Royal Navy Type 45 Destroyer HMS Daring is set to return to the fleet later this year following a prolonged period out of service for over 3300 days.
In response to written questions from Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty, Defence Minister Luke Pollard said the Type 45 destroyer, which entered Extended Readiness in October 2017, is nearing completion of major upgrades.
“HMS DARING entered Extended Readiness in October 2017 and will return to the Fleet later this year following completion of material upgrades including the Power Improvement Project,” he said.
The Power Improvement Project (PIP) is designed to address well-documented propulsion issues affecting the Type 45 class, improving resilience and reliability in high-temperature environments.
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 been out of service for more than 3,300 days, exceeding the entire time 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The ship was withdrawn in April 2017 to begin the Power Improvement Project (PIP) and a major refit.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.
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.
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.
Some rare good RN news.
Now how about fitting NSM ‘at pace’….
‘At pace’ appears to mean ‘at the pace of a glacier’….
Perhaps Daring could be the first of class to fit Dragonfire if it’s still on schedule.
It will be whichever is emerging from refit in that window.
The thing I don’t get about the NSM fit is I’d have thought that the planners would have wanted that tidied away before the SeaCeptor or DragonFire upgrades….
The fitting NSM seems to have gone very quite lately
If RN is laying up Bays etc to meet in-year budgets what do you expect for add-ons like war fighting capabilities?
One of the reasons that sending RN ships into Hormuz isn’t going to happen is the lack of on board answers to incoming fires that are out of range of the 4.5″ gun.
Really it is a bit of a joke to not have any land attack or AShM capability on most of the fleet. I get that Sea Ceptor does have as surface to surface capability but even so a medium weight missile is an absolute necessity.
So in service until 2050 and who needs T83?
DIP should be published soon with… ahem… revised timelines, but, Rachel from Accounts should be well pleased that they have these ”barely run in motors, geezer, with low mileage and low wear and tear…”
Add in the Norgie buy of T26 which elongates the defence spend and she must be rubbing her hands in glee.
Meanwhile, bloke from procurement gets brought back into Main Bldg and any fall out from Ajax is nothing to do with him.
This is not the Civil Service this is Braid and MPs and MPs of all colours.
Exactly, I suggest it should be good to 2055.
Let’s get rid of the vanity Carriers.
Focus on Frigates, Corvettes and subs please. North Atlantic is our priority as a poor nation not grand standing around the world.
BAES will be asking for an infill order of OPVs to maintain a workforce who are proficient in araldite and other adhesives substances, aka glue for the sniffing of, and also rubbing their hands at the thought of knocking off more OPVs that are of, ahem, limited value, other than the value of the bill to the British taxpayer.
Even if one T26 rolls out every year from now there still 11 T26’s on order so the yard only has slots coming available in 2036(ish)
Even if you ordered T83 right now they’d have to generate a new build environment with staff to build in parallel or one of the other yards does the final hull assembly.
Things us only BAES has done the really complex warships ships and there is zero experience of fitting out T45/26 level ships in Belfast. Rosyth have T31 and QEC level experience.
Where is 2050 mentioned?
Aren’t they due to retire “gracefully” by 2038.
T23s and T42s were THRASHED all around the world, let alone the North Atlantic – please re-read the 3300 days tied up alongside part of the article and reflect on how much time she has been thrashed.
Being alongside actually ages the hull in certain ways worse than having the ship running.
… 2050 ???
I wondered how this long standing problem was going to be laid at labours door. Yet it’s labour who are increasing budgets and building new ships
I think the PIP fiasco shows something deeply wrong with the RN procurement process
Surely building a couple of hulls and having them fully tested before the rest of the fleet is brought online is a better idea and then the next couple of ships are improved on that and then the next couple are built with further improvements. It might even lead to more hulls being built
“extended readiness” What a wonderful phrase that is. Eight years of doing nothing. So now we have five years to fit NSM, perhaps another five for Dragonfire? Or maybe the other way round. Exciting stuff!
I wondered how this long standing problem was going to be laid at labours door. Yet it’s labour who are increasing budgets and building new ships
Great destroyer and really good ‘resurrection’ news for Easter. With the fleet being so small every ship counts. Let’s hope this is a turning point – a Royal Navy ‘trans lunar injection burn’ 🙂 Next step Glasgow and Venturer.