The hull of Type 26 Frigate HMS Glasgow now sits as part of the Glasgow city skyline.

The aft block of HMS GLASGOW, the first City Class Type 26 frigate being built for the Royal Navy, has been rolled out of the build hall to join the forward block at the BAE Systems shipyard on the River Clyde.

BAE Systems say on their website:

“In a busy period for HMS GLASGOW, teams at our Govan shipyard prepared and completed a series of complex manoeuvres to bring the aft block out of the ship block and outfit hall and into position to meet the forward block. This significant moment brings the two blocks together, and for the first time the full size, scale and the elegant lines of HMS GLASGOW are out in the open.

The aft block contains the versatile mission bay and hangar which is capable of supporting helicopters, boats, mission loads and disaster relief stores, while the flight deck is capable of landing a Chinook helicopter for transport of embarked forces.”

HMS GLASGOW is the first of eight Type 26 frigates, designed and built in her namesake city.

BAE say that the Type 26 programme supports more than 4,000 jobs across the UK.

According to BAE Systems:

“The Type 26 is the original variant of BAE Systems’ Global Combat Ship, which Australia and Canada have both selected as the reference design for their anti-submarine frigate programmes, supporting greater operational, training and intelligence ties between the three nations.”

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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64 COMMENTS

  1. Why does it seem that the Canadian and Aussie variant will be better armed than our type 26? 🤔i

    • Depends what goes into the main silos…assuming at least some Asroc I would opt for the Japanese version…double range and higher speed compared to the US offering. Has to be a deal to be done ..UK sells Sea Spear / Spear 3 to Japan and UK buys their ASROC and we collaborate on next gen Meteor.

  4. Recent RN ships haven’t looked aesthetically pleasing but the T26 looks a pretty ship with good lines. Notice parts of the hull are under wraps and the mid hull stabiliser sponsions. She’s going to be a very quiet submarine hunter.

    • Is this because ships have to be radar stealthy now? No sharp edges? And they are bigger, so the lines are well… longer.

    • T45 looks great…sleek uncluttered…but do prefer when it’s slightly more cluttered with Harpoon added

    • I would say the T45 destroyers are very nice looking ships personally. Generally RN ships look far better seakeeping ships than other navies IMO.

    • Leanders were lovely with that bow shape, and Type 21’s were pretty too. The sight of them plowing through big sea down south was something else.

      • Agree. Leander’s were beautiful (until they they stuck Sea Wolf on the front). I really good looking RN ship was the HMY Britannia. There are reports today the a new RY (to be named Prince Philip) could be on the way. If it is I hope it’s not a Monaco style luxury ship but rather a proper Britannia type piece of beauty.

        • It is hard to know if any,what type of ship they would go for, Some of the bigger luxury yachts would probably be ideal and more economical than a Britannia size ship.

        • The return of the Royal Yacht is very welcome to me. Used as of old to entertain as much as transport, it was real earner for the whole U.K. It has to look modern but we Brits underestimate how others like us to be ourselves. A slightly retro style might be a winner.

          The Glasgow is making real progress at long last.

        • My Uncle served on HMY Britannia.. He will be very interested to know if that really does happen.

    • this is a question so don’t take it seriously. but what if we added anechoic tiles to the part of the ship below water? sure that would weigh it down a bit thus reducing speed. but would it help with sonar absorption?

      • No mate, there is really little point in doing so, as Submarines very very rarely use active sonar against ships, they have far better passive/eo and ew systems for finding them.
        There are far more effective ways to reduce/monitor radiated noise signatures on ships without as you say adding to the weight by tiling below the waterline.

  5. She’s certainly going to be a good looking ship, but as your Mother would have told you, looks aren’t everything. It’s good to see the progress on the programme but it is still mighty slow, since she is not going to be in full operational service until 2027. I appreciate that the first of class does a heck of a lot of trials but it is still a long drawn out programme.
    And to paraphrase Oliver Twist. “ Please Sir, can we have some more?” The world is becoming a much more uncertain place and I fear we may need more assets rather sooner than we might loke

    • Yeah unless they decided to stop working on her for a couple of years or go even slower then snails pace she will likely been handed over to the Navy in 2024 maybe even 2023. Its incredible for them to think she wont be ready for full operational service until 2027.

      • The problem is the snails pace is baked in to keep the workforce ‘occupied’.

        Blame TOBA.

        On the other hand thank TOBA that we have a yard and workforce to build them.

        Take your pick.

        • Doubt it will ever happen without some big event but I would like to see 2 more Type26 frigates. To match the 10 general purpose frigates were getting. Then replace the 6 Destroyers with 9 knew destroyers in time

    • The SNP will be demanding the fourth, once in a lifetime, independence referendum by the time the first ship enters service 🙂

      • Oh God thats funny👌.

        Doubly so as i was just on the Guardian explaining how iScotland would be an ecomomic disaster ( re share of UK debt, no currency, no lender of last resort ( no BoE) – didn’t even get to defence shifting south.
        Then i was told by a Guardianista that ‘UN law’ (??) made it all good and that Scotland would negotiate – with what! You couldn’t make this fantasy stuff up – but some keep believing it…..

    • Yes it’s a bit awkward isn’t it. On the one hand the ship is fantastic it’s capabilities will be fantastic and it’s brilliant that we still have the capabilities to design and build such a ship. I appreciate we are one of a small handful of countries that can do this.
      On the other hand, I guess it’s our genuine British “could do better” attitude coming through.

    • In the past, there were chances to increase T26 hulls.
      1: ordering 8 hulls at once in 2016 should have resulted in building 9 hulls.
      2: the £2B spent on T31 would have provided 2 more T26s. (In addition, large money would be left to up-arming River B2, to compensate some tasks planned for T31)

      #Because of detail-designing and initial build-inefficiency cost, adding 1 more hull costs much SMALLER than the average cost (“£1.2B”).

      In future, if 5 T32 needs £3B, if invested into T26 in its later phase (unit cost minimum), it will provide 4 more hulls of T26., I guess?

      • One of the problems is that no matter how good a single ship is – it can’t be in two places at once. Numbers matter. Then again, arming frigates like OPV’s to make up the numbers begs the question if you actually built OPV’s armed as OPV’s, could you afford twice as many?

        Note – current OPV’s are how shall we put it – less than optional. Who builds a 90m OPV with no hangar & a 30mm & not much else? I am aware of no-one but UK that has done so in recent memory – icebreaker OPV excepted (they need the size & weight to handle the ice).

        Sorry – been a long day.

        • DJ-san

          Thanks for reply. My 1st point on T26 is that, do RN want 5 T32 or 4 more T26? (if the program cost of T32 is £3B. If it is less than that, it means T32 will be as lightly armed as T31. Adding UXV storage is not for free).

          On the River B2 OPV, you are missing many many examples of OPV of 80-90m size built without any hangar.

          • There are a few dozens of 80-90m class OPVs without a hangar in Japan Coast Guard. They also have only 35mm guns.
          • Australian OPVs will not have a hangar.
          • Irish 90m OPV does not even have a flight deck.
          • Another Irish OPV does have a hangar, but they decided to never use it.

          Anyway, having a hangar on 80-90m OPV is just an option and is not mandatory worldwide (simply because land-based air-cover is much efficient). I understand, it is nearly useless in heavy sea (like North/South Atlantic and north Pacific). Mounting simple 76mm/57mm gun is “frequently seen”, but also far from mandatory/common.

          At least for River B2s, I think they are pretty well equipped for their tasks. Lightly armed means longer sea-going days. River OPV’s figure of merit lies there. Adding armament will just degrade its advantege.

          Take your breath …

    •  “as your Mother would have told you, looks aren’t everything”, try telling that to a teen and they will start calling u bin ladin!

      • i can relate to that, we had daughters! Luckily they do grow up, eventually, and then become quite civilised!

  6. HMS Glasgow, good looking ship, plenty of room to fit the 4 pubs, 5 off licenses, 3 taxi ranks, 2 pharmacies, 4 pound shops, 44 park benches and a benefits office…..😁

      • He apparently tried it despite once back in 86 (despite being strongly advised his engerlandshire digestive system was far too weak to handle it) but he ignored and as predicted it proved far too potent a mix.

        It’s been Diet Coke ever since 👋🏻

        🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇬🇧

        • Always preferred shards of broken glass, mixed with cleaning fluids, cheaper but same taste effect……🤣

          • Ye sacrilegious Kent ye👊🏼 The greatest fizzy drink this world has ever known the drink that propelled the British Empire to greatness and Glasgow to the title of 2nd city of the Empire status. General Montgomery himself had it flown in to Egypt prior to the battle at El Alamein and victory 👊🏼

            Now sort out yer palette ye crazy mofo

            🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇬🇧

  8. Can any of you shipbuilding types explain the intricacies of how these two segments are joined? There has obviously to be some other major engineering apart from welding together the contact points such, as large beams overlapping the two parts for some length in order to give the necessary strength?.

    • It works with Airfix kits geoff! By the way, I finally got a DVD copy of England my England….going to watch it over the bank holiday. 😊

    • “Can any of you shipbuilding types explain the intricacies of how these two segments are joined? “

      Gingerly Geoff, gingerly. 😉

      Sorry, couldn’t resist.

    • That is basically it.
      The Longies overlap the plate joint by a set amount and are welded to the Hull plate and each other.
      Stiffeners go in as required.
      The plate would probably have a ceramic backing piece added to it internally. Then you MIG weld the big V between the two plates with a number of weld passes..You monitor the temp to make sure you don’t overheat the steel and weaken it.
      You should also be monitoring alignment so you may need to stop welding in one area and move to an opposite area whilst cooling happens. The Ship will then straighten itself up. … Then go back and restart welding. Its basically a sequence of welds, alternating between opposite sides
      At the end you need to visually inspect and NDT the welds so either Dye Pen or Mag Partical followed by doing some bomb shots(x rays) and Ultrasonic shots of the internals of the welds in the specific joints.

      At my place we have done a lot of critical alignment welding recently. We had to do it at night because environmental heating was an issue and caused the Ship to bend during the hottest part of the day throwing off the alignment measurements . . At the end of the work the parts we welded into the Hull over their full 12m length where within 0.5 mm of the required position… Which for welding is astonishingly good.

      • Clapping my hands in admiration, true I didn’t understand some of the details there but it sure made the overall concept of how they do it
        pretty clear.

      • .5mm? Hmm – if you are looking for a job – I can recommend a few people. Hope your present employer appreciates what you & your team are achieving.

        • Optical alignment kit Is really accurate. As you weld you can see the alignment marks on the steel you are welding bend due to heat and expansion. You stop and move to the opposite side and you watch it bend the other way. You just keep the weld runs short and it becomes almost instinctive and you get the job done.

  9. She looks impressive, and far too big to be designated a Frigate? More like an ASW Cruiser, The actual lack of anti-submarine weapons in the design itself is a little strange and you can only assume we’ll be buying ASROC to go in the the Mk41 vls along with Tomahawks and or LRASM? Are all the weapons to be silo based on the Type 26? Or might we install a cannister based Anti-ship weapon?

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