Frigates remain key to UK Atlantic Bastion plan

That doesn’t read wuite right? Shouldn’t it be “ASW Frigates”, ie the T23/T26s that will be whats primariy used in the Atlantic Bastion? And “General Purpose frigates”, ie the T31s that will be primarily used for “maritime presence, patrol, escort and reassurance tasks” which sounds very like “non-Atlantic-Bastion” and likely for operations in other regions? If there were a few more T31s ordered maybe they could then be spread more widely.

At least 5 more frigates are needed.

When will all this happen, umm 2031 like every thing else?

Hopefully t31s will have been given some ASW capabilities by then as they currently are slated to be the new Bacchante class and therefore floating coffins as we’ve just seen off the coast of Sri Lanka

Probably worth adding the context of the question

“To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what role general-purpose frigates within the Royal Navy will have following the development of the Atlantic Bastion concept.”

The full response was

“Within the Atlantic Bastion concept, Royal Navy general‑purpose frigates will continue to play an important role in providing maritime presence, patrol, escort and reassurance tasks, while also acting as flexible platforms able to integrate with uncrewed systems. The exact pace and scale of capability enhancements delivered through Atlantic Bastion will be determined through the Defence Investment Plan.

The Secretary of State for Defence and First Sea Lord have engaged with counterparts and senior officials from Canada, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands on the Atlantic Bastion concept through a range of bilateral and multilateral forums, including NATO Defence Ministerial meetings and North Atlantic-focused working groups. The UK will continue to work closely with these Allies to ensure the North Atlantic remains secure and resilient.”

The question was by a Labour MP.. which means it’s a friendly question, so the government wanted the role of the the GP frigate highlighted as valid in the Atlantic bastion concept.

So what I take from it…

1) Presence, clearly they have started to recognise that you cannot just fill up the Atlantic with a load of autonomous platforms without Presence..and presence means a frigate with a crew, a small ship flight, a commanding officer who can make decisions on the spot etc.

2) escort.. there would need to be some form of escort capability in Atlantic bastion again that needs a crewed platform…

3) reassurance.. I suspect this means they acknowledge that human beings will not psychologically see autonomous platforms in the same way as a crewed major surface combatant .. and I think you can flip this coin because the other side of reassurance is deterrence.. and I suspect they really mean deterrent when they say reassurance.

So I think from the the MOD many just be acknowledging that a physical presence major surface combatant.. that is not an ASW combatant may be a requirement component of a group of ASW drones..

Could it be that autonomous drones are actually the end of the need for high end ASW and AAW platforms in large numbers.. and the future is a cheap as chips large GP mother hen frigate… to guard and control the Drones that do the AAW and ASW…

It would be interesting because in the future maybe that frigates role is sculpted not so much on the systems it has but on the drones it’s paired up with, the drone control centre you pop in its mission bay and the specific expertise you add to the crew.. yes you would still want a few specific specialists as the centre piece of your CBG or amphibious group AAW screen or ASW screen.. but the bulk of your crewed escorts and surface groups become mother hens..

More and more you can see a world in which a T31 type escort becomes the normal..
1) heavy gun armament to manage all the huge numbers of airborne drones
2) a big mission bay to take whatever drone command and control you need as well as take some small drones for littoral work.
3) a small crew that you add specialists to depending on the drone ships it’s paired with.
4) specialist capabilities held within the drones that accompany it.

Clever monkeys would be looking at these drone companions to be large enough to have a flight deck for a medium rotor, bridge and some crew accommodation so you can have an optional 5-10 crew.. allowing traditional patrol and monitoring functions as well as easy repair and foreign port visits, that would mean mother hen T31 in normal times can just be in the region and not actually holding its hand within the radar horizon at all times.

The final interesting point is the purposeful mention of allies even through that was not in the question.. this was information added to the response for the purpose of adding it into the formal response ( this is always done with purpose ) or more importantly allies not mentioned. As a NATO activity around securing the Atlantic traditionally you would expect such a comment to include all NATO allies.. but no only specific Nations Canada, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands.. not France and the US.. that is more than interesting as it tells of geostrategic split within NATO even on concept developments as something as fundamentally important as security of the Atlantic.. this is following a theme we are seeing in NATO the U.S. going off verbally attacking NATO nations, going off on its own to attack who the hell it wants across the globe and Europe not following.. France throwing essentially its entire navy into the eastern med and western Indian Ocean to really flex its muscles in that region without any regard for the fact it will not have any operational ships in the Atlantic or high north region, Italy very clearly telling everyone that will listen its a meditation navy..

So that little message there tells me Canada, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands and the UK are starting to feel that the high north may be their ball to sort out and others may not play well.. the US has clearly said it’s doing what the hell it wants and screw everyone, France has shown its main priority will alway be the med, Africa and the Middle East. Italy is staying home, Spain is simply not playing and who knows with Germany.. but I think their intergenerational European land war trauma has been triggered a bit.. so they may just do a turtle by building a big army and airforce, very much the same with Poland… so I don’t think we are getting much deep Co-operation from anyone apart from Canada the Dutch and Vikings when it comes to securing our seas.