HMS Cardiff, the second of eight Type 26 Frigates, will soon be launched and enter the water for the first time.
The vessel will soon be moved onto a barge before being transported to the sheltered waters of Glenmallan to be lowered into the water. It will then be brought back upriver to Scotstoun to continue fitting out.
She will be the last of the class to have her sections integrated on the hardstand in the open air, you can read more about the build hall in my recent article here.
The Royal Navy say that when operational, the eight Type 26s will be on the front line of the fleet’s defence against hostile submarines, replacing the eight existing Type 23 frigates, which perform the same duty – only in hulls designed 30 years earlier.
“In addition to their primary role, the 26s will be able to fend off air attack with Sea Ceptor missiles, pound targets ashore with a new main 5in gun, conduct disaster relief operations, and be equipped for a range of potential operations courtesy of an adaptable mission bay for hosting equipment such as drones, minehunting technology or Royal Marines raiding teams. All eight City-class ships have been ordered from BAE with four (Belfast and Birmingham complete the initial quartet) under construction.”
You can see how the first in class, HMS Glasgow, looked as she was moved onto the barge ahead of launch.
Although construction and assembly are concentrated at BAE’s yards on the Clyde, some 120 firms and contractors are involved in the programme, which will run into the 2030s and support well over 4,000 jobs.
The Royal Navy’s version of the Type 26 frigate is equipped with cutting-edge technology. It features the Type 997 Artisan 3D search radar and Sea Ceptor (CAMM) air-defence missiles launched via 48 vertical launching system (VLS) canisters.
Additionally, it has 24 Mark 41 “strike-length VLS” cells positioned forward of the bridge, capable of launching various missiles, including the Tomahawk land-attack cruise missile and anti-submarine rockets. Designed with future threats in mind, the Type 26 is set to accommodate the Anglo-French-Italian Future Cruise/Anti-Ship Weapon.
Like the Type 23 frigate it replaces, the Type 26 is built for stealth in anti-submarine warfare, boasting an acoustically quiet hull and advanced sonar systems, including the Ultra Electronics Type 2150 bow sonar and the Sonar 2087 towed array. For defence, it’s armed with a BAE 5-inch, 62-calibre Mark 45 naval gun, two Phalanx CIWS, two 30mm DS30M Mark 2 Automated Small Calibre Guns, and a range of miniguns and machine guns.
The ship also features SEA’s Ancilia trainable decoy launcher for enhanced protection against missile threats. Its propulsion system uses a gas turbine direct drive and four high-speed diesel generators driving two electric motors in a combined diesel-electric or gas (CODLOG) configuration, powered by the MT30 gas turbine engine from Rolls-Royce.
Well, one could throw a penny in a wishing well and hope for more…
Yes that’s a good idea, you try that one and I’ll write a letter to Santa 🤔
You’ll get your wishes answered!
To be honest I’d sell Santa, his Elves and the Reindeer for a firm commitment for 10 / 12 SSN(A)’s before any extra T26. IMHO if we don’t use the AUKUS project to leverage long term industrial stability up at Barrow, here at Raynesway and the rest of the supply chain we are idiots.
And yes I am biased 🤔 But I never want anyone to have to go through the uncertainty in the post Vanguard production vacuum.
Rodders, this is Delboy, I’ll take your 12 SSNs and raise you 12 T26 my son, deal?
This is just not going to happen, much as I talked to an egghead on a train from Sellafield going north, why PWR3 could not be converted to land use SMRs, he couldn’t understand it and given the scale this would create and the decrease in costs but +benefits it would bring… words failed him.
Then again, you have MP for Furness, Scrogham who said she didn’t know the difference between a Bomber and an attack boat. Doesn’t raise much hope, does it?
Yes totally agree but I would love the Norwegian T26 order and they have the £££££ Also makes ours and theirs cheaper
The latest photo shows the lady is shedding her white robes and showing her rear and shape since George did the excellent recent drone footage of HMS Cardiff
I entirely understand the reasoning behind the modern “float-off” launch method: safer all round, less stress on the hull, etc., but there was something to be said about the event of a dynamic, stern-first launch of a large vessel….
YES, the fecking great big tidal wave that drenched everyone on Walney side of the Channel when Bulwark was launched!
Thankfully, the kids had learned to swim!
Well things are looking up on Clydeside, it’s just a shame about the Thunderous silence from Rosyth.
On a serious note and it’s sort of a challenge for George or Dave C, any chance of drone footage of her being lowered and floated off at Glenmallan ? That would be awesome !
Gents get your Black Trews and Roll neck jumpers at the ready. “Your mission, if you should decide to accept it, is to find out when and get a flight plan approved”
Cue the MI music ……..
Sorry couldn’t resist 😉
I have seen some photos from April this year. Venturers hull looks mostly finished but still needs painting. As you say the progress report/photos are few and far between.
Yes those were, I think, the last photos available of Venturer, and I hope that a lot of pussers grey has gone on the hull since April. I wonder if Babcock might try and upstage Bae and roll the ship out before Cardiff gets barged out.
I’d love to see at least another four . 19 ships if all built is stupidly low. Increase pay and keep the crews . So much wasted on other crap .
Won’t happen, the ground forces are in a serious mess and need major investment. If any more funds are found most will go that way I suspect.
The hope is the t32 actually happens and it’s not just a stretched opv with words like future drone launching platform and space for future technology written all over it
And the Type 83 or as we now have a labour government go the same way as the old type 82 ?
T83 is meant to replace the t45, so different role. Not sure why everyone is so negative on labour, the Conservatives have been in power for most or the last 60 years during which constant cuts, including maggy about to cut most of the fleet just before the Falklands, an announcement that is likely led to Argentina having confidence to attack, they just did it a year too early. It’s too early to tell either way with this labour goverment. It’s clear starmer is not corbin and stamps down on anyone that thinks that way. Their hands are also tied… Read more »
I do know but when Maggie got in she gave us a well deserved pay rise John knott was the dickhead But we sailed South with what we had nothing changes there , Same as GW2 and Afghanistan under equipped but we still did the job
The carriers were due to be scrapped that year, a year later and there wouldn’t have been any sailing south.
Defence isn’t a priority for any party and so they are all as bad as each other but there is at least hope with a new goverment. The last was all talk and no delivery.
The PM says he’s encouraged by the Tempest design , but didn’t mention any funding for it , TSR2 in the making again ? .
There is a defence review coming out next year. They are only in power for a few weeks and only then do they get full info on the national books, give then time.
Not saying they won’t be a disaster, just saying wait then judge
And good at holding my breathe
We just have to hope that a war doesn’t break out in the meantime.
The Conservatives were all about spending more but not this election the one after, so won’t have been any better under them but we know based on their track record they wouldn’t deliver, where was leveling up the north or all them new hospitals
Lets face it the defence budget is a mess, massive black hole in it and no matter which party won, there isn’t the money to fix it.
Untrue! With the Office of Budget Responsibility(OBR), they get full access to the books long before the election. Rachel Reeves admitted as much in a statement, claiming they could no longer get into power and claim everything was worse than they anticipated so they had to raise taxes. Whether or not they lied in their manifesto about their spending and taxing plans is another matter, and although they can blame the last government for being a bunch of incompetents, they can no longer claim they didn’t know the state of the books. They can try of course, and they will,… Read more »
Not fully, they get a access to a lot of info but they don’t get access to memos, minutes, legal advice and contracts etc that would fully allow them to understand things.
You know your spinning yarns, right?
And, I’m not sure anyone is up for bullshit anymore. Just saying.
💯 Correct!
Not sure you did the job in Afghanistan…
Not an indictment of the boys and girls more a failure of American political leadership.
Korea has had nearly 75 years of commitment, Afghanistan needed 100 for generational change; we collectively failed.
It looke like those that were trained,didn’t really want too fight for their Country’s future or they would still be fighting the Taliban .
Conservatives had 14 years, how do the armed forces compare in 2024 vs 2010? I would argue our place in the world has dropped significantly and our one trump card with trade talks with Europe has now gone as they don’t need us anymore. The likes of Poland have replaced us. We are too aligned with the US anyway and so not a reliable ally.
The Armed forces of today are top notch in the use of Pronouns
I can’t blame for them, the world has moved on and they can’t stay static of there won’t be any recruits in a few years.
Where all the money goes is another question. We have some top notched gear for sure but lacking in numbers on every front that I’m not sure we could realistically fight any war where the US wasn’t there to cover up the gaps. At which point do we actually have an independent army or just another branch of the US.
I know quite a few soldiers who’d sign off if the armed forces were not top notch in the use of pronouns (although how good the armed forces actually are at looking after LGBTQ personnel and not just making the right noises and surface level motions is IMO up for debate), so yeah, being good at treating your personnel like human beings is something to be proud of.
And they deserve being treated like humans. No one really signs up to fight and die for their country, but never the less they have done it whenever policticans decide they are needed, no matter how pointless the war is. They are all hero’s in my book.
Actually, I know, I did sign up to fight and die for my country back in the 80s and volunteered for GW1 duties.
Should you be under any illusions that the Armed Forces are just a job, you need to apply for a civvy job.
I Too joined for those reasons in 76 .like you have put, that’s what the Armed forces are about , its not the WI all Jam and Jerusalem. IT was defence of the Realm see the world and if need be do the job you were trained and paid too do.
And burial costs have always been so expensive!
On the IGB we dug our foxholes in the knowledge that Soviet arty not only grossly outnumbered ours but overmatched in terms of distance.
Death was going to be fast, free and buried! Bargain in my book.
Agreed, bravado from the old and bold aside, people sign up to fight, and kill for their country, and appreciate there’s a risk. Nobody signs up to die.
I guess George will be keeping an “eye out” for that barge turning up.
Mentions of the torpedo launcher seem to be left by the wayside.
Or Dragonfire or is that for the venturer class ?
No they haven’t. The City class was never intended to be outfitted with Torpedo Launchers. What the RN is looking at is a VLA (Vertical Launched Anti-submarine weapon), which would be launched from the Mk41 cells
The Canadian version does come with torpedo launchers. And torpedos, supposedly.
Very good
Starting to think the armament on the Type 31 is actually better.
Not really. RN core task is escorting other vessels, in which case launch cells mean more than anything else, combined with ability to defend itself against subs.
T31 will be a liability in a war, as it will need escorting
Well, it’s got 32 mk41s, strike length too it seems. But that 5″ gun looks woeful out of date compared to the Bofors 40s and 57 it has mounted instead. The modern threats of drones, both sea and air, are too cheap to fire missiles at and too dangerous to ignore. Those three guns should be able to shred those threats, combined they can throw 820 rounds per minute, smart rounds too. They don’t even have to mount CIWS systems because they can handle that threat too. Assuming it’s ASW chops are good enough, they really turning out nicely I… Read more »
Let’s see what actually goes into the silos. All very good having them but need missiles. The main guns are a trade off, if there is a landing operation having the ability to prove shore bombardment would be essential to getting troops on the ground, but yeah they also need to defend again drones and other air threats. There isn’t enough merlin to go around to fly them from the t31 or t32, they would all be taken up by the carrier /t26. Wildcats are for the other vessels but they arent any use against subs, as they don’t have… Read more »
How do you see the 5” being “woefully out of date compared to the Bofors 40 and 57”? Both the 40 and 57 are woefully inadequate for naval gunfire support (NGS), whereas the Mk45 5” excels at it. As the T26 being originally the global combat ship, it required a NGS capability. However, the 40 and 57 do provide a better anti-air capability……at the moment! The US Navy are forging ahead with giving the 5” a better capability against land targets. The US Navy will be using the BAe 5” standard guided projectile. Which can reach out to 70km. They… Read more »
Notwithstanding the addition of Mk41 it seems to me that the role of the T31 hasn’t actually moved much from its starting point as a (credible) patrol frigate. It has good anti air defence. So SSTD yes, TSA no – its not a sub hunter.
That said in some situations maybe a bow sonar and an ASROC type weapon in the VLS might be a worthwhile add to anti-sub self defence. I’ll leave that to the experts.
A patrol vessel that can’t identify and counter sub threats is a sitting duck in any realistic war. Which means they need to be operated with a net produced by the t26, at which point they are alongside the t45. What do they then bring to the table? They are a vessel designed by budget and not war fighting, under the guise of more hulls is good news story. Better to have not bothered and brought another t26 with the money. Upgun the river2 a bit and they could take over the low intensity role in the gulf. Neither is… Read more »
The original plan was for 8x ASW T26 and 5 x GP. Are you not arguing against the the very concept of a mixed ASW and GP fleet?
Yep, because general purpose indicates it can function against any threat, which isn’t true.
Maybe one day they will be upgraded with a decent sonar and decent anti sub options or the merlin fleet will be supplemented with drones but we know what fitted for but not with meant, in this case it’s not even fitted for.
That’s not what GP means. Think less “Jack of all trades” and more “Generic Surface Combatant.”
At least with the original plan they were all t26 hulls so could be upgraded with a tail if needed.
Put it another way the RN in the 1930-40s underestimated the sub threats and built ships without it in mind, how well did that go. It’s not like that threat has vanished, if anything it’s grown as drone subs will no doubt be a thing in the near future. Any sensible enemy will target the supply lines rather than taking on capital ships directly and it’s these supply lines that the GP frigates are meant to protect whilst the main escorts protect the carriers. I suspect it’s the reason the US only has the AB which are designed to take… Read more »
I hear what you say. To be honest I am not expert enough to argue in detail the +ve case for a mixed fleet. Superficially seems to me we have a mixed fleet because we can’t afford Arleigh Burkes or even 13 T26. So we find ourselves in the position of optimising the armament of T31 according to the risks we think they will encounter in the roles/ locations we plan to deploy them. We know which adversaries have subs and where they operate. Someone has decided that the highest probability risks for a T31 assignment are fast attack craft… Read more »
Same no expert and realistically no-one is currently as a peer level war involving navies hasn’t happened in many many years. My assumption is when the RN was massive it has specialist platforms and that thinking has continued as the navy has shrunk. Combine that thinking with obsession on escorts numbers rather than capability and we ended up with what we ended up with. As long as the navy is only ever needs for roles like it’s used for today, combating low level threats then bull numbers counts, as being seen to be all over the place is politically important.… Read more »
I can see the T31 being used by the CSG as the Carrier’s goalkeeper. Operating inside the screen provided by the T45/T45s. Thereby allowing the T26 to do its main job of patrolling the flanks looking for subs.
The T45s could also use the T31’s CAMM via the network. Especially if the ship was armed with the ER and ER versions of CAMM.
Horses for Courses 🙄
I just think the three Bofors turrets are much more useful than the 5″ in today’s world of warships.
Does Bofors fire Kingfisher?
Does 57mm provide NGFS?
Replace the Phalanx already. Put 40mm Bofors instead. Range range range!
Agreed! ☺️
I think the Bofors with 3P ammo are perfect for dealing with modern swarming drones threats.
They replace both Phalanx and the 5″ on Type 31.
Straight into drydock for another 2 years , so damn slow with outfitting .