HMS Cardiff, the second Type 26 City Class frigate, is starting to look the part as the vessel continues construction in Govan, Glasgow.
The ship is undergoing structural work before being floated and transported to BAE Systems’ Scotstoun facility in 2024 for outfitting.
For the avoidance of doubt, the drone footage was obtained legally by a qualified person in adherence to UK drone legislation and guidance. In addition, the drone is insured, and a flight plan was submitted using drone safety software.
https://twitter.com/UKDefJournal/status/1721485249148838231
Simon Lister, Managing Director of BAE Systems’ Naval Ships business, previously expressed pride and satisfaction in the progress.
“The emergence of HMS Cardiff is a very proud moment for everyone involved in her construction. We have now completed all major units of the ship and in the coming weeks our skilled teams will consolidate the ship in preparation for next year’s float off,” Lister said.
The first Type 26 frigate, HMS Glasgow, is currently being outfitted at BAE Systems’ Scotstoun facility. The construction of the eight Type 26 frigates is expected to last to the mid-2030s. HMS Glasgow is anticipated to be the first of the fleet to join the Royal Navy in the mid-2020s.
HMS Cardiff will be the last frigate to have its hull sections integrated in the open air on the hardstand. This is due to the construction of a new £100m-plus ship build hall at the Govan site, which will allow the integration process for the remaining six ships to take place under cover, making it less susceptible to weather conditions.
Great to see these Drone captures (lost mine a few weeks back 😩) and the progress being made I think these ships will be warmly received into service by many on here given the lack of numbers now.
Any update on HMS Glasgow
Still Fitting out at Scotstoun, she will be there a while yet.
Thanks. Do you know if there was any significant delays from the cable cutting incident? And did they catch the idiot responsible? I don’t recall hearing anything more about it.
Not heard of any developments to do with the Cable cutting,im sure George would have posted an update if that was the case,as for delays yes there may have been some but we are unaware of the scale of damage caused.
Ok, thanks for the reply
How will the proposed shutting down of the UK Blast Furnances with the migration to electric arc furnaces – for both Tata & ‘British’ Steel, with the subsequent removal of the capability to make ‘virgin’ steel of the high quality I assume is needed for these vesssels impact on our manufacturing capabilty?
Interesting that both steel groups are foreign owned is it not – thats the free market for you…
It will change the goal posts slightly as we don’t make the majority of it anyway. The really high end steels are just not made here anymore in any quantities and haven’t been for decades. Some of the structural material is but other is sourced abroad mainly from Sweden. But and some very specialised HY steel comes from France.
Ok they simply come ready made for abroad ! The huge construction sheds are simply shower rooms and canteens.
What sort of world do you live in, speciality steels and alloys are manufactured at numerous sites across the UK. There is more to steel production than a couple of giant BOS plants churning out slab. Look at Liberty Steel as an example and educate yourself. I despair sometimes of people disseminating inaccurate information on special interest sites.
You must be new here…. stick around, It’ll only get better.
😂👍
I know quite a bit about Dent, Liberty Steel and the vital importance of Sheffield Forge masters. But when it comes to the large quantities of the high quality steels needed in military shipbuilding we are lacking.
Do you know what HY80/100/130 steels are, how much has been required by MOD, what it has been used for and why it hasn’t been manufactured in U.K. in the required volume ?
Am waiting for one of the many trolls to say it will never sail or a loony SNP clown to say no ships are being built.
How strange 🤔
Only a matter of time before the usual brain dead tory mouthpiece comes along claiming labour will cancel it before entering service. At the same time as giving up Gibraltar, the Falklands, Scotland and everything west of East Anglia.
Never seen anyone ever “Come along” and say all that on here truth be known….. can you share a link ?
😆 I thought I recognised some of that terminology you use my friend. 😉 Welcome home.
Cheers shipmate ! 😎 I love a good discussion
I support the Tories but that’s beside the point.
Good progress on the new build hall site, that’s going to be a hell of a lot of concrete.
George is there any chance of putting the plans back up again please. Links in older posts don’t seem to work ?
Some nice photos and much appreciated they are. Nice to see she is now in her winter clothing. Though are you sure they are not AI produced, as the SNP seem to think they are not being built. Thanks for the continued updates on these vessels George.
I followed every part of the Carrier build too on the Aircraft Carrier Alliance site, it was brilliant seeing them all come together… seems like an age ago.
It would be great to see all the stages of these builds.
Me too although there seemed often to be time lags in updating material that had already been posted elsewhere including on UKDJ!😀
what I find remarkable is the size of the these ships, we do often forget just what a massive increase in capability to the escort fleet the 20c build programme will have been, I include the T45 as the start of this generation of escorts building programme ( as there should have been a seamless move from T45 to T26) We do tend to forget what then RN fleet once looked like especially around air defence.. essentially at one point the majority of the escort fleet simply did not have the capabilities to defend against air attack..even our our AAW… Read more »
People often forget how much larger and better armed these vessels are. I saw a chart using a T-42 silhouette overlayed on a T-45 and the difference is huge. The amount of weapons they can carry now is unbelievable, once CAMM is integrated a single hull will have more weapons ready to fire and be able to track and simultaneously engage more targets than the entire T-42 fleet combined.
12 or 8 hulls even would have been great for allowing continuous presence but at the end of the day I’d rather have the capability over cannon fodder.
I think these are fantastic, my only critique is the camm VLS should be quad pack and we should order another 8 now to replace T45. By changing the mission space and upgrading the radar these vessels can easily be a fantastic full spectrum warship.
let T31 have the mission space T26 is high end combat ship
Another 8 to replace the T45s. I tend to agree with that. I have just been looking at the BAE proposal of an advanced T26 design to Australia. What they are proposing is to remove the multi mission bay and insert 64 cell Mk41 keep the 32 cell Mk41 forward giving 96 cells and an additional 16 NSM launchers plus the planned 8. That will make one heavily armed T26. If the UK government would just copy the concept we could keep the T26 production line going. If we still went ahead with a T83 then my suggestion would be… Read more »
Mk57 is probably the cell I would go for for T26 as its an improved Mk41 and has more placement options and I don’t see any reason why T26 can’t be a AAW/ASW option with the right upgrades. A Karl Doorman style MRSS hangers 6 helicopters (more below if needed), loads of stores and has 2.5k of lane meters I think it can be improved upon further and as that is a stated need – could take on a weapons fit if required. the good thing is the pieces are coming together, its can the MOD make some sensible decisions… Read more »
They can only be in one place at once though, we cannot escape that. The escort fleet is too small.
But yes, what an advance over a T21 with Seacat.
Now DM, don’t get yer wires crossed 😄
It’s not unusual to be fair!
👍👍 Wire guided of course. 😊
DLOS I thought!
👍.
Yup, and getting smaller… well at the moment it is what with HMS Westminster soon to be joining the party in Porchester lake ! Down to 10 T23’s and I’ll bet it’ll get fewer before Glasgow is commissioned.
You don’t need a chart, there’s this really good picture of a Type 42 sitting in front of a pair of Type 45s:
https://i.imgur.com/Kg5FJmT.jpeg
All true, and comparing to the past highlights how much more capable any single platform is now; however, stating the obvious, we aren’t fighting our past. Our opponents’ fleets also advance in technology, in particular China’s. Standing still is not an option. Putting a capable 24-plane carrier strike group in the South China Seas in 2025 is part of our deterrent against war in Taiwan. It’s another variable for China to think about. If we sent Type 42s and Type 22s as escorts it wouldn’t have the same effect, and it’s only by continually advancing our platforms that a deterrent… Read more »
All very true but China’s Navy build up is staggering, go check out the quantity of Frigates and Destroyers being built, take a look at the number of VLS, the tonnage and then look at the numbers of Subs. This is a true Blue water capability being built with one aim.
Size of the RN every 4 years apparently.
I know and look at their “Fishing” fleets to and their Interest in Afrca/South America.
It’s frightening. The US naval institute have estimated Chinese shipbuilding is 20x the capacity of the US and that if they wanted too they could increase this drastically. The West is stupidly ignoring the development of the PLAN reassuring itself that yes the Chinese have the quantity advantage but not the quality. This remains to be seen. Meanwhile the UK government are blindly ignoring the perilous state of our armed forces. A further batch of 3 more type 26 and 5 more Type 31s should be the minimum response. Every single allied warship that can be built should be. Make… Read more »
Following for a while, scary beans. Wait till they’re a blue sea trained fleet. 😨.
We’ve heard this many times size of Russian build up all lies and BS. China are totally untested troops and equipment . Massive corruption will be the norm in Chinese military.and probably like Russia not fit for purpose.
You might want to swat up on history a little, Particularly about how the Americans viewed the Japanese and then the Vietnamese before they got a rude wakeup call.
What I don’t like about China is the sheer volume of missiles they carry. That’s why I would prefer to see 40mm ciws with more reach. There is the potential there for them to just fire off everything until their opponent runs out of air defence missiles.
It doesn’t matter if all their missiles would hit the target or not which is something people keep droning on about to excuse gaps in uk defences, by the time that end stage accuracy is determined its long past the point a defensive missile would need to be launched.
Munitions attrition.? 😱
Hi Jon, the reality is for almost all nations we may end up fighting and operations the air threat is not hugely different…when you are taking most of the world airforces you are taking limited number of navel strike aircraft with limited anti shipping capabilities ( The RAF is one of the premier airforces in the world and its navel strike is shite…as are the majority of airforces in the world). Most airforces will have a limited number of anti shipping missiles and will then start using guided bombs and low tec drones…. peer on peer yes it’s different but… Read more »
That there are upgrade programmes for both CAMM and PAAMS feels unusually responsible for us. Exquisite defence vs an exquisite attack is better than plausible, and I was certainly pleased to see that Phalanx is also being upgraded, given that Israel’s GBAD, perhaps the world’s best, fell to sheer quantity.
Of course the point of deterrence is credibility. Do our opponents fancy their chances in battle, and do they believe we will fight? I think with Russia the issue was the latter; we (NATO) weren’t credible in leadership. I wish we could develop an upgrade programme for that too.
I interesting you mentioned leadership and deterrence, there is actually three parts of deterrence that all have to work.. one it’s capability ( you have to be able to destroy your enemies) the second is visibility, your enemies have to see you can destroy them ( a secret deterrence is not a deterrence) the Final one is will to use the deterrence ( if your enemy does not think you have the will to fight then the capability and visibility is all for nothing)…a prime example of this can be seen in the Cold War…for most of the Cold war… Read more »
Okay, bit of an essay, I’ll sum it up if I may:
3, 4 and 5: China will probably win
Well I would say: 1) China will see unification with the ROC, if that cannot happen politically it will invade. It’s so ingrained as part of the CCP and Chinese being. 2) China will be at the peak of its power in 2027 3) The invasion of Taiwan will end in a high intensity bloodbath..once china and the US engage they will not be able to back down no matter the outcome of the Taiwan invasion. 4) Both nations have such strategic depth and have such power blocks that a world war is inevitable and they will only admit defeat… Read more »
If you look back at the Falklands in 1982 a lot of air defence systems were no good for anything other than morale valuegiving the feeling of shooting back. Their usefulness being limited, and that’s being polite! Just picture those argie jets flying over dropping dumb bombs, that’s beyond comprehension these days.
RN AA was better than people think. Those iron bombs often failed to go off as we forced them to fly too low for fear of being hit by missiles.
Well sort of true.
We had sold then a full T42 so they could practise on that.
We had tried to interest them in Sea Wolf so they knew about that too.
They knew Sea Cat was obsolete.
Everyone knows that Sea Slug was for decorative effect only.
So amazingly, as sensible people, came up with tactics that avoided the known engagement parameters of what was on the RN ships.
Which was the narrow low fly dumb bomb approach that a simple modern 30mm/40mm/57mm/Phalanx would shut down. Never mind the EW and decoys.
Good job really though as if all those bombs had actually detonated, It would have been a disaster.
The bbc did its best to help with that.
Correct shameful BBC
Not one of their best moments and why to much reporting is not always a good thing.
If the Bombs were correctly Fused then the Fleet would have suffered a major catastrophe – the A4 Skyhawks that hit HMS Coventry were equipped with the Snake Eye retarded Bombs that didn’t have this issue.
Sea Cat was indeed utterly obsolete but Dart & Wolf were both decent in their respective ways.
The real problem was the lack of Early Airborne Warning and then a layered defense of better guns including CIWS to deal with Argie jets forced to fly low/fast to avoid missile traps and SHAR’s.
Just a thought, can Cwis be confused like the Rapiers were when landlocked? 🤔💭
I can’t recall a situation where Phalanx has been tested in a Falklands War type situation, especially in confined waters, Gunbuster would likely know.
👌👍Ta, PaulT. He’s probably off watch.
I wish. Currently trying to fix a ship with a shed load of new steel inserts.
Phalanx doesn’t get confused. It picks up stuff locks it up and engages in accordance with the calculated threat table. With the TI on the side as well, gives you more options for engagements of UAVs and surface contacts.
Cheers matey peeps, good ol efficiency. 👌.
Worked well in Iraq and Afghan as CRAM.
I completely agree with you Jonathan, I think the end of the Cold War has changed the Navy’s outlook completely. Before the Type 23, RN frigates consisted of a sonar, a helicopter, a gun if you were lucky. Now the Type 31s don’t have a sonar and are optimised for the anti-surface role. Considering that the Type 23s only had harpoon to target surfaced subs, this is a big step forwards for the navy over the “Must defend the North Atlantics, screw the rest of the world” mentality that prevailed after WW2″. The Type 26s and 31s are frigates in… Read more »
Many thanks George. You are a star. I was wondering how much progress there has been.
We are where we are; thousands around the U.K. working hard and playing catch up for a deliberate run down of our navy created by the most dozy collection of politicians I ever seen in my life time – and I am old! Great work!
I watched a Navy Lookout video on You-Tube last night regards the Type 26, if you have a spare 13 mins its well worth a butchers: Do a search on:
An in-depth look at the Type 26 frigate design
Imo the Type 26 the way to go almost the size of a genuine destroyer bigger than a lot of Russian destroyers . Can’t see the need for over spending on a new type 32 more of these please and the 31.
Type 32, what we know so far…. well actually we know next to bugger all other than a vague description “A platform for autonomous vehicles”. that’s if it ever even happens.
@Peter tattersll “Imo the Type 26 the way to go”
My opinion is the total opposite, way, way over budget at £10 billion for the 8 frigates and a 11 year build programme for Glasgow that would embarrass a snail.
I agree with Peter,by the time Ship 8 is in build the process will be very finely tuned,Batch 2 offered significant savings over Batch 1 and the step up in capability would be worth it.The slow build rate has been discussed at length on here but it is now being speeded up, i think i would be happy for just 1 extra T26.
Im a Proud welder of hms cardiff 🥰🥰❤️❤️