Three of the Royal Navy’s Type 45 destroyers have now completed the long-running Power Improvement Project (PIP).
Defence Minister Luke Pollard formally listed the vessels in a written answer to Parliament, saying that “as of December 2025, three Type 45 Destroyers have completed their Power Improvement Project (PIP) upgrades: HMS Dauntless, HMS Daring, and HMS Dragon.”
HMS Defender and HMS Diamond remain in refit undergoing their conversions, while HMS Duncan continues in operational service and will enter the programme “concurrently with her next docking period at HMNB Portsmouth.”
The minister declined to provide further detail on the future upgrade schedule, stating that releasing a forward programme “could risk revealing future capability levels to our adversaries.” He added that progress hinges on balancing dock availability with the Royal Navy’s operational commitments, a factor that has previously slowed major engineering work across the fleet.
Despite this, Pollard reiterated that the project remains on its planned trajectory, with all six destroyers expected to receive the upgrade by 2028.
The Power Improvement Project, delivered under the wider diagnostic framework of Project Napier, is intended to resolve the class’s long-standing propulsion and power-generation failures. These issues, often triggered in warm waters or under high electrical load, have periodically taken ships offline and constrained global deployments.
Under PIP, each destroyer has its two original diesel generators removed and replaced with three larger, more reliable units. The Ministry of Defence states that this modernised arrangement improves redundancy, strengthens the high-voltage distribution system, and provides a more resilient power architecture capable of sustaining the Type 45’s demanding radar and weapons suite without unexpected electrical loss.
The work is among the most intrusive engineering efforts ever attempted on an active Royal Navy surface combatant, requiring significant hull cuts and internal reconfiguration to accommodate the new machinery. Pollard noted that completing PIP depends on “the availability of ships to undertake the upgrade, balanced against the Royal Navy’s current and future operational commitments.”
With global tasking increasing and the Type 45s forming the backbone of the UK’s area-air-defence capability, maintaining class availability while rotating ships through such extensive engineering work remains a persistent challenge. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Defence maintains that the programme is on target, and class availability is being managed to ensure the Navy continues to meet current commitments while pushing upgrades forward.
So… We have jack shit but half are OK… Great news.. What about the rest??… Subs….. Armoured cars… Tanks…. One great big joke……
Why are T45 “jackshit”
And half is three. Just three destroyers. Shameful really when you consider where the RN was 100 years ago.
Unfortunately this is one of the reasons more is better and that maritime wars are won by numbers and mass.. time and space matter in maritime wars.. HMS massive will always lose the war to the correct number of HMS “just adequate for the job” class ships.
Sounds impressive until you get to the “3” bit. Especially since the problem first manifested itself 15 years ago.
And has the DS who I read ignored BAES advice on the right engine faced the music?
No.
Why?
Should never have built just 6 of these. 8 is and always was the obvious minimum.
Just as 10 is the minimum T26 required.
Just as 8 is the minimum for T31.
Just as 10 is the minimum for Astute.
These are not ambitious targets, people.
12 should have been the number, 10 was cutting it fine, 8 was being very risky..
In the end 12 would secure you 4 deployments 2 for a carrier battle group and 2 for an amphibious group… T45 did not change the laws of physics or the requirements of time and space across the oceans.
Oh wow they’re starting to work only twenty years after being built – what a time to be alive!
Surely the big story here , is when Daring getting back to sea ?