In a recent written question to the Secretary of State for Defence, Mark Francois MP sought clarity on the operational status of the Royal Navy’s Type 45 destroyers.
The inquiry, addressed by James Cartlidge MP, Minister of State for the Ministry of Defence, provided detailed information on the availability and maintenance of these critical naval assets.
Mark Francois MP, representing Rayleigh and Wickford, posed the question:
“To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Type 45 destroyers are (a) operationally available, (b) in refit, and (c) undergoing the power improvement project upgrade programme.”
In response, James Cartlidge disclosed the current status of the fleet:
“HMS Diamond, HMS Duncan and HMS Dauntless are all currently available for operations. HMS Daring, HMS Dragon, and HMS Defender are all currently at various stages of the Power and Propulsion Programme.”
Three of these vessels are ready for deployment, while the remaining three are undergoing significant upgrades under the Power and Propulsion Programme, a crucial initiative aimed at enhancing their performance and reliability.
Not very informative really. Daring should be very close to ready. Not sure why Dauntless is just sitting around. Information about the various upgrades etc. would be interesting. I doubt Mark learnt anything much from that exchange😂
I seem to remember reading somewhere recently that one of them will be getting the Sea Ceptor missile up upgrade at the same time as the power upgrade. Can’t remember where I saw that..!
Cheers CR
Yes, and emerging from that after such a very long period of time that you can safely assume some other unannounced upgrade might be going on…..
At least obsolescence issues I would hope, but yeh its a good opportunity to fit some extra goodies…
Cheers CR
I think there is a lot going on that hasn’t been announced – getting T45s up to maximum availability balanced with their naval potential is an absolute priority.
So it should be, mate. I have just flicked through an article on Navy Lookout about the Sea Viper – Evolution. The one that is happening now is apparently the Capability 1 upgrade according to the 2022 article. Capability 2, was speculated as including upgrades to the SMART-M radar similar to the upgrade applied to the SMART-L radar by the Dutch i.e. fully active scanning. This apparently would contribute to the system’s ABM capability. There was more besides, but this was the main bit of a suggested capability 2 insertion. It would be a nice to have I think but… Read more »
I think the various upgrades are discreet and will need to be incrementally installed……imagine if you do all of them at once and you create HMS ££££ Lemon?
Fair point, very succinctly put 🙂
Nevertheless, I would like most of the above implemented at sometime. Perhaps during future maintenance periods.
Cheers CR
Defender
Aren’t these 2 being handled by different docks? If so, then i assume one after the other and so extended unavailability but atleast all done once out.
Hi Steve, According to Naval Technology the PIP is being undertaken by an ‘Alliance’ of BAE, Cammell Laird and BMT. It seems that the work is being carried out at BAE Portsmouth and CL Birkenhead. Not sure which yards are doing which bits of the work, but from stuff I have read it seems that the PIP is mostly being carried out at Birkenhead but it at least one ship is / might be being sorted out at Portsmouth. It seems that the Ceptor insertion is being carried out only on the latter ships in parallel with the PIP as… Read more »
As I understood it Dauntless and Daring will be the only Type 45’s to have completed PIP at Cammel Laird’s, now the process has switched to BAE at Portsmouth with Dragon and recently Defender, Diamond and Duncan following when appropriate.
Thank you for the clarification, Paul.
Cheers CR
Urgency and co-operation indicate we are mentally moving onto a war footing.
Yeh, my thoughts as well. Chilling.
Hopefully improved preparedness will be enough to deter, but we have a long way to go to be able to meet the real threat we are likely to face.
That is the measure by which deterrence is measured, not some political weasel wording that is trotted to reassure Joe public. Hiding behind our NATO alliance and the nuclear deterrent isn’t enough we have to be able to meet the real threat…
Cheers CR
The near term strategy for RN availability looks like focus on T45 versus T23 lifex. Hustle with the destroyer upgrades – do them in parallel where possible and accelerate T26 as much as possible. Medium term I read the ending of the joint idea with the Dutch and the commitment to MRSS as a re-commitment to the RN as a significant expeditionary force. My guess is that the US has expressed a view that that’s what they would like. I expect to see the Bays being replaced by big, armed LPD / LSD type ships with at least the same… Read more »
They should be trying to do that to the other two too. It’ll be interesting to what space has been utilised and whether they could have squeezed in more than the 24 CAMM.
I agree Daring was supposed to be doing trials this year.
Dauntless could well be a parts issue as STOROB was alive and well with T45 for a very long time with bits swapped backwards and forwards.
We should not have to swap parts, we should hold additional parts.
Pathetic!
No way to run a navy. When did this creep in. I recall Ark Royal took parts from Eagle in about 1973.
👍Precisely!
When T45 came in the support structure was CLS. Contractor logistic support would sort out spares and support anywhere in the world. Its was a disaster and was thankfully binned. The RN knew it would be but it was forced upon them by bean counters. Funnily enough other Navys haven’t learnt and have gone down the CLS route with exactly the same result! (Keeps me working so I am not complaining!) The option for T45 when the original numbers were cut from 12 to 8 and then cut again was 5 with a complete support package or 6 with no… Read more »
HMS Defender is the first to receive SV CAMM
When are the interim replacements for the Harpoon going to be installed?
At what point will they be getting the Naval Strike Missile?
TBA- i had thought that Duncan would be the first to get NSM but the situation in the Red Sea might dictate that she will instead have to relieve Diamond,so Dauntless will likely be the first to get them now.
Has Daring run into the same issues as Dauntless which seemed to extend her pip refit by a very long time?
🤔Seems so!
Do recall reading about plans about Daring a few years ago to be use has a training ship to take over from HMS Bristol 😲 what a lucky escape that was .More sense to use an old Type 23 one would of thought 🤔. Still only 6 of this vessels ,what a sad state of affairs .Back to Daring don’t think she’s been to sea for 5years 😟 🇬🇧