip-ed, up-armed and good to go for at least another ten years.
Well said.
Please can we have Type 45s AND Type 83s in service at the same time, rather than flogging stuff off when we are clearly going to need evrrything the RN can lay its hands on and crew.
But nothing mentioned about Dauntless nearly sinking in 2024 due to several floods, which caused her to have emergency repairs at Newcastle
“HMS Dauntless has returned to operations after completing her PIP work, HMS Dragon is currently progressing through the upgrade, and HMS Defender is due to begin. HMS Diamond and HMS Duncan will follow …… Parliamentary statements have confirmed that no PIP-related technical issues have been reported on ships that have completed the work.”
So, let’s get this clear then, last sentence, “no PIP-related technical issues have been reported on ships” (plural). If, from the preceding sentences, Dauntless is the only ship to have completed the PIP and gone back into service, that would read better as “no PIP-related technical issues have been reported on Dauntless”, right? I’m being pedantic but the original sentence is misleading, is it not?
It’s a crying shame that, after 3000 days laid up, Dauntless will still need to go back into maintenance for CAMM additions and then, if she’s chalked down for it, the NSM upgrade. Then there’s the Sea Viper Evolution to think about at some point! Hopefully they can combine the three into one maintenance period to minimise downtime?
All six type 45s up and running by 2028 really is positive news,just in time for HMS Glasgow to joint the fleet and then a constant trickle of 26s and 31s.Exciting times for the Royal navy
“All six type 45s up and running by 2028 really is positive news”
Exactly! 23 years from first steel cut to “up and running” is excellent!
Had this been a simple Arran ferry there would be outraged questions being asked everywhere about poor design and cost overruns.
I feel for those that got a 24 month supposed Sea draft and just having too pay board and meals in Nelson whilst dockies do the overtime ..No LOA no hardlay no jollies .Not really a positive advertising slogan forvtge RN ‘ I was born in Carlisle but made in refit.
Incredible.
Bloody disgraceful.
Will be back in time to enter refit for CAMM/Aster/NSM.
Well at least she’s still Grey, I was half expecting a Blue Rinse by now.
Just out of pure interest, I had a look at Wiki to see what China has done In that same period, the PLAN has commisioned 30 ish Destroyers and one or two others !
It is pretty damn scandalous. Poor design construction and essential systems.
Many Questions:
What was the time originally allocated for this upgrade?
And what absorbed all the extra time?
Were any of those 3000 days slack periods when no work could be done?
Does the UK lack the skill and capacity for timely refits?
I can’t answer all of your questions—I’m not a Q&A bot. But there were definitely a few ‘duvet days’.
Most of the time dockside doing absolutely nothing other than harbour training ship.
If she was coming back with Sea Ceptor and NSM fitted and operational i’d been ok, good lets get 10 years out of her now…………