HMS Cardiff, the second of eight Type 26 City-class frigates under construction for the Royal Navy, has been flooded up in dry dock two at BAE Systems’ Scotstoun facility, transitioning the ship to a wet dock environment for the remainder of her fitting out programme, according to BAE Systems.
Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry Luke Pollard welcomed the milestone, saying it was “an important milestone for HMS Cardiff and another step towards her taking her place in the fleet” and offering congratulations to all involved.
According to a BAE Systems video, the flood-up involved opening the water flow system into the dry dock and allowing water to rise until the ship could take her own weight afloat, at which point mooring lines were tightened to keep the vessel centred. The ship will now remain in the water in the same location and will not enter another dry dock period in this phase of her build, the company said, with gangways reinstated to allow fitting out and trials work to continue in wet dock conditions.
A member of the build team said the programme had spent four months preparing the ship for the flood-up, describing the team as having been professional in how they delivered the scope of work and having overcome many challenges to reach the milestone. Another worker said it was the first major milestone they had personally experienced on HMS Cardiff, calling it a proud moment, according to the footage released by the company.
HMS Cardiff is the second Batch 1 Type 26 frigate, following HMS Glasgow which is expected to enter service in 2028. Steel was first cut for Cardiff in August 2019 and she was floated off a heavy lift barge at Glen Mallan in September 2024 before being towed to Scotstoun for fitting out. The flood-up marks a further stage in that outfitting process as the ship’s complex systems are slowly installed ahead of test and commissioning.
The remaining six Type 26 frigates, HMS Belfast, Birmingham, Sheffield, Newcastle, Edinburgh and London, are at various stages of construction at BAE Systems’ Govan and Scotstoun yards on the Clyde. The class is designed primarily for anti-submarine warfare and will replace the ageing Type 23 frigates currently performing that role for the Royal Navy.
So Soon ?
😶
So sonar, propellers etc all fitted?
September 1939 WWII started. May 1945 VE day.
September 2019 Steel cut May 2026 in wet dock.
It’s taken 1 year longer than WWII to get this far. 🥴
Unfortunately Geoff, thats what you get from 35 years of enjoying the so called ‘peace dividends’,
Considering the final T23 was delivered in 2002, there was a critical lack of updated facilities and key personnel when T26 was finally ordered.
On top of that, the previous pointless government and this useless shower of clowns, have drip fed funding.
Still, on a positive note, its nice to see the fruits of T26 and T31 actually turning into hulls in the water.
In fairness they did have to spend alot of money fighting two wars in Asia in support of our “greatest ally”.
It’s just unfortunate that ally forgot.
“useless shower of clowns” hahaha, can I use that?, it’s magnificent
Ease up there mate. You are obviously not a Labour government supporter, fair enough, each to their own. But i’m sure you”re fairly pleased that we at last have a government putting some good extra funding into defence and promising more. ATM we look good for a 22% increase, though the Trump-Netanyahu attack on Iran may cook our goose.
Describing HMG as ‘a useless shower of clowns’ and ‘incompetent idiots” betrays a political rather than objective agenda. We can read.that kind of party-political polemic every day of the week in the DT, Mail and Express if anyone bothers to read these rags.. Not sure it adds anything useful or interesting to the discussion on defence matters here in UKDJ.
You seriously backing up our gas lighting government? How much of any increase in spending ( not sure where you got that stat from) is moving goal posts? What about this DIP which is getting like the Yeti and Loch Ness monster now?
Yes sadly there have been delays in the type 26 and 31 programmes due to Covid and Brexit. It has left the RN seriously short on hulls, but hopefully, we will get 4 brand new Dreadnoughts, 13 frigates, AUKUS boats at a faster pace.
Nothing to do with COVID or Brexit(?). Other countries managed to do a lots of ships in the same time.
Not true. It’s has been widely reported that Covid and Brexit compounded the delivery issues of these programmes. Of course, there were other issues as well. It’s depends which countries you are talking about, but the complexity of Brexit led to supply chain issues, for example.
Excuses. Nothing more than excuses. Glasgow will take 11 years to be in service that long time mean she got rust already, Cardiff probably the same or 1 year less to 10 if all going right.
It seems a bit of a piss take… In times of peace prepare for war…… Not us we just fiddle along… The yanks will save us…..
Something I don’t really understand. If Norway have ordered two Type 26s, and the RN have eight on order then why is the total number on order not ten? Why do people talk about the RN giving up build slots? Is this another stealthly RN size reduction? Is the ASW fleet getting even smaller? All very concerning for the high north operations.
Yes, it’s cutting by sleight of hand.
Labour will argue that as they are part of a joint UK-Norway fleet, numbers have actually gone up.
Luke Pollard 4 th Feb 26 Parliamentary answer. “The Royal Navy will receive all eight Type 26 ships during the late 2020s and 2030s as planned”.
And you believe what a politician says?
What an infuriating comment thread. So the RN order hasn’t been cut, you’ve just decided to say it has and dismiss evidence otherwise.
It’s like people here just want to be miserable no matter what.
It has been cut until they order more, its that simple.
The fact is they have diverted hulls to Norway and ‘not’ ordered replacements.
I don’t believe a thing these incompetent idiots say, they won’t even release last years DIP for gods sake.
People are not being miserable, they are showing concern.
Spot on old boy
Are you hard of thinking?
Until FURTHER orders are now made and for the many doubting Thoms that includes long lead items for both Navies, I wouldn’t trust a word.
So what’s your alternative then?
Yes when they say it to the House of Commons, as Boris Johnson learned you cannot mislead the house.
Starmers clown heavy circus is gone by 2029 Paul, I dont believe a thing they say.
The reality is the additional hulls haven’t been ordered, I’ll believe it when I see it.
Its now beyond obvious that 8 RN T26’s is a totally inadequate number, it should be 12 UK hulls at a minimum.
I fear the DIP (when its eventually published), will simply carry on the managed decline.
100%
So where’s all the extra money to pay for your fantasy fleet going to come from John? Please don’t say Chagos, the FCDO are paying 70%.of that if it ever happens. Or savings on illegal immigrants (miniscule) or similar claims from the dull right.
It is all very well enflessly setting out what the Navy needs and the naval gazers demand. But we have a lot of other arguably more important.equipment for the RAF and Army, but nowhere near the budget to do all at.once. And I will be intrigued to hear where all this extra money is to come from.
Its a simple question of priorities Cripes, this government has managed to fu## itself up in less than 2 years, in the same way the last lot took 14 to achieve!!
That means they are on the back foot and on the defensive, never mind the drubbing they are going to get next week at the polls, that will pitch them into full on crisis mode!
Defence is a mess, they can’t even publish the DIP, because they won’t fund the already pathetically low defence budget adequately.
They are marking time and deferring as much as possible to dump in the next governments lap.
The money is there, it sits in the foreign aid and welfare budgets.
This government ‘choose’ to spend vast sums on the work shy and huge numbers of people claiming PIP etc, etc etc., because doing anything else would accelerate their move to the opposition benches, as scores of huffy leftie MPs crossed the floor into the titty whispers warm embrace.
The very fact that you regard 12 T26 as a ‘fantasy fleet’ is extremely telling in itself, its an absolute bare minimum!
8 was calculated as the requirement in during the war on terror, were Russia and China were regarded as a mild irritation and the threatwas almost exclusively of a terrorist nature. It was the number needed to protect our SSBN deployments and other minimum operational needs.
Based on 4/ 5 being available.
You might have noticed the world situation has slightly changed today, 12 would allow 7/8 to be available, giving minimum SSBN tasking and carrier escort duties, etc.
The money is there, Starmer and his cast of halfwit clowns will do precisely nothing.
Labour incompetence in action….
Welfare has to be cut and given to defence.🤷♂️
Billions are miniscule?
£1000000000’s
Starmer fan get off this sight…. Silly Billy.
But no new order to replace the two slots and already in build ships given to Norway – 🤔
They gave up slots not orders, they don’t need to make a new order as they have already ordered 8
That wasn’t what was being said.
Yes I believe Norway has essentially taken on the responsibility for 2 of those original 6 orders.. but there now has to be a batch 3 at present we have been told at a minimum that will be another 5.. 2 to replace the 2 RN ships from the first two batches that Norway has taken and 3 more for Norway.
All we know at present is the government has told us that is the minimum order ( from parliamentary questions).. who knows if that will change or not.. he’ll it may even go up…Norway have said it’s a minimum of 5 so they may nip in another in a batch 4 and it’s even possible ( unlikely but not impossible) that they UK nip in another ASW T26 from potential cost savings due to numbers produced.
I’m also thinking that we may just see HMG and the RN take an easy road and build a T26 all purpose version for the T83….
‘I’m also thinking that we may just see HMG and the RN take an easy road and build a T26 all purpose version for the T83…’
That’s what’s being offered already.
Indeed, but not taken up as yet.
MOD frames it as “Shared capabilities”
Look at it this way.
– The RN has ordered 8 and Norway has ordered 2. Total build order 10.
– The RN has agreed that Norway can have 2 of its delivery slots (not of its orders) so that Norway doesn’t have to wait until all the RN’s 8 are built before work starts on their 2.
Not quite. The RN has ordered 8. Norway has ordered 5. 13 ships will be built overall.
This can be done in two ways.
1) All eight are first built for the UK, followed then by five for Norway.
2) Some of those first eight ships are given to Norway, with the UK taking some of the later five in return.
They’ve chosen the latter, because Norway is contracted for one ship by 2030.
Ok. I wasn’t sure about the other 3 for Norway.
Same here, I’m struggling with this.
We have ordered both batches now- all 8 vessels. We can’t pull out of that without significant financial penalties (as far as I’m aware). That was the point- that we couldn’t contractually leave BAE in the lurch.
The Norwegian government haven’t paid the British Government for those two ships, they’ve paid BAE for the 5 and have an agreement with the MOD to ‘jump the queue’ and to receive two of our in-build ones. Those two hulls are paid for/committed to by the UK and will get fitted into the later production slots alongside the other 3 Norwegian ships.
I’m genuinely struggling to understand how the UK government could get out of getting 8 hulls for the RN without paying more than it’d cost to build them, this seems to be an unfounded fear…
Statements made by government ministers in Parliament in response to questions from opposition MPs are our democratic system in action. That’s as good as it gets unless you want a revolution and a republic, the benefits of which are debateable.
Well said and very true.
But I think on the flip side we have had a lot of promises that have not been fulfilled for one reason or another.
What I don’t think people are now really doing is analysing anymore, is this really in control and a viable choice ? the fact that things do have to change and things don’t go to plan especially in complex situations and we have no power over most events now goes over peoples heads..if you held every dr and nurse to everything they had planned or said and got rid of them if they had to change their tack or got it wrong you wouldn’t have anyone left to treat any patients after a week. I think the media which are essentially controlled by interests and especially social media just feed a narrative of disgust and intolerance towards our government. I have now taken the extreme measure of stopping reading some publications because I fear they are so agenda ridden as to essentially be propaganda and not a valid news source.. even some once valid broad sheets like the telegraph.
I essentially think the negative and anti government propaganda is now so great as to make this country ungovernable..
The attack on those two Jewish men was an example.. on one side you had people attacking the government for the nation being antisemitic and on the other attack it for brutally against Muslims..social media driven perception and hatred… a nation with a large population that chants from river to the sea without even understanding they chant genocide or even that genocide is justified and on the other side a group that essentially feal exactly the opposite.. both cannot stand our government for not standing up for their view.. without ever even thinking.. what the fuck could our government do and if they did what would be the consequences.
Bit off subject on the fact we are now slagging off of government for cutting the T26 RN production from 8 to 6 when they have not done so and said they will not …but I think it shows the problem of systematic mistrust driven by social media and media..sometimes we need to say what we think we want then wait.. and make the judgement on final results… don’t rush to end and say how the race was run before it even half way finished.
For context not released the DIP is shite, they are slow need to get a grip and if they don’t order 2 more T26 as replacements, 5 more T31 etc I will be right pissy and write a letter of disapproval.
Yes, where is the DIP, Government? You do realise, yes, that, delays to something like the DIP, will cost you at the elections.
The country is a tinderbox. Putin has been working effectively for some time to undermine the economic, military and cultural dominance of the West. Trump and Iran have been set against one another by his malign manoeuvres. Putin’s long standing ambition is to destroy NATO. He knows that the US ‘special relationships’ with Israel is its key vulnerability. We now see the Middle East replicated within the UK. Golders Green is a miniature besieged Israel. We are seeing Hamas and Hezbollah constituency MPs who are elected on pro-Palestine platforms. Party leaders like Polanski are fanning the flames, cynically exploiting Muslim sensitivities: he makes Nigel Farage look like a moderate. But there are responsible voices. The king did a good job of gently chastising Trump. Sir Mark Rowley is robustly defending his officers’ handling of the Golders Green terrorist against Polanski’s irresponsible inflammatory accusations of excessive violence.
The DIP situation is down to Ms Reeves simply saying this is what we can afford without the markets crucifying the UK; telling the MOD to go away, put your house in order and come up with something that is practical. Spend the money wisely. Actually I think they will. I’ve seen creative posts on UKDF. e.g. if in the sort term the RN is certain to be short of ASW frigates buy more P8s and Merlins rather F-35s and push on with Bastion; build cheaper T31 based ‘strike frigates’ and postpone the large expensive MRSS design; consider BAEs idea of making T83 a Canadian River class style broad beam derivative of T26. There are lots of ways to save money if you set your mind to it and are prepared to be flexible. Create some options.
It would be a calamity for the country if Raynor or Streeting became PM and the markets have faith in Reeves. Although he was at the end of the line when the charisma was being handed out we have to stick with Starmer; and with Reeves.
I think someone said it well.. who can have faith in a nation that changes its PM every few years.. we vote in a 5 year cycle for a reason.. the only reason a PM should be removed is for catastrophic failure or essentially trying to subordinate the constitution ( become a dictator).
However much I disliked Boris he should not have been removed. This country has had 6 prime ministers in a decade and we are trying to remove another before that decade is finished.. that’s an ungovernable country and makes us a laughing stock and seem weak to our enemies.. it’s not what are PMs are doing.. nobody gets everything right..it’s that we refuse to even allow them their 5 years before we have judged them and kicked them out. Personally I blame Cameron as he essentially started this and utterly weakened the office of PM constitutionally by walking out after the referendum and essentially going “ not my problem “…
Just consider the before 2016 it had taken 40 years to cycle through 6 PMs and that was even with the rubbish brown and disaster of Callaghan.. through the winter of discontent, the civil strife of the miners strikes, the Falklands war, the climax of the Cold War.. black Wednesday, the war on terror, the 2008 final crash.. all of that and 6 PMs in 40 years.. now we call for a PM to go for what.. we think he’s a bit crap and don’t like some of his decisions… this country is its own worst enemy…
Personally I would make the removal of a PM an act that automatically dissolves parliament and triggers a general election..that would stabilise things a bit.
Systematic distrust is exactly the problem we’re facing at the moment, couldn’t have described it better.
Part of that I’ll lay at successive governments’ feet (of both sides of the political spectrum), part of that is also because we’re running through a phase/cycle in public life where views are becoming a lot more polarised. Couple both with the far greater reach and visibility of news and media, and you get a far more difficult situation.
All that said, Starmer and team have done an awful job in showing they have a put together plan for anything- including the DIP. Which should/could be a flagship piece for them, bringing security and economic boosts in one. But they’re hamstringing themselves with fiscal rules which even a Tory government would be hard pressed to maintain, and so are dithering and circling around each other in a trap of their own making. I’m not Labour or Tory, just for the record- I see the positives and drawbacks of both (or at least I like to think I do…!)
Great to hear that HMS Cardiff is afloat. That’s 2x T26 and 2x T31 afloat and 3 of 4 kitting out.
Next step for HMS Glasgow sea trials and HMS Belfast floating off….fingers crossed.
I admire your enthusiasm and also look forward HMS Glasgow joining the fleet. Just make it happen sooner please.
Yes. This is a good news story and should be celebrated as such.
If it isn’t already, I would like to see legislation that makes it a “Criminal Negligence in Public Office” offence for Governments to underfund UK defence to the point that our armed services fall below a specified threshold. To leave us in a dangerous situation where our ability to defend ourselves is in question, should send politicians to prison. It was enormously and seriously short sighted of past Governments to believe that we can spend the peace dividend, and that there won’t ever be wars again – Dumb thinking.
Most people don’t care about defense.
That’s very true, including MPs, until, of course, the bombs start falling on us, or Internet services go bye bye due to cut cables, or cyber attacks.
In the end that is why we have parliamentary democracy and not direct democracy.. Parliament is not there to please every all the time or even the majority.. it’s there to make hard Decisions and then at the end of five years justify the totally of its decision making on balance to the electorate.
‘DefenCe’
I would not make it a criminal offence to underfund.. because you can fund and then the lot can go on graft to the MIC and incompetence.. look at the U.S. it pumps vast amounts into its nuclear submarine programme.. it has a mandate of 66 SSNs but but 2035 it will drop to about 40ish it’s not a funding issue.. the money has closed the companies are making profits the orders are stacked to the gills..
In the end government cannot control a market driven sector that is also essentially a close monopoly ( and MICs are close to closed monopolies) so funding legislation becomes irrelevant.. you legislators say it’s law to spend xxx billions on warship capitalisation.. the companies that build your warships just go… ok it costs xxx to build 2.
Now Italy has a way.. its military shipyard is governor owned.. not run but owned and it’s laid down legislation on minimum ship building targets.
You make a compelling case that funding alone is useless if the delivery mechanism is broken. The US submarine backlog is a perfect example: massive budgets, but a monopoly-driven bottleneck where money just piles up as corporate profit rather than capability.
However, I don’t think we have to choose between ‘criminalising political negligence’ and ‘fixing the industrial base.’ In fact, I’d argue we need both to prevent a hollowed-out military:
The Political Layer (Accountability): We still need a legal or constitutional floor for defence spending. Without it, politicians will continue to raid the ‘peace dividend’ for short-term popularity, leaving the industrial base starved of the long-term certainty it needs to invest. Criminal negligence laws (or at least strict statutory mandates) force the decision to prioritise defence, even if the execution is flawed.
The Industrial Layer (Structure): Once that funding floor exists, we must fix how it’s spent. As you noted with Italy’s state-owned shipyards, sometimes the market fails because it’s a closed monopoly.
Hybrid Models: We could look at ‘strategic nationalisation’ for critical bottlenecks (like nuclear subs or missile production) while keeping non-critical sectors competitive.
Capacity Mandates: Instead of just funding projects, legislation could mandate capacity. For example, ‘The government must ensure X number of shipyards remain active,’ effectively subsidising the infrastructure even during peacetime to keep the supply chain alive.
Public-Private Partnerships: Recent US reforms are pushing for ‘co-development’ and shared risk, where the government owns the tooling/facilities but private firms run operations. This prevents the ‘hollowing out’ where companies shut down lines because they aren’t profitable enough in the short term.
So, my proposal evolves: Legislation that makes it a crime to underfund AND mandates that a portion of that funding goes toward maintaining sovereign industrial capacity (state-owned or subsidised), not just buying finished goods.
Yes it needs to be very robust..lots of different layers.. maybe we need a defence law of some description.. a test in parliament or the courts where the government can be challenged if it’s failing in basic standards.. as an example the DIP is a failing of what could be a basic standard.. must have a robust plan in place agreed by parliament by month x of a new government.
Lots and lots of interesting and to be truthful diverse opinions on the subject. Noted the comments on increasing “mass” with additional vessels. Not Naval expert by any means, but if mass were increased how the hell are we going to man the things. Recruitment is deffo struggling and the demographics show less interest or even willingness to serve. You don’t just “suddenly” accrue the required skill sets and training to do the myriad different tasks required from any of our service personnel. I used to be mob many years past, and it was considered that whilst you may have passed out as it were, it was roughly 3 years to be considered anywhere near useful or had your feet under the table.