One of the Royal Navy’s new Type 26 Frigates is to be called HMS Cardiff, the Defence Secretary has said on St David’s Day.

The frigate will be built at the BAE Systems shipyard in Govan, Glasgow along with her sister ships HMS Glasgow and HMS Belfast and will be the second to enter production as part of the £3.7 billion contract for the three ships, announced by the MoD in 2017.

Eight Type 26 Frigates are to be built in total with three int he first batch, the contract for the second batch will be negotiated in the early 2020s. Ordering in batches is common for projects of this size around the world and was last seen with the Royal Navy for the Type 45 Destroyers and recent Offshore Patrol Vessels. The Type 45s first batch order was for three vessels for example.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said:

“The Type 26 Frigate is a cutting-edge warship, combining the expertise of the British shipbuilding industry with the excellence of the Royal Navy. These ships will be a force to be reckoned with, there to protect our powerful new carriers and helping keep British interests safe across the world.

The contract is structured to ensure value for taxpayers’ money and, importantly, now designed to protect them from extra bills from project overrun. The investment will secure hundreds of skilled jobs at BAE Systems on the Clyde for the next twenty years, and thousands of jobs in the supply chain across Britain.”

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
Twitter

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

66 COMMENTS

  1. Presumably all the others will also take their names from major cities – though it seems a bit early since the Type 42’s only paid off a few years ago.

    • Apart from Belfast and Cardiff, I think they will all be named after the Type 42’s which we’re Sheffield, Birmingham, Newcastle, Coventry, Exeter, Southampton, Liverpool, Nottingham Manchester, York, Gloucester and Edinburgh. But I think London may also be added, would like to see Sheffield and Coventry being at least 2 of the 5 left to be built. But we’ll need to wait a few years for that

  3. The other 5, what are everyone’s thoughts on their names. I am thinking London, Manchester or Liverpool, Newcastle, Southampton and one other, maybe Sheffield, Nottingham, Coventry or Plymouth. Depends on what areas of England they want to see represented.

  4. I wonder when we will get an English name for the City class.
    Happy to have Belfast and Cardiff- next should be London and then I guess Edinburgh or Glasgow-with a quick rename if the Scots vote for independence.
    Just wish we could reverse the decision to purchase only 8 of these ships. They will no doubt prove very capable and potentially war winning vessels. Shame BAE can only make a major warship if the price is over a billion £ each
    Other potential names- there are obviously loads but in terms of RN history I would go with
    Liverpool
    Manchester
    Plymouth
    Gloucester
    Newcastle
    Exeter
    all good names with proud RN history attached- just need more hulls to attach the names too.

  5. Personally I don’t like ships named after places. Sure it gives it a connection to that city but who really thinks of HMS Cardiff or HAS London and thinks it’s an impressive name for a ship? Think about the incredible names we’ve had in the past.

    Warspite
    Ark Royal
    Royal Oak
    Vanguard
    Hood
    Invincible
    Albion
    Soveign

    And that’s just to name a few. At least they got some good names for the Type 45 and Astute class. But this is just my opinion really.

    • Some great warship names there, Lewis. At least we’ve got an Albion. I don’t mind the city names, they’ve got a proud and long tradition in the RN. But as you say its all about opinions.

      • Albion is very personal to me as my Grandfather very nearly lost his life in the launch of the last Thames built one. Indeed my aunt was named after the guy who pulled him from the water. Always shiver a little when I hear that name but in a good way it reminds you how fragile your e is trance is. For related historical links I love Warrior too and indeed the name Thunderer even Black Prince its sister ship even if only its engines were built locally. See the logic for city names but it’s really just a political thing and sniffs of condescension to me in all honesty.

    • Dreadnought too although one of the new submarines will thankfully be named that. I hope they name one Warspite too. Nelson and Trafalgar would be great names too. Victory is also a great historical name but that great ship is still in commission.

          • Totally agree but again political considerations have clearly overcome that one with reverence to the Royal Family. Would be nice to be a bit more imaginative and less reverential in my opinion it’s almost like they feel like they are herding sheep terrified we won’t buy into the status quo if they stop reminding us. Equally how tempting fate is it to name our ships after the head and head in waiting of our state. Now if it were named HMS Blair or HMS May people would be less upset at its sinking so maybe they have missed a trick there.

            I guess Nelson and Trafalgar have been sidelined by our desire not to upset the French for similar political overtures that seem to dictate our naming procedures. As he is at the heart of everything British maybe we should have HMS Shakespeare though more seriously on that theme Tempest would be my request which would then perhaps take us laterally into the area of other small effective fighting machines (Sea)Fury, Spitfire, Hurricane even Tornado and Typhoon or is that a step too far to contemplate for the navy.

            Keeping to the fictional side what about upping the HMS Enterprise name up the ranks especially as it’s forbear is shown on the credits of one of the Star Trek spin offs. Imagine the potential for recruitment when it attends the Trekkie conventions. Add HMS Defiant or even HMS Klingon and the possibilities are endless. What an alliance that would make.

    • Stuart, the ship is named after Queen Elizabeth the FIRST, hence the Tudor symbol on the bow. Yes it is likely no coincidence that the name was chosen with our current monarch in mind, but considering thay the Royal Navy wanted to name the ship after another capital ship, I.e. Battleships and Carriers, It had just as good a chance as any to get chosen with the previous Queen Elizebth class battleships and HMS Prince of Wales. I find you decrying of it as ‘herding sheep terrified we won’t buy into the status quo’ as not just wrong but insulting.

  7. I want HMS London next.

    We have the main cities of the other nations of the UK.

    What is the betting that never happens?

      • Geoffrey. Long time no post?

        Yes Plymouth would be a worthy name considering the Type 12 HMS Plymouth Saga.

        I don’t recall an HMS Portsmouth either. Is it even a city?

        • Good to be back Daniele. I’ve been a bit rough since the New Year.. Aussie flu and one or two other family things.
          The Type 12 “rescue” was a fiasco. Too few people with their own agenda and a disinterested council. My company offered to help and it was like punching water. A sad end for what could have been a cracking visitor attraction.

  8. Daniele, I agree that that a ship should be called HMS London. I suppose the capital will have make do with HMS Westminster for the present.

  9. They are going for naval towns. The first four are some kind of unity type thing. Next one will be London or a major English naval city such as Portsmouth.

  10. Due to the outstanding performance in the recapture of S Georgia it should be named Plymouth
    Not that im bias of course (lol) but Plymouth has such a maritime history in the founding of the UK as a power and the exploration of the world

  11. HMS Chelmsford? New city and would honour the link between Marconi (now bae systems) and royal navy over the years with radar.

  12. Not a city I know for T26 but would love an HMS W Churchill.

    That would piss off the oh so patriotic PC masses in our country.

  16. True story from Durban South Africa. There was a German builder developing a new area in Westville Durban just after the War(WW2). He wanted to name the streets after decidedly Germanic symbols but the Anglos who very much held the whip in those years said”Not on-name them after RN Ships”
    so he did-and we got Hood Barham Warspite Coventry and Revenge-all sunk by the Germans!!

      • True but the engagements between these RN and German Naval units resulted in considerably more points for the opposition and the story is broadly true. I live a few kilometers from the spot. You can see the streets named on a map of Westville-Google it

        • Should have let him name them lots come to mind Pommern, Bismark, Scharnhorst, Graff Spey, Tirpitz any number of Uboats fit the bill. Even Gneisenau was left for salvage by 1943. I guess it’s how you look upon it in the end sailing the seas despite the dangers doing your job or staying in port in fear of the psycological blow of the effect of their sinking while politically playing up the myth of their invulnerability. In the end even that proved fruitless to RAF bombs.

  18. HMS Glasgow, HMS Cardiff, HMS Belfast so far.

    For the remaining hulls:

    HMS London, HMS Plymouth, HMS Gibraltar, HMS Stanley, HMS Portsmouth

    (Wouldn’t mind a HMS Truro though!)

      • As a Glasgow man I’m happy and settled, but London should be up next, and would like Plymouth and Portsmouth in there at some point. Would like Barrow too (just count it as a city as a sign of gratitude…)

  20. I think our fighting vessels should have fighty names, Hms Fury, invincible, Devestator etc. City, river etc names should be for rfa’s, support and mine hunters.
    The name should strike fear into our advisories.

    • Star Destroyers in the Star Wars saga had those sorts of names. There you go. Devestator being one.

  21. Do we know how the T31’s will be named yet? If not, will it likely be County again?
    If they don’t arm them properly, we have the ‘Chicken’ class as they’d always have to run away from the fight!

    • I’m in favour of the Arrow class.

      HMS Arrow, HMS Antelope, HMS Ardent, HMS Avenger, HMS Alacrity

      Lets have some hulls named for those that fought and were lost in the Falklands.

      • Leander for me which is why I am irritated at Cammell Laird and BAE Systems for using that name for that offering as I think it weakens the chanced of it being used if they don’t win.

  23. HMS Hood……really??????!
    Magnificent ship that she was……there’s soooo much history there. Let sleeping dogs lie.
    All up for city names though.

  24. I recall a recent article in Navy News discussing the naming of recent and forthcoming Royal Navy Warships and Submarines and it set out the criteria for the Type 26 City Class Frigates and said that these would be named after UK Cities that have a have a history of being major Commercial Ports.

  25. Has anyone lived in Barrow? Ulverston, Kendal, Bowness, Ambleside, Keswick but Barrow ffs? Penrith and Carlisle… actually, Carlisle is a dump with more retards than Workington, Whitehaven, Millom and Barrow put together.

    How about Royal Marine training areas? They will be carrying embedded units as the Royal Navy shift from crom the LPDs.

  27. After the Type 45s all had names beginning with ‘D,’ I was hoping that the 26s were going to follow that theme. ‘E’ would be the logical one but personally I think ‘I’ has the best names.

    As we’re getting 8 ships how’s;
    – Indomitable,
    – Inflexible,
    – Indefatigable,
    – Invincible,
    – Illustrious,
    – Incomparable,
    – Irresistible,
    – Implacable.

    All historic ship names can you believe…

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here