The Labour government has reaffirmed its commitment to the Type 31 frigate programme at Rosyth dockyard, addressing concerns that the project might face cuts in the upcoming defence review.
With two of the five planned warships already under construction, questions had arisen over the future of the programme amidst potential budgetary constraints.
Speaking to The Courier, Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard reiterated the government’s support for the project, stating: “We’re committed to building the new Type 31 frigates, which are being built in Rosyth. There’s also opportunities for the submarine recycling work that is at a very nascent stage in Rosyth at the moment. There’s six old nuclear submarines that are stored in Rosyth. And as a responsible nuclear power we need to deal with those old nuclear submarines. There’s opportunities at Rosyth.”
Pollard added: “I’m not expecting there to be any risk to those endeavours, what we have to do is make sure that when we have a sustainable shipbuilding programme, we’re able to build ships at a reasonable cost with the right capabilities in the future.”
The Type 31 frigate, also known as the Inspiration-class, is a key part of the UK’s National Shipbuilding Strategy, intended to modernise the Royal Navy’s fleet. First introduced in 2017, the project was developed to provide a flexible, general-purpose frigate that would complement the more specialised Type 26 frigates. The ships are designed to replace the ageing Type 23 frigates and are expected to serve various roles, including maritime security, humanitarian missions, and low-intensity conflict support.
The design of the Type 31 is based on the Danish Iver Huitfeldt-class frigates, utilising an adaptable platform that allows for modular construction and export potential. Babcock International won the contract for the Type 31 in 2019 with its Arrowhead 140 design, which was chosen for its cost-effectiveness and versatility. The platform has already attracted interest from international partners, with variants being built for the Indonesian and Polish navies.
Each Type 31 frigate will be equipped with a range of modern systems, including the Thales Nederland TACTICOS combat management system and Sea Ceptor surface-to-air missiles. The ship will also feature a 57mm main gun, Bofors 40mm secondary guns, and space for a Merlin or Wildcat helicopter, enhancing its capability to conduct both combat and non-combat operations. The frigates are expected to have a top speed in excess of 28 knots and a range of 9,000 nautical miles, making them suitable for global deployments.
The construction of the first Type 31 frigate began in 2021 at Rosyth dockyard, with five ships planned for the Royal Navy. The programme has faced initial financial and design challenges, but it remains on track, with all ships expected to be delivered later this decade.
What a f**king stupid statement to make. The frigates are half built and all paid for, the only other yard in Britain that can build frigates is in Scotland.
Talk about a statement of the bloody obvious.
The same goes for the submarines, where else would they go, they have been sitting in Rosyth for decades and they can’t put to sea.
Well quite Jim, today’s news is no news, typical political verbal diarrhea….
As you say “commited” to building 5 ships that have already been paid for, two in build, long lead items bought for all 5…
News would be committing to another 5!!
Bloody nonsense….
Two nearly built with all the long lead ordered five and fabrication of blocks complex blocks for #3 well under way.
The five are contracted for in an effectively unbreakable contract.
There would be no saving to cancelling it. The program is running behind so it is already to the right! But mostly at Babcocks dollar. If MoD force a delay it will transfer the cost to Treasury.
True. Political nonsense. It would be more to the point if the Government stated what additional things they were going to do to bolster our defences. I’m beginning to think it is nothing. This seems to suggest they will be cutting deep – but nothing to upset the Scots.
Labour share of the vote is now much higher in Scotland than England so can’t see labour risking much in Scotland.
A little premature to be worrying about the next election. Labour have a decent majority if they get to the next election simply reconfirming conservative plans they are in trouble both sides of the border.
If I were a betting man,Bulwark and Albion will be cut and no replacements ordered. I thinks it’s beyond idiotic to even be contemplating cuts to defence in this climate. Especially since defence has already endured such savage cuts over the last 14 years.
I think they will sit there as placeholders TBH.
Scrapping them is too emotive and sends poor signals.
Keeping them afloat with nominal crewing doing some make-work maintenance will be the way it is handled.
Yes I suspect you are correct, sadly like muscles if you don’t use it you loss it. Without the opportunity to deploy and practice the ships become pretty meaningless after a time.
QE is going in for a longer refit soon which frees up a crew for a while. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see one of the LPDs worked up and trained on whilst QE was in refit. The original plan I believe was to have one carrier and one LPD crewed with the other of each ship in reserve, where as now we have both carriers crewed all of the time. The question then boils down to, what is better, one carrier and one LPD with crews or two carriers with crews? For me one carrier and one LPD… Read more »
Agree on the 1 Carrier and 1 LPD.
If you add in one or two bays to the QE and LOD then that’s what we were calling an RFTG before. The UK having the ability to deploy 1 RFTG at a time is more than enough then we just need four escorts and everything else can go patrol. Argus can sit in the gulf forward deployed with a frigate and that’s more than enough for global presence. Keep anything else back in the North Atlantic.
I agree it would be more sensible to have one carrier and one LPD crewed..I do wonder if the RN has made a political mistake in focusing on having both carriers running and not getting bulwark crewed..basically the moment cartilage in March announced that bulwark was going to essentially stay in long term readiness, it ended the Albions ever being active again unless there is a war and they are needed. Remember that the long term trajectory is MRSS and that is going to be RFA crewed not RN crewed..the Albions are now simply place holders until 2033 when RFA… Read more »
I completely agree with the idea of only having one QE in service at a time along with an LPD. It made sense for both to be crewed whilst they went through a rather convoluted bedding in period. But fact is we barely have enough capacity for one CAG never mind 2, and the idea of using one as an LPH is just nuts. My only concern is from an engineering point of view Bulwark has been OOS for 7 years and recommissioning her D/E drive. Nothing Electric likes being switched off long term and HV systems can be “challenging”.… Read more »
There is almost bound to be an insolvency clause in the FSS contract.
Question is where that is Navitalia only or its partners as well.
Best just to build it in Spain if HW goes under but cut contract to 2 and get a rebate from the ship builder
I suspect this was the plan all along.
That would be political suicide giving it to a country that is playing hardball over Gib. Why not give them the rock as well.
Is there no pride left in the U.K. at all.
I would rather the S Koreans built the ships than Spain.
Sorry Jim, rant over and I understand the logic.
Not sure about that. First, MRSS is supposed to be ” a large non complex warship” which would suggest military crewing. Second,, if RFA personnel continue their industrial action, a decision might be taken to transfer their entire role to the RN. Both are struggling with recruitment and retention but even a union funded Labour government can’t tolerate disruption to naval operations for long.
Well Argus and the three bay classes are all large none complex warships.essentially if it’s got guns to be used in warfare it’s a warship. It’s very unlikely the RN will be expanded to crew and run the six MRSS. In reality if HMG really want to they could remove the option for RFA personnel to strike and in reality if the ships were needed for a critical operational reason then every single crew member is a reservist. But it’s likely they will improve pay as they are doing with the whole public sector. personally I think the MRSS should… Read more »
How about 2 carriers 2 assault ships/ lpd’s? 3 crews and an ukdj part time crew
Haha. So you will import foreigners like me? 😃
Not sure this is a good call. Given Argus if off on other duties, what do we use as the Aviation training ship. Having only one carrier active means having only one available. So if somethin happens you have another available. HMS QE prop issue HMS PoW takes over within a week. If one is in deep storage, how long to activate 30 days ? 90 days ? What does that do to other programmes and refits now that getting a carrier up and running becomes the number 1 priority for 3 months ?
Would say you are close, but there will be more nuance to it than a simple cut of both ships. MRSS will be the interesting one, after all I’m not sure how you merge essentially 4 RFA vessels and 2 RN vessels into a single class..your not going to have 2 MRSS crewed by the RN and 4 crewed by the RFA. So essentially I would say the RN is going to end up not crewing the MRSS ( which will get cut to 3 if the RN does nothing to secure a budget line) with possibly a specialist core… Read more »
You are probably close to the truth but I have to agree with those who suggest that keeping one Carrier and LPD active makes far more sense then trying to keep both carriers in service. Two carriers require more personnel, aircraft, FSSS and escorts we just don’t have and cannot afford.
To avoid the embarrassment it is better to revert to the original plan. I think the Navy have been trying to force the politicians to increase the budget to enable both carriers to remain active but there is not the money or political will to do so.
Note the issue is shortages in specific trades.
Having trained up two carriers crews it will be a huge waste of money to retrain them.
In the world of the MOD I think the words ‘huge waste of money’ needs to be used only when you start to talk in the hundreds of millions or billions of £s but I understand the point.
People can be retrained but two operational carriers without the aircraft or aircrew to properly load out even one is the real waste and there is very little chance of this changing in the short to medium term I regret to say.
It is very sad.
The waste is that RAF, as usual, insist on primacy in how F35B is used and carrier deployments are well down the list.
The other factor is the QEC are large and modern and may be better for retention than other platforms…onboard coffee shops, gyms etc?
But with currently just over 30 F35’s that was always going to be the case and given the lack of funds a further buy of F35’s looks increasingly unlikely.
Unfortunately, the quality of on shore accommodation, poor pay and almost back to back deployments for many will not be offset by a coffee shop or gym.
There is something very wrong in our armed forces at the moment, which is reflected across a lot of other public services.
All true.
I agree on services pay – needs a big boost. Say 16% like the train drivers….oh wait service personnel are not in a union…
Also, the press that people read will run a bad news story if a brand new shiny £3bn carrier is laid up. Whereas if an old LPD that does a job last needed over 40 years ago is laid up…
No different to the Tories.
Announcing what has already been announced several times.
Agreed it is utter nonsense. Far better to say nothing until after the review.
I suspect we may just see a bonfire of the projects, when you start to tot up just how many named “feasibility or investigation” projects there are it doesn’t take long to be in the £Billions.
No mention made of the 4 MK41s above as that could make it potentially “high intensity” if used in an attack role? Wonder if they’ll still be a CAMM farm combo with MK41s or just the later? The B position 40mm could also potentially be replaced by 2x MK41s or smaller CAMM farm. Like to see a couple of 40mm put on the carriers for added defensive depth and to compliment the Phalanx’s.
The Mk41 VLS were to be fitted at the first capability insertion period – at least for the first two ships as they are already in build.
Point taken though.
For missiles it will have 12 CAMM and later maybe NSM. Do not expect anything more for start.
So no Type 32 then…. that will get axed in the upcoming cuts… ehemm, I mean SDR
Okay. Now five more.
They will be built but not operated under the white ensign. As for the T32 forget it.
On the other hand, the touted T32 frigates have, in my opinion only ever been a token that can be given away in any cuts, without reducing the actual fleet any further.
Given that “defuelling” takes place in Devonport, but Rosyth is the only place currently dismantling Subs, I would suggest that making Rosyth the “centre of excellence” for submarine dismantling is the way ahead, and it would free up a lot of space in Devonport, which is currently pretty “rammed”.
Just need to overcome the resistance of the SNP, but with a massive majority in Westminster, the government should strike whilst the iron is hot, and start shipping more “de fuelled “ subs to Rosyth and start dismantling them ASAP
Good Afternoon,
Silly me, I was hoping Healey and Starmer would improve things as regards strengthening Defence. It seems not! The same old drivel as with the previous government!
Most of the world, ( The clown Trump included) seem to think a major conflict is approaching. Our Government continue to ignore the signs and take no urgent action to strengthen our forces!
Next week I will start digging in the garden to prepare my bunker before it starts raining down in us from the east.
Hoping it’s not to late to take urgent action.
Nick
A puzzling article, canceling some of the T31’s would probably cost more than continuing build them, as the government discovered in 2010 when it wanted to cancel the second QEC carrier, and actually happened (according to the NAO) when the eighth Astute submarine was dropped from the equipment plan. What Babcock desperately needs is reasonable confirmation that the T32 (aka T31 Batch 2) frigates will be ordered from it c.2027/28. If this not forthcoming in the defence review, the Rosyth shipyard will have to start planning for closure around 2031, with all the resulting consequences such as not taking on… Read more »
Although the first Polish T31 (Wicher) was only formally laid down this January, she’s expected to be completed in just three years, i.e. early 2027. If (and it’s a big if) the PGZ shipyard manages this, she’s now likely to commission before Venturer!