The first sailors have been assigned to HMS Venturer, the first of the five upcoming Type 31 Inspiration-class frigates anticipated to be operational by the end of the decade.
The Royal Navy disclosed that nine sailors, headed by Senior Naval Officer Commander Chris Cozens, are the inaugural ship’s company, set to expand to over 100 as the frigate integrates into the Fleet.
The crew will be instrumental in animating the 5,700-tonne warship, which began construction in September 2021. They will assist in authoring the ‘operators’ manual’ for Venturer and her sister vessels.
The Type 31s are designed for a multitude of tasks worldwide, each frigate named after a historical Royal Navy vessel known for its inspiring feats. HMS Venturer honours a World War II submarine credited with the remarkable feat of torpedoing a German U-boat while both were submerged.
Equipped with Sea Ceptor air defence missiles, a 57mm and two 40mm guns, a 4D radar, a Wildcat or Merlin helicopter, and up to three sea boats, HMS Venturer is poised to be instrumental in the Royal Navy’s maritime security endeavours.
Venturer is expected to roll out of Babcock’s Rosyth facility within a year. The growing ship’s company will cooperate with the Ministry of Defence’s DE&S team and shipbuilders to understand the vessel’s operation and ensure its successful commissioning.
Commander Cozens expressed his team’s anticipation for the tasks ahead: “The crew are the beating heart of the ship, turning cold steel into a warship. This is a once-in-a-generation chance to bring an inspirational and innovative ship into service quickly… HMS Venturer is the epitome of the National Shipbuilding Strategy, procured in a very different way where industry and Defence work seamlessly side by side.”
Type 31 is a great program, shows we can build capable warships quickly and in numbers. Four times less than the cost of the initial T26 batch.
I think it’s fair to say Babcock has saved British ship building. Just hope it all continues to go smoothly.
Maybe.
If you look at the chat N-a-B, Gunbuster and myself have had on NL – I am not so optimistic now.
I hope Babcock can get this right as if they do you are 100% on the money.
SKY news is reporting that Ben Wallace is going to hand in his bedding in a few months. Yes I know about the boundary changes which sees him lose his constituency, I also know the PM doesn’t trust him due to his links to Boris (which is strange as during the run up for the new PM he remained apolitical) and some say been denied the job as head of NATO. (Interestingly in response to Biden throwing support for VDL for the job, it has now transpired that she in return has given American Fiona Scott Morton the chief economist’s job in DG COMP, the Commission authority responsible for ensuring fair competition within the single market)
Myself, I fear its more to do with the upcoming defence review (next week) But then what else would you expect from a shirt button of a PM who prefers China, the EU and India more than he does the Uk. On that note I see the Human rights lawyer who runs London, is looking to put in motion a pay as you drive scheme in London, which itself is seen as a trial for the next Labour Government to instal all over the Uk, On that note I wonder when the fat pigs in power will decide to tax the air we breath.
When Wallace first arrived as Defence Sec., I admit my reaction was – Who? His evident willingness to advise any who were interested, with a calm, matter-fact-approach. That attitude, accompanied by facial expressions that showed serious consideration to the question in hand (but a screen shot could make look like consternation) was both welcome & unusual i.e. in a politician. Cannot say that would give him NATO Sec Gen, but looks like his reputation grew here and on the Continent none the less. Seriously, anyone less like Boris in candour?
Do think we needed him, but, there you go…. Trust this does not represent ‘in memoriam’ :
https://youtu.be/fPx4cPIFvnc. Just the other week
Well said
As much as I like the T31 in concept are we really making good use of the hull?
I am asking this as there will be a lot of useable kit being removed from the T23s that does not appear to have further use.
Examples are the Ultra 2150 hull mounted sonar and the BAE Artisan 3D radar. Both Ultra and BAE are producing at this moment 8 new sets of kit for the T26s. It also seems that Thales have been awarded a contract for the T26 Batch 1 2087 VDS. I am not sure is that is three new builds or three refits. If it is three refits then that would mean the ASW platforms in the RN would be reduced to five. Which does not seem likely.
This to me means that by the begining of the 2030s we would have eight very useable hull mounted sonars, eight useable Artisan radars and anywhere form three to eight 2087 towed arrays available to install on platforms. With some software and possibly computer hardware upgrades in 2030 this kit would be at almost the same standard as the fit out of the T26s.
Surely we could find use for equipment that would be 12-15 years old and would have a further 15-20 years of life in the fleet.
Possibly is we do not find use for them in the T31s we could use them in the T32s.
Some might say that we will sell the T23s off, I find that unlikly as we have worked these ships to the point where I am asking how the hell do they keep going.
For some reason I hope we keep a T23 as a museum ship, they have served the country well.
On your 2nd last para. Wondered same regarding T21 Amazons. Never considered a strong hull. Still operated by Pakistan as Tariq Class into this decade.
The T21 hull was fine for what it was designed for: costal protection duties. It was never a blue water concept. That said it was a very well designed and built hull. The shame was that it had close to zero growth margin in an era when computers needed very large rooms and each missile type needed masses of backed stuff.
Yes, the hulls suffered when they were pushed very hard in rough seas in the race to the South Atlantic in ’82.
If they are left to slowly chug around doing costal stuff ships inevitably last quite a long time. If you use a ship hard in rough seas the hull suffers.
The T21 will now be benefiting from the de-growth of systems weights so it will have the capacity to take more systems. Even things like radar mounts are much lighter with smaller windage than the huge mesh contraptions that used to be used.
Set against that the tin worm will have been hard at work. How areas, that are very hard to access, like the bilges are coping in terms of stiffeners and frames I’d be pretty sure they are rusted to structural failure. I am sure sections of plate have been frequently cut out and patched and that when they are internals are also repaired but the more you do that the more the integrity becomes incrementally compromised.
So I wouldn’t have thought a hard drive in rough seas would be a good idea!
The Brazilian large version Niteroi is still in operation.
After Corporate, and the extreme sea state conditions that we went through , the 21s had too have their upperdecks strengthened with what look like railway track Steels A Frigate with sleek lines and then a heath Robinson adage beneath the bridge did help prolong their seatime SB
Don’t think I’d fancy that last either at around 50!
But, of all the vessels in all the world, I’d certainly not have given odds on that! Like getting their monies worth, it would appear.
Rgs
Would be great if one could indeed be a museum ship I for one would love to visit it one as we have seen so much of them in action so we do identify with them more than previous classes I think and it would give great insights into the (relatively) modern navy and the conditions they work under.
Keep your eye open, one puts in from time to time and opens to the public, I was on HMS Westminster a few years ago when she docked in London.
I doubt if some of today’s ratings could get through a 21s Kidney hatch judging by the girth of some they’d be in for a shock no fixed bunks, or dedicated mess Square in messdecks
On Artisan, how about mounting it on T26, as the second one?
It will provide redundancy and improve refresh rate from 2s to 1s. The latter is the weak-point of Artisan 3D. All other new 3D radars are either fixed AESA or 1s rotating.
I admit it will not look fancy, but I think it will be cheap and good use to improve T26’s inferior AAW radar coverage.
Just a thought.
Radars, Sonar, Comms, EW, CIS, Ceptor kit removed from T23 will need to go into the overhaul and repair loop. That will be a separate contract from a completely different budget stream.
Systems overhauls are not cheap or quick.
If they want to bring the cabinets up to an overhauled but not new standard then they will need stripping down of wiring, cct boards, power supplies, cooling matrixes and the cabinets dismantled down to component parts. Whilst that’s happening the Cct Boards etc and everything else in the cabinet will be bench tested and overhauled.
MODs will be installed to bring the equipment up to the latest build standard and any obsolescence issues should be removed.
Once stuff comes out of the contractors FAT testing then you may see it announced as available for use and fitting.
57mm main Deck gun no point of NGS by the looks of it what is the reason ?
T31 looks like to be build as anti-swarm(sea and air) ship.
The old Bird class HK Squadron, OPVs had an ottomala 75mm and they were half the size , just seems odd the Ottos were fully Automatic aswell there must be some backhanders going on in the equipment, aquire ring department or the 57mm has a trick up it breech
The trick is the 3p programmable ammunition- the 57mm can engage effectively swarm fast attack and surface speed boats, uAVs and larger targets equally effectively. In terms of weight of fire I thought the BAE 57mm was very close to the 76mm Oto
Can see the point for engaging uav swarms etc , it’s just procurement dept seems too pluck different calibre Armaments as we were steady with 20mm ,30mm 40/60 and 4.5 hope the new 57mm is in house ammunition not imported Mr Bell
But shouldn’t that role be T45s?
this is what worries me about all this. The high end escorts are for the CSG/LSGs offering a layered defence.
T45 close to carriers, T26 sub hunting at distance.
2 AAW will be required by SG with 2-4 ASW assets as well.
that means we really need a min of 16 escorts to give each of the proposed stike groups 4 escorts.
perhaps the LSG escorts can benefit from a127mm but the CSG ones don’t need them at all. Better putting them on the T31/2s that will be operating in isolation and in the littoral
It all depends on how you value NGFS. I do not think your idea is wrong, but either RN’s way looks OK for me.
A 57mm gun is inferior on (= cannot do) NGFS, but is good at AAW and perfect for anti-boat-swarm as well as anti-small-UAV-swarm.
On the other hand, a 127mm gun can do NGFS well, but is almost zero against AAW (USN is not thinking it as AAW asset), and very bad for anti-boat-swarm nor anti-small-UAV-swarm.
T31 for KIPION is well designed with a 57mm gun (and 2 40mm guns), because Iran is the “inventer” of the fast-boat-swarm.
T31 for LRG can also fight well against those boat-swarm and UAV-swarm. For many low-end militia, these “small swarm” is the best they can do, so, T31 with 57mm gun is a good selection there.
But, sometimes LRG escort may want to do NGFS.
Ideally, both is needed. But, if only one choice, selecting 57mm gun looks OK for me…
Hi Donald, yes you are right T31 is perfect for OP kipion and I had forgotten about that tbh.
I also understand the 127mm may be able to fire sonarbouy shells and perhaps some sort of ASW missile. If true then this makes sense.
however for the AAW assets I think 40mm CTA should be the gun of choice. ( not a totally new inventory in small vols)
I am sure there are reasons for everything, would be good if they just told us.
Iran fast boat swarm is arrasement in peace, they will send 100 UAV’s against a T31 in Gulf if there is war.
If you think Iran will use fast boat swarms in war as main strategy i think you are wrong i only see it in some very particular situations. They are not suicidical.
They are certainly making fast boat UAV’s.
That is one of the reasons i think the whole modern RN frigate fleet is conceptually wrong.
T31 should have been a silent ASW ship. T26 should have been a long range AAW capable multimission frigate.
I agree fast-boat-swarm is the gray-zone tactics. But even so, we need some assets to handle it.
T31’s 57mm gun with 3P and guided ammo, and 2x 40mm guns with 3P will make it the best asset to counter not only fast boat, but also USV swarm, as well as UAV swarm. Ukraina war shows that modern rapid-fire guns with good EO FCS and airburst/proximity-fused shell, can efficiently shoot down such drones. This is simply because UAVs are slow moving targets, but it cannot be fast moving to be “cheap and numerous”.
“T31 should have been a silent ASW ship. T26 should have been a long range AAW capable multimission frigate.”
No big objection but RN does not have it now (I think your T31 is T26, and your T26 is T83). And, Defense Plan coming next week looks like showing “lack of money”.
I am talking under this circumstances.
If I can talk free of money, I will ask for
24x T26 each with 48 CAMM and 16 Aster30 and 16 TLAM, and
12x T45 each with 96 Aster 30 and 48 CAMM,
and no T31.
Also worth remembering the Kingfisher ASW round for 5 in.
But not yet existing. It is just a concept now.
I agree that 57mm should be in T45. But 4.5″ are legacy and Royal Navy don’t have money to replace them or echange them between T45 and T31
That’s why the RN needs either to equip another batch of 5 type 31s optimised for the NGS role with either the 6 inch gun on the Mk8 kriton gun mount or fit an MLRS for NGS role- a naval HIMARS would be a great idea- or just crane an actual HIMARS/ MLRS onboard into the mission bay?
Agreed. NGFS is best conducted by your most dispensable escorts, not your most vital ones. I’d prefer 76mm to be the minimum MG anyway. Better to standardise on the 5″ too.
we should be back upto 16 escorts if the current orders and plans are seen through
6 type 45s (upgraded with sea ceptor and NSM)
8 type 26s (world best submarine hunter)
5 type 31s (probably the best UAV/USV defence system put to sea)
5 type 32s= total 24
ideally another batch of 5 type 31s= total 29- that would suffice for the proposed surface groups and carrier strike groups as well as leaving a few for reserve, refit, training etc.
Agreed Mr Bell with 2 caveats
If T31 cannot do ASW properly we need more T26
If buying more T26 brings the price down further we should then buy a further batch to replace T45 in 2040’s and get more of the very best ship we can.
T26 AAW would have no mission space which is used for AAW load out
I think it’s a fine balancing act but ASW is no1 priority imo and we should extract max value out of T26
We can then focus on getting MRSS right and designing a Multi Mission Ship corvette
Mk 41 cells have been promised for T31s now. So I assume any long range land attack capability will be in form of guided missiles.I
So cost doesn’t factor in dhell or missile by the sound of it ,if that’s the case
In a conflict, would you fight with all means available or hold back because of the cost of the ordinance ?
This started about T31s ability with a 57mm too conduct an NGS if we ever have an action or conflict that requires an NGS I doubt if cost would come into play and sponging out the barrel would require less effort than a 4.5 inch as well sorry I’m a mk6 and mk 8 vet
Id like to see an MLRS mount on a RN ship- a sea going HIMARs if you like. Long range (beyond that of even rocket assisted gun projectiles) hard hitting and the ability to saturate a target with submunitions- what’s not to like?
👍
Apparently, the living accommodation is a bit sparse!
There are a few more photos of HMS Venturer on the Navy Lookout website. The hull is coming on nicely.
“The Type 31s are designed for a multitude of tasks”- But not ASW. No hull sonar or ASW TT. Frigates are ASW escorts as much as anything else. Nobody expects sonar to T26 standards, but a basic hull ASW sonar is part of every other FFG across the world.
So they’ll go to sea as currently configured with a major gap & vulnerablilty
Not on the USN Constellations its not. No hull mounted sonar but they are getting Captas 4
Hi Guns. Wiki says they’ll have, “AN/SLQ-61 light weight towed array sonar“, plus the “AN/SQS-62 Variable-Depth Sonar”
I assumed the latter was hull mounted, but even so, both are deployable by the ship itself for local sub searching.
It doesn’t say they’ll have ASROC yet, but I’d be very surprised if they don’t have any in their Mk41 VLS.
Their embarked MH-60R Seahawk also can search for subs & attack with ASW torpedos.
When Wildcat is the embarked heli on the T31s there is zero ASW detection or tracking on the ship. It can only attack a sub if someone else has detected it & passed the data to the Wildcat.
As I said above, a huge capability gap if a T23 is on a lone mission. Our cheaper escorts need to be able to escort, not run away or get sunk if a sub turns up.
AN/SQS-62 was the Raytheon VDS for LCS and Connie and was planned to back fit ABs.
Its been binned because they couldn’t make it work and so have spaffed 8 years and 100s of millions on it. They have now gone for Captas 4 which is pretty much a S2087 VDS that just about all the world uses nowadays for VDS work because its proven and has fantastic detection ranges.
The other one is a Nixie which is similar to SSTD used on RN vessels.
As I said before, ASW is a team game. You never want to do it on your own, it makes it easy for the sub that way. Adding in fixed system hydrophones, surface units with VDS (active and passive) Hull Sonar, Helo dippers and sonobuoys, P8s and Ponys give the sub a lot of assets to counter.
If a Merlin isn’t carrying 2 x Sting Ray or even 4 x Sting Ray thats at least 600-1200 kg of extra fuel and a lot of time on station. The pony (Wildcat) can carry 2 x Sting Ray in at a far higher speed to drop on a possub, return, rearm and return for another VECTAC all whilst the dipper stays on station pinging the sub .
No ASW hull sonar on Japanes FFM, as well. They have a mine avoidance sonar and CAPTAS-4 like, but no ASW hull sonar.
T45 is not using its MFS7000 sonar, as sometimes reported. Not official, but looks like real.
I think it is a clear trend now, world is gradually moving away from hull sonar for ASW, but for CAPTAS-4 like active passive multi-static system. At the same time, world is trying drones, UUV, USV and UAVs, to conduct ASW. But, it is yet to come…
Having a hull sonar on a frigate will be “not bad to have”, but it will not make her an ASW asset. All ASW assets in the world are getting CAPTAS-4 like sonar. French and Greeek FDI, Danish Absalon, and may be IH-class in due course? Norwaian Nansen class has CAPTAS-2, Dutch M-class has LFAPS (but only one hull). Japanese ASW escorts all have a towed array sonar (active/passive). Canadian frigate has active/passive TASS.
Thanks Dot, it is essential escorts have ASW capability. I was not aware of what CAPTAS was. The only sonar like system currently slated for the T31s so far is sonar 270 which is just for detecting & providing countermeasures to attacking torpedos etc, hence my alarm.
I paid off 2 when on them ( Beaver and Marlborough) and 3 others I served on (Brum, Brilliant and Brazen) were also paid off. Only 2 remain afloat Somerset and Bulwark. I am not counting short stints on a DLG, HK Patrol Craft , MCMVs or a P2000!
Why does everything have to be “upcoming” not “forthcoming” these days?
Lets get another 5 ordered- cost vs effectiveness ratio is heavily weighted in our favour for these fantastic warships.