The Rosyth built Type 31 Frigates will be named HMS Active, HMS Bulldog, HMS Campbeltown, HMS Formidable and HMS Venturer.
The class will be known as the ‘Inspiration’ class.
The names were announced today by First Sea Lord Tony Radakin at the First Sea Lord’s Sea Power Conference 2021 hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies today.
#SeaPowerConference โStrategy can balance ends ways and meansโ
๐ฏ@AdmTonyRadakin mythbusting ๐๐ปGreat Keynote Address @IISS_org
Welcome – #HMSActive #HMSBulldog #HMSCambletown #HMSFormidable #HMSVenturer pic.twitter.com/ClTRsmB4an
— Hildegard Von Trapp (@Alsdorf_JAR) May 19, 2021
You can view a summary of what the First Sea Lord said in the following Twitter thread.
๐ฌ LIVE: First Sea Lord @AdmTonyRadakin speaks at the #SeaPowerConference
Threadโฌ๏ธ pic.twitter.com/hEHY5uWESA
— IISS News (@IISS_org) May 19, 2021
Recently we reported that Babcockโs Team 31 had successfully completed its โWhole Ship Critical Design Reviewโ (WSCDR) which they say is a key indicator of the compliance, maturity and engineering risk in proceeding into production as we mature the 3D CAD model.
An independent board of twelve experts reviewed the design, interrogated the engineering team and provided valuable advice to Babcock (the Design Authority), with attendees and contributors from the UK Ministry of Defence.
The board were pleased with the rate of progress made since the Preliminary Design Review in June 2020 and the level of technical maturity of the design, especially given the extraordinary circumstances of COVID-19.
“Completing the Whole Ship CDR provides Team 31 with the confidence to fully develop the 3D CAD model and move towards the generation of build drawings in readiness for first steel cut and ship assembly later this year. Production work at Rosyth has been underway since last year on construction of ship cradles, build stools and ground supports. These form part of the essential infrastructure required to enable construction, and are designed to support the vessels upright as they are being built.”
Babcock say that the WSCDR is a significant milestone in the Type 31 programme and reflects the fantastic progress being made since contract award.
“The facilities and technology investment in Rosyth has got underway, with manufacturing bay refurbishments, the installation of state of the art advanced manufacturing equipment, and the New Assembly Hall will be completed towards the end of this summer before the start of ship assembly.”
Obviously it’s far from the most important aspect of the project, but this does seem like a disappointingly random set of names. It’s almost as if someone had a big bucket of unused names, and just drew out five.
St. Nazaire?
Agreed – not particularly important but what a random set of names. What was the thinking behind it?
I assume it’s because the names come with their own historical significance: Active – Primarily, the Falklands War. The WW2 ship of the same name also had a sterling service record, including serving with Force H and sinking four submarines. Bulldog – Captured a working Enigma machine and its codebooks. Oversaw the surrender of German troops from the Channel Islands (the formal surrender took place on her). The name most recently saw service as the lead ship of a class of Survey vessels. Campbeltown – Remembered for the raid on St. Nazaire during the Second World War, which is still… Read more ยป
Excellent. Thanks Lusty. Kenneth Moore, the actor, served on Formidable. The kamikaze strike on Formidable is often shown in reconstructions of battles in the South Pacific made for American channels, recognisably a ‘British’ profile. Moore said he rushed up on deck near naked because of the ambient temperature and found a ‘bit of a dent’ on her armoured deck.
‘More’ โ edit function u/s.
No worries.
That’s an interesting bit of history!
A USN liason officer on HMS Indefatigable stated: ‘When a kamikaze hits a US carrier, it means six monts of repair at Pearl [Harbour]. When a kamikaze hits a Limey carrier, it’s just a case of “Sweepers, man your brooms.”‘
Remember reading a revisionist American article many years back claiming that US carriers were superior because the wooden decks enabled bigger hangers allowing more and bigger aircraft making them more potent. Strangely enough I was shocked therefore to see that the Nimitz and her sisters didnโt have teak decks.
The story of HMS Venturer is amazing and it
s skipper Jimmy Launders was an exceptional submarine commander who pretty much wrote the Royal Navys book on underwater warfare well into the 70`s I believe.is this a really late april fools joke? cuz the names are ridiculous. i mean how does “active” sound inspirational! i mean if u knew the meanings behind it then sure. but to a commoner? i dunno….
Ah, just the man…..
Answered some of my questions mate.
Always a pleasure. ๏ปฟ๐๏ปฟ
Formidable photos: WWII photos reveal kamikaze attacks on Allied aircraft carriers in the Pacific | Daily Mail Online
Active was a famous frigate in the 18th century, captured two French frigates and the island of Curacao.
Very true.
I could go on about a few of them!
Formidable should also get the credit for being the only Carrier to engage an enemy surface fleet in a line of battle. (Before being told to f*ck off by the battleships).
Just read up on Venturer deserves to be better known for what she achieved, the calculations for her kill becoming the basis for modern computer based 3D targeting concepts.
I would love one to have been called Cossack it would have been great when she escorted Russian ships through the channel or entered the Black Sea.
On another front I noticed that one of the original Venturerโs sisters was to be called HMS Vagabond. There would be something a little apt in such a name being used these days considering lack of funds, or weaponry for that matter.
Lusty, you are ex RN I presume, can you answer this for me? I’m ex Army & was in Gib in ’89 & some of us visited a T22, but I’m not sure if it was Campbeltown or Cumberland, any idea mate?
Cheap? Cheerful? Collateral?
I agree the names are a bit ‘wide of the mark’. But if they come along quickly, welcome, whatever.
Thats exactly the impression you get. Clearly no real thought went in to this at all. Very disappointing indeed.
I disagree, I like the fact these names are chosen for historical significance rather than a generic ‘letter’ Class. At least this way some of RN’s heritage is being maintained, otherwise a lot of the famous old names would never be seen again.
Most interesting. All of the names have some historical significance for the RN.
It was only a few days ago that I thought about ‘Bulldog’. HMS Bulldog (H91) captured a complete Enigma machine along with the associated codebooks in 1941.
It’s good to see ‘Campbletown’ return to the fleet as well.
With today’s relatively small fleet, I imagine the driving force was to get names with a lot of battle honours back into the fleet.
A shame everyone’s moaning about how there’s no theme, despite the fact that these are all excellent names
If they wanted a ship with battle honours HMS Starling, 2nd Escort Group in the war in both the Atlantic and Arctic would have been good. Capt Johnnie Walkers command, a modified Black Swan sloop 17 kills to her name.I might say I am biased because it was also my Dad’s ship. He served with JW right through the war.
HMS Glowworm as well…paid the ultimate price!
Yes..another good one. A brave but tragic end.
Fascinating, Geoffrey.
I agree both that and Glowworm would be good names. T32 perhaps?
Hi Callum.. Totally agree with you. A good mix of historical names, all positive.
And was a jolly good hydrographic vessel. I spent an enjoyable few months on her in the late 1970’s.
Hi Lusty
I remember seeing a photo of the last Campbeltown in the ops room of the RNLI in Campbeltown itself in 2008. From memory it was a Type 22? A relatively small Kintyre town-why is the name important?
Morning Geoff, HMS Campbeltown was made famous due to the St Nazaire raid during the Second World War. In short, Campbeltown was ‘modified’ to resemble a German destroyer, and a bomb was placed in her bow. The intention was to ram the dry dock gates of located in St Naziare (France), to deny the Germans access to the dry dock facilities (and in doing so, denying Tirpitz a dry dock). She sailed up the Loire estuary with her escorting destoryers and MLs, and basically rammed the dock’s gate. The accompanying Commandos hopped off and completed their own missions in and… Read more ยป
She was ex USN too.
Yes, that’s correct. Ex-USS Buchanan.
Thanks Lusty. As an aside on that same visit we went to the site of the Chinook crash on the Mull and stayed at an old Victorian mansion in Southend in the company of a group of expat South African and London Brits-all top river and sea paddlers. We planned to paddle from the Mull by the shortest route to Cushendun/Cushendall on the Antrim coast. Time, weather and equipmnet constraints meant that only my friend Alec Rennie and his son did the 19 mile crossing with wife and I and another couple in two ribs courtesy my cousin from County… Read more ยป
Thanks for sharing, Geoff.
I’m sorry to hear about your friend. It sounds like you have some fond memories.
My old ship, Type 22 Batch 3, drafted for over 3 years and travelled all over with her (even visiting Campbeltown), great looking ships pity they had to go, as Lusty already pointed out the ship was famous for the raid on St Nazaire. I remember as a comms rating on the bridge, waiting for the ship to enter dry dock in Devonport, it was taking a while to open the gate so someone did quip “why can’t we just ram it” It was named after Campbelltown USA as well (slightly different spelling) the original ship was tranferred from the… Read more ยป
Thanks for fascinating history Springer!
That sounds like something I would have come out with!
Rawalpindi?
I thought Jon Bon Jovi captured the Enigma machine from U 571 !
๏ปฟ๐๏ปฟ
A ship named after my favourite single malt region! Should have had HMS Campbeltown, HMS Speyside, HMS Highland, HMS Lowland and HMS Islay.
HMS Glen Turret
Iโm sure the one that Scotland eventually gets will be renamed HMSS Sturgeon
Well, the Russians had Whiskey class subs ๐
Hmmmmmmmm!
HMS Formidable….. Not the right name for a budget frigate….
If they’d also had Furious and Fearless then it would have worked…
agree
It’s worth remembering that these ‘budget frigates’ will be 5700 tonnes and 139m which makes them larger than a Type 42 destroyer.
How about HMS Formica. ๏ปฟ๐๏ปฟ
HMS Invincible probably wasn’t the right name for a ship that turned out to be very vincible in retrospect. I think fighting names like that though are a good image, Formidable certainly has some character to it over bloody HMS Active
Lol, HMS Malaise.
Nice names. Happy with that. ๐ฌ๐ง
Would have preferred a F class with
Faithful – Fearless – Firedrake – Foresight – Fortitude
Or Bs as with the T22s which I suppose did a similar job to what the T31s are intended to do:
I was on Brilliant, Brazen and Beaver.
“Happiness is a Wet Beaver”,was printed on a collection of zap stickers we had.
In the US on visits the comments from the blokes was you named your ship after pussy… the ladies actually loved it!
Besides that it was No2 of the best ships I served on behind No1 Bulwark as Flagship.
Be careful what you wish for. You might end up with HMS (equipped) For, Not With
All B’s would have been good.
Bulldog
Boxer
Brazen
Buzzard
Beaver
Beaver?๏ปฟ๐๏ปฟ
All the sailors want to be on that one ๏ปฟ๐๏ปฟ
Nine out of ten anyway!
Crewed by a bunch of…………?
Fantastic ship …3 very happy years serving in her!!!( cough)
Fearless would have been my choice for lead ship
We should’ve reused Fearless and Intrepid for the Falklands LPDs, Ardent and Antelope for the T21s lost there.
And why are no T26s from the NW- Liverpool/Manchester- while 2 are Scottish, which might leave the UK soon after they’re built?!
All Great names…. Each one has a great history in one way or another.
No HMS Boris? ๐
My choice …….. Hotspur, Havoc, Hunter, Hero and Hardy
What a missed opportunity! ๏ปฟ๐๏ปฟ
Well after seeing they are going to be the “Inspiration” class they should be all the “I”s”
Inspiration
Icarus
Impulsive
Invicta
And my personal favourite
Indefatigable
Indefatigable is definitely long overdue a return to the fleet!
Agreed!
How about HMS Inclusive, Chris !?!
Very PC…I like it. We could even give her a Rainbow Pennant
๏ปฟ๐๏ปฟ
I’m torn between honoring the names of previous ships and following a theme for each class that also allows ships to potentially create a name for themselves.
I do appreciate reading the history on some of the previous names though.
Venturer is interesting, considering how large scale submarine warfare was in WW2 that there is only one confirmed kill between 2 submerged subs.
Thanks all for the input and comments which I found both interesting and entertaining. Obviously a few ex matelots and no doubt other ex services on here. At first, I also thought some random names, but after reading the well researched and well presented explanations it does appear that the powers to be did put some thought into the naming of these ships. A lot of though, judging by the responses. I am pleased with the names and those ships and men they honour. Hopefully the (future) crew will look at the new Ships Crest and accompanying battle honours every… Read more ยป
Can live with those names (not that my opinion counts), could have been a lot worse if we’d stuck with ‘beige’ names of cities or rivers etc. When I read that they were going to be the ‘Inspiration class’ I feared that they were going to be a lot more ‘wussy’. Being a bluff old cove I’d have preferred for them to all start with the same letter but yeah, a solid 8 out of 10 from this smooth pimp daddy. ๏ปฟ๐๏ปฟ
HMS Active? Give me strength
I was hoping for a revival of the Tribal Class:
Ashanti
Gurkha
Cossack
Maori
Zulu
But these will do…
Would have loved these.
Me too although the history behind them has perhaps different significance in the world 2021. Surprised at the inclusion of Cossack at the time. The rest are all British Empire ‘tribes’
That would have been perfect. Just perfect.
Gets my vote Rob….
Formidable should be an aircraft carrier or at least an SSN. To call an undergunned “frigate” which is really an oversized OPV, “Formidable” is to invite derision.
Thatโs exactly what I was thinking John. Unfortunately there is nothing โFormidableโ about the Type 31. Maybe they will get up-gunned when they enter service. Iโm hoping the initial anemic weapons fit is intended only to keep the cost down and meet budget??? At least they are pretty large so additional weapon systems could be added later. Hereโs hoping!
With you on that John, to me Formidable is a capital ship name, not a budget frigate…
Stop your whining those are great names. You could take a cue from the American navy and have named a ship after a gay activist from San Francisco.
Why all the Gender References Chaps ? It’s obvious to see what you refer too……๏ปฟ๐๏ปฟ These are names of great Vessels from the past and they will be crewed by great people regardless of Gender.
Ooooooh! At last.
I like Active, Bulldog, and Venturer but unsure of other 2. Oh well. Why Campbeltown? Last was a T22B3.
The RN naming of T31 & T32 is all about signalling a new revolutionary technical dawn. Why no HMS Warrior?
Maybe next batch.
Cambeltown for the Destroyer that rammed the Dry Dock at St Nazier in WW2, the RN themselves put out an infographic explaining they chose the name because it embodies the ethos they want the Future Commando Force to have. From the RN’s website: “Each name has been selected to represent key themes and operations which will dominate and shape the global mission of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines: carrier operations (Formidable); operational advantage in the North Atlantic (Bulldog); forward deployment of ships around the globe to protect UK interests (Active); technology and innovation (Venturer); and the Future Commando Force… Read more ยป
Hi Dern.
Yes, having read more that all makes sense.
Of course now that you’ve replied I find the infographic ๐
I’d not seen that. Thank you.
Hi Daniele! Chilly day in Durban-17 degrees and overcast๏ปฟ๐ฎ๏ปฟ
Morning geoff! Chilly too in Surrey, winds now stilled and still no sign of sun ๐
Put the wind up the Chinese if they hear the Active is coming. They’ll assume an Astute.
Yeah they may seem a little random to the casual observer but a little research will sort that out for most people. Personally I like the names just as I suspect I’m gonna like the ships when they’re finally in service. I’m convinced the Type is gonna be big success for the RN. We know enough now to know they’re gonna be good ships for the role they’re intended. If they turn out to be great ships with a front line war fighting role depends on a few things we’re not too sure of yet, like the weapons fit. With… Read more ยป