BAE Systems has awarded a further five contracts to suppliers worth more than £100m, as progress on the Type 26 frigate programme continues apace at the company’s shipyards in Glasgow.

The new contracts will support 250 jobs, with the Type 26 programme sustaining more than 4,000 jobs in total across the UK, helping to support the nation’s economic recovery by maintaining much-needed skills and capabilities. More than £1bn has been invested across the programme’s supply chain to date, with more than 100 suppliers globally.

“The contract awards come as construction on the final unit of the first Type 26 frigate, HMS Glasgow, begins. All 57 units of the anti-submarine warfare ship are now under construction. The suppliers awarded each of the five new contracts will contribute essential work to the programme as HMS Glasgow moves to the outfit phase in readiness to enter the water for the first time.”

The contracts have been awarded to:

  • Denholm Industrial Services (Glasgow) – surface preparation and painting
  • Malin Group (Glasgow) – Vessel load out and float off
  • CBL (Hartlepool) – cable and associated works
  • Kaefer (Nottingham) – insulation products and installation services
  • SCA (Dorset) – access and containment

Secretary of State for Defence, Ben Wallace MP said:

“The Type 26 programme has proven itself in terms of cutting-edge design, international defence exports and creating and sustaining British jobs. This latest round of contract awards will see companies from the south coast of England to the banks of the Clyde benefit from over 250 highly-skilled jobs and multi-million pound investment.”

BAE Systems Naval Ships Managing Director, Steve Timms, said:

“Each of our new suppliers brings a unique capability that is essential to ensure the safe and continued progress of this nationally important programme. It’s fantastic to see the first of class, HMS Glasgow, taking shape at our facilities here on the Clyde. She is a source of great pride for our workforce who have worked with real energy, commitment and innovation in recent months to ensure we meet our customer commitments.”

Designed and built by BAE Systems in Glasgow, the Type 26 frigate is an advanced anti-submarine warship, which will deliver critical protection of the Royal Navy’s Continuous At Sea Deterrent and Carrier Strike Group.

Each Type 26 will be equipped with a range of world-class capabilities including the Sea Ceptor missile defence system, a 5-inch medium calibre gun, flexible mission bay, Artisan 997 Medium Range Radar, powerful bow and towed array sonars.

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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70 COMMENTS

      • Hi Nigel,
        Yes agree the UK along with the rest of NATO need to speed up on projects. The UK should be taking the lead on its military projects and enhance procurement on all fronts.
        Although may be interesting to see how Rusia will shape up as its economy is in a rather fragile state and may not be able to fund all the major projects.
        Cheers
        George

          • One thing I am not clear on at the moment is Government involvement from the three countries.

            The UK put £2b into the project, a clear demonstration of intent, but how much have the Swedish and Italian Governments put in? Whenever I read anything about these MoU it seems as if it is the companies that are leading the process, which is fair enough provided all three Governments are stood behind their respective industrial partners.

            I believe that Leonard and Saab have put some of their own capital into the project as have Rolls Royce and BAE Systems so it seems all the main industrial partners are pulling their weight to some extent, but I’d feel reasured about the future of the programme if funding was coming in from the Italian and Swedish Government as well. I would be surprised if the Governments were not providing some funding or Leonard and Saab would probably not have the confidence to put millions of their own money in?

            Cheers CR

    • Errr not really.

      The intelligence reviews on the state of the major units of the Northern Fleet are sobering reading. The fleet is old and outdated and they are struggling to have new vessels built on time and old ones overhauled.
      The former Red banner fleet is a shadow of what it once was.
      For major units It currently has something like 6 mid 80s era destroyers, an un-modernised Kirov class cruiser, a modernised Slava, a new frigate that has taken 14 years to build and commission ( And you think BAe is bad at building ships!) , half a dozen nuclear attack subs and the same numbers of Kilo conventional’s. The Boomer subs are mostly 70s/80s era Delta boats but some new boats are coming online to replace them. I say new …one of the new boats has taken 18 years to get into service.

      The Northern fleet cannot go and play in a peer/ peer conflict in the blue water anymore …those days are long gone. It is now organised for working in and around the Arctic , Barents and Kara sea protecting the Boomers in there bastions. The deployment of Kuznetsov to the med was for show only. Its ability to launch aircraft was minimal . Its reliability and living conditions onboard where appalling. Following the issues with drydock sinking under it and the fire, it wont be going anywhere ever again.

      • I presume that Janes has never been a reliable source of information for serious analysts (such as yourself). What are the best sources of information for the Russian navy? I’m getting sick of every quoted source being (rightfully) rubbished here, and I don’t want to expose myself as an ignorant know-nothing.

        • Personally I just wait for someone to post some rubbish, get my popcorn, and wait for Gunbuster to put them straight. I need to get myself a new hobby!

          Seriously though, UKDJ, Save the Royal Navy and Think Defence are all very good. I also read Defense News a fair bit, its mainly US focused but does have some interesting pieces on global issues.

          Maybe we can persuade Gunbuster to setup his own site too?

          • “If the general NATO strategy is to generate a credible deterrence against Russian aggression then defending the North Atlantic region must be part of that mix and because of proximity, the UK must take a lead role.

            The NATO Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 is commanded from Northwood, elements of this would join the operation in times of heightened risk.

            With the Type 23/26 Frigate and Type 45 Destroyer, Astute, Merlin/Crowsnest and Meteor/ASRAAM armed F-35B’s aboard a QE Class aircraft carrier, protected by land-based fighter aircraft and supplemented with long-range maritime patrol aircraft, the UK will be able to field a powerful sea denial force that can equally protect itself from Russian strategic bombers and fighter aircraft as it can from submarines and a ship-launched cruise missile.

            Efforts should be made to improve this capability to ensure one of the UK’s major war roles are able to be effectively discharged. Anti-submarine warfare and everything that goes with it is a critical capability so it needs more training, more depth munition stocks, improved equipment support to generate availability and other support elements.

            Research into unmanned systems that are T26 deployable, exploiting the RAF’s new Protector RPAS for ASW, wide area underwater surveillance (like the US Deep Acoustic Path Exploitation Systems (DRAPES)), and data sharing across ASW platforms should also be prioritised. Collective multinational training at scale also needs increasing focus.

            Evolving the Type 45’s ABM capabilities should also be accelerated. As we have seen with this year’s Formidable Shield exercise, the UK is an important location for test range activity and provides a valuable environment for the development of European missile defence.

            This first part of the UK’s focus on the North will require significant investment and a change in direction for the Royal Navy from more expeditionary role to that of principally one of sea denial in the North Atlantic.

            The Royal Navy needs to get its ASW mojo back.”

            https://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/towards-sdsr18-defending-europe-beyond/

          • Not got the time. To busy fixing the sleek grey war canoes of various nations.
            I blame the bloody operators. If they didn’t use them then I wouldn’t have to fix them!!

        • The War Zone is another US centric one that has some good stuff about military tech, US military in general, and international affairs. Mostly good quality stuff and some really great photos.
          As far as the rest of the world is concerned, hard to say…

        • Strange how they are mentioned in a Wikipedia report on the Soviet navy. Janes is a highly respected source of military information.

          Determining which ships are operational or in refit can be difficult. Jane’s Fighting Ships has noted in recent editions that some ships have little capability, but remain flying an ensign so that crews are entitled to be paid.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_active_Russian_Navy_ships

          • Interesting reading that report, infact it reminds me of the
            US congress report of 1983.
            That included the US discussing the British Armed Forces during the Falklands War and what they learned from it

            Samething was happening… the US being outpaced and outnumbered by USSR now its China

          • It appears to be the case once again as you quite rightly point out John.

            “Naval strength cannot just be assessed by numbers but approximately 70% of the PLANs vessels are considered modern or very modern and today includes 2 aircraft carriers, 36 destroyers, 52 frigates, 250 corvettes and 74 submarines.

            The third Chinese aircraft carrier is under construction and is estimated to be 85,000 tonnes and their first to feature CATOBAR / EMALS design.

            To the particular concern of Taiwan, the PLAN is also building up its amphibious forces with the commissioning of at least two 40,000-tonne Type 075 LHDs and eight 29,000-tonne Type 071 LPDs for its 35,000-strong marine corps.”

            https://www.savetheroyalnavy.org/the-south-china-sea-welcome-to-the-most-disputed-waters-on-the-planet/

          • It is the reason why Japan has started converting the Izumo to operate F35Bs. There is a lot of bad history between China and Japan. Some of which is being played out in and around Okinawa and the islands between it and Taiwan. Japan has announced that both the Izumo and her sister the Kaga will be converted so they can operate F35Bs. China meanwhile has been flexing its gums, saying it is against their constitution, so is unlawful. Whilst they continue their training with their two STOBAR carriers and build their third larger conventional carrier.

            As you mentioned China have rapidly built up their Navy with very modern ships including the carriers and at some point may choose to use them. They now have the capability to encircle Taiwan and enforce a blockade if they chose to. The question a lot of people have been asking though is, is their Navy actually any good? They don’t have any past conflict to be measured against or a long deep-water navy background. They are in their infancy when it comes to flying operations from the carriers, let alone prolonged ones. The ships have been built incredibly quickly, so what quality control has there been, are they built to a “commercial” spec or a “western” warship spec? Their last “publicised” use of force at sea involved one of their coastguard ships, where it sank a Vietnamese fishing boat and a small coastguard vessel.

          • It never pays to underestimate your adversary in my book, particularly when they float, are well-armed and in larger numbers!

            “However, considering the PLAN enjoyed zero experience operating an aircraft carrier prior to Liaoning entering service in September 2012, the speed at which the PLAN moved with training and flying their J-15 airwing and exercising with escort ships is also undeniably impressive.

            The pace at which Shandong was constructed, launched, and trialled at sea before entering service, is also impressive given it is the first ever aircraft carrier built by the Chinese shipbuilding industry.

            Both carriers will likely serve key formative roles as seed carriers for developing a robust core of operational expertise for officers, crew, and pilots.

            The 003 carrier is expected to enter service around the mid 2020s, and is likely to supersede both Liaoning and Shandong in capability, however these two ski jump equipped carriers will likely still remain as viable combat ready aircraft carriers in their own right, especially if future 5th generation carrier borne fighters are designed to be cross compatible between catapult and ski jump launch methods.”

            https://thediplomat.com/2020/03/chinas-military-advancements-in-the-2010s-naval-and-strike/

          • The EMAILS tech that the PLAN is to use on their new carrier, is most likely stolen IP tech, some from a British company based in Lincolnshire!

            The economic fight back needs to begin with reviving the Trans Pacific Partnership being based on a rules based economic block.
            And also to establish a NATO type Organization of the Pacific and South East Asia, excluding China and North Korea.

          • I think it needs to take in a wider range of countries in the Pacific, as well John.
            I think Russia should be Offered TTP on condition of a main rule of TTP which should be democracy.

          • Plan are moving onto type 76 amphibious assault helicopter carriers LPHAs. Bigger again then type 75s and more worry for Taiwan. Source. Warships IFR of course

          • For naval matters worldwide but with a strong interest in Royal Navy. Warships IFR. I get the magazine but website is ok. Tends to be a few weeks behind latest magazine publications.

      • “Our global competitors continue to grow their naval forces, and they are expanding their areas of operations and collaboration with each other,” the budget overview report says. ” We simply have a lot more to protect from increasingly capable maritime adversaries who will present challenges to our economic security and indeed, our very way of life.”

        https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/32145/new-pentagon-map-shows-huge-scale-of-worrisome-russian-and-chinese-naval-operations

      • Well said mate, many who use this site very much like to big up the Russian navy in many ways, and and what you have said, is what the true state of the Russian fleet is in.

        • Nobody is trying to “BIG UP” the Russian Navy Robert, but simply stating concerns both we and other nations have in relation to the growing threat that Russia poses on many fronts as my post from the defence select committee tends to suggest.

          2 hours ago
          UK and US say Russia fired a satellite weapon in space

          https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-53518238

          • I’m not denying the obvious increase in Russian military activity on many fronts, but the state and threat of the Russian fleet is often overplayed, and many so called Russian technological advances over the west, are again usually wildy in accurate.

      • “The intelligence reviews on the state of the major units of the Northern Fleet are sobering reading.”
        Agreed.

        “The Northern Fleet itself, although a shadow of its former strength as part of the Soviet Navy, has benefitted from a major period of Russian naval recapitalisation through successive State Armament Programmes. Despite lengthy delays which have stretched programmes over decades, Russia’s newest classes of nuclear submarines are entering service to replace late-Cold War-era platforms.81 Russia’s latest generation of strategic ballistic missile submarines, the Borei class variants, are being deployed in the Northern and Pacific fleets.82 The newest class of multi-role nuclear-powered submarines, the Yasen class, combines the capabilities of an attack submarine with powerful guided missile systems. Crucially, these new platforms use the latest quieting technology to make them as undetectable as possible.83 The Northern Fleet also possesses a number of major surface combatants, although the numbers of these units available for front line service is disputed. The surface order of battle nonetheless appears to be growing, with the Russian Navy’s newest amphibious assault ship reportedly joining the Northern Fleet.84

        37.The level of Russian naval activity has grown significantly. The Secretary of State for Defence told us in February that there has been a tenfold increase in Russian submarine activity in the North Atlantic.85 Russian submarine activity up to the GIUK Gap has been reported as being “currently equalling or surpassing Cold War levels”.86 A former deputy commander of NATO Maritime Forces Europe has described the situation as the ‘Fourth Battle of the Atlantic’.87 A paper published by RUSI in March 2017 says:

        Russia has re-established the bastion strategy, reaching a stable level of activity from 2008 … The bastion defence concept remains essentially the same as during the Cold War. Defensive and offensive operations are intertwined and indistinguishable. In a conflict, Russia will seek to protect its strategic forces, which would involve establishing sea-control in its immediate vicinity and sea-denial further west and south, down to the GIUK Gap. Some attack submarines will most likely also operate further west in the Atlantic. Such operations would weaken NATO’s ability to project forces in Europe.88

        The tempo of exercises and training events has also remained high. In 2017 the Northern Fleet conducted 4,700 training events and 213 missile firing drills. In May 2018, the Borei class submarine Yuri Dolgoruky conducted a test firing of a ‘volley’ of four ballistic missiles in the White Sea. A few weeks later in June 2018 the Northern Fleet conducted an unannounced exercise that was its largest in ten years.89

        38.The first military icebreaker built for the Russian Navy in 40 years entered service with the Northern Fleet in 2017.90 A further class of military icebreakers is planned, with reports suggesting that these ships may be armed with cruise missiles.91 The first of a new Arktika class of nuclear powered icebreakers, the largest yet constructed, was launched in 2016 and is due to be commissioned in 2019.92 A second in class was launched in 2017 and a third is planned.”

        https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmdfence/388/38807.htm

      • Indeed, even their better yards in St.Petersburg that have seen some kind of modernisation in recent years are struggling to deliver even basic units. Other yards of note are obsolete in facilities and practice when it comes to ship building. Add to that the break down of relations with Ukraine has been a serious blow to Russian ship building as Ukrainian manufacturer Zorya-Mashproekt were their main source of fairly modern Gas turbines. An alternate from UEC Saturn has as of yet failed to be delivered. To compound issues Russian industry has also failed to deliver new medium size diesels, this is primarily due to the long gap in orders for this kind of engine leading to Russian manufacturers losing the capability to build them. Most medium sized marine diesels used by Russia were based on those fitted to trains, with the fall of the Soviet Union orders dried up. This leads to a dual problem of not only the manufacturers struggling to restart production but also lack of what would be classed as a modern design to manufacture. To get around the problem the Russians even started to refurbish medium sized diesels that had been stripped out of retired vessels to reuse in new builds.

        These issues have led to some perverse problems most notably diverting vessels in build that had been intended for the Russian navy to India because the latter would be able to buy the gas turbines from Ukraine directly.

        Personally in respect of the diesel issue I think the Russians should swallow their pride and look towards China as a source of engines and partnership to modernise Russian industry to build the power plants they need.

        • So basically not much different to our inability to procure medium sized diesels domestically! Also probably related to a lack of rail-orders in the 90’s.

    • And even ignoring whatever Russia and/or China might or might not be doing there are compelling economic reasons. Our best outcome coming out of this Covid-19 crisis is to get a V-shaped economic recovery, as as steep an exit as possible and a stimulus package is a critical component of that. Speeding up and expanding the T26 and T31 builds would be a very valuable contributor to that in terms of increased employment and, even on orders already placed, revenue and profit boosts for all contractors involved. (Accounting rules mean that the value of contracts awarded don’t immediately appear on a company’s revenue and P&L figures even if for some reason full payment is made up front. Booking payments received and invoiced amounts onto the revenue line should only be done based on project progress so that official company accounts accurately reflect revenue actually earned and the associated costs incurred in earning that revenue.)

  2. I think the T23s can still hold its own thanks to the upgraded Sonar, Radar and Sea Ceptor. I’m worried about ASM and that there appears to be no urgency to replace it. My main gripe about the delay to T26 is that it has cost us a fortune to refurb the T23s when they should have been out of service and building them so slowly costs more so we are basically pissing money away for no benefit.

    • I know what you are saying about the ASM issue but in reality when are heavy ASMs going to be fired by a ship? You cannot use them in congested sea lanes or littoral zones, not if you care about where they may land. They will only ever be used in open blue waters which is the domain of SSNs.

      Yes we should have ASMs on the T26 as there will not always be a friendly sub about, but it isn’t necessarily a must have on day one. The 5 inch gun, martlett, Sea Venom, Spear 3 from the F35s, and of course the SSNs are all capable weapons vs other ships.

      Gapping this capability on the T26 until Perseus is ready in about 2030 isn’t desirable but is understandable.

    • Hi BB85. If we needed to up the size of the escort fleet then perhaps keeping refurbished T 23’s in service might be the quickest route-overlapping them with the Type 26’s as they come into service. What kind of hull life might they have gentlemen?

      • Here in SA we still have a few of the Israeli designed strike craft in service dating back over 40 years so perhaps some of the later build 23’s are capable of soldiering on which would justify the money spent on the upgrades?

  4. I wonder with the renewed interest in Scotland in another independence referendum whether its wise to make these significant investments in Scotland .
    Its been made clear that should they vote to leave that they will not have any defence contracts and rightly so.
    Cake and eat it comes to mind

    • It’s a catch 22. Keep investing and you keep investing in a uncertain business. Don’t invest and you fuel the independence argument. Although I agree. We should allow a referendum and start removing all investment in Scotland and stop any Grant’s from Westminster.

      • Yes Harry, Scotland is still part of the UK (and hopefully will be for a long time yet) so you can’t really discriminate just in case it decides to leave (although some sectors including charity funding have done so in the lead up to the referendum). I can understand why some would see it as an option but it might be cheaper to ‘wait and see’, if Scotland is staying in the UK (and using ship yards as the yardstick) then to move them ‘just in case’ would be an expensive business.

    • It’s a primer applied over dressed weld areas – after dressing the welds, steel is bright and unprotected so they prime it to offer some corrosion resistance prior to final paint system being applied.

        • The worn look is also a thing in the world of electric guitars. It’s called “relic-ing” (as in making a brand new guitar fresh out of the box from the factory look as if it is already a relic). Fender (and maybe other manufacturers) even offer the option when ordering a top-end made-to-order guitar to select the degree of relic-ing to be applied at the factory after manufacture ranging from not-quite-pristine (just mess it up a factory-fresh guitar a little bit) all the way up to totally beaten up as if it’s been on the road for the last 50 years with chips and bangs all over it and large areas of the finish totally rubbed off. It’s a bit of a Marmite thing amongst players, some hate it and some love it.

          • It’s even better than that – the retail prices for relic’d gibson & Fender guitars are way higher than the regular range (what we used to call “new” or “mint”). In adition there are now “name” relicers (if that’s a word). so you are buying a brand new guitar and then paying someone several hundreds of £ to bash it up for you. And the point is? Pass….

          • Maybe that could be a new RN strategy – deliberately relic our warships so that if we are ever in a conflict an enemy vessel first encountering one of our frigates at sea might think that it had already been in a huge firefight and was badly beaten up with crew casualties and damage control parties struggling to patch up damage whereas in fact it was fresh out of refit, fresh crew and all systems in working order. One snag though – I wonder how much BAE would charge to relic a warship; if would give some extra work to UK shipyards though.

            (No, I’m not being serious. For the record I’m also on the “I don’t really get it” side of the guitar relic-ing debate. Nice to see another guitar enthusiast on this site though.)

    • The Dull Grey Platework has the appearance of Steel that has been Shotblasted,im guessing it might already have had some treatment thats why Primer is used at this stage on the Welded areas only.

  6. Nice to see my home town of Hartlepool get a mention, very rarely in the news for anything good. Weirdly appears to be a media blackout regarding it in the north east!

    • To be fair they get a mention on Sky Sports every weekend, usually when Jeff is bemoaning another relegation battle.

  7. Whilst this is all good stuff: “The new contracts will support 250 jobs, with the Type 26 programme sustaining more than 4,000 jobs in total across the UK, helping to support the nation’s economic recovery by maintaining much-needed skills and capabilities. More than £1bn has been invested across the programme’s supply chain to date, with more than 100 suppliers globally.”

    This could be said for a project that can have a higher UK content than the Type 26 highly specialised and expensive systems based type of warships, namely the Fleet Solid Support Ships!

  8. Has anyone noticed the armament of the T31 as shown on Babcocks and the RN websites? This is the ship painted with the two tone disruptive pattern camouflage.

    It looks like the the “main” gun is still the 57mm in the A position and looks like SeaRAM in the B position. In the centre, there are two sets of quad cannister launches for presumably ASM then the VLS farm with 24 hatches. Then in the Y position a 40mm, weirdly no secondary DS30 mounts?

    • Yes I noticed that too, I just presumed it was an early concept picture. Would we need searam and seaceptor? The 24 cells would be nice though.

    • I think that Rendering has been discussed on here before,that is an Export Version being offered to Poland from memory.

        • I cannot find that version on the RN website but on Babcocks its pretty self explanatory – the Product if you can call it that is the ArrowHead 140,of which the T31 is merely a version of.The site highlights its adaptability and configurability so many versions are available.SeaRam has already been trialed in the Royal Navy and it didnt get any further,enough said i think.

          • Just re-checked the website, the image has been removed – funny that! I knew that the RN had done a trial with SeaRAM quite a few years ago and found it wanting, clearly didn’t explain why, but it’s telling that they’re keeping the Phalanx for CIWS.

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