The recent steel-cutting ceremony for HMS Formidable, the third Type 31 frigate, is especially significant as the programme to build 13 frigates on Scotland is now over halfway.
With this latest development, there are currently seven Royal Navy ships under construction in Scotland.
This includes three Type 31 frigates: HMS Venturer, HMS Active, and HMS Formidable, as well as four Type 26 frigates: HMS Glasgow, HMS Cardiff, HMS Belfast, and HMS Birmingham.
These ships, built in Scotland, are supporting thousands of jobs and will be a critical part of how the Royal Navy keeps our country safe.
2/2 pic.twitter.com/bX6Xm2msOr
— Scotland Office (@ScotSecofState) October 8, 2024
The Type 31 frigate, also known as the Inspiration-class, is a class of general-purpose warships being built for the Royal Navy. Developed under the Royal Navy’s “National Shipbuilding Strategy,” the Type 31 aims to provide a versatile and cost-effective platform, complementing the more advanced Type 26 frigates. Each vessel in the class is designed to displace around 5,700 tonnes, with a length of approximately 138 metres. The design focuses on modularity, allowing for adaptability in various roles, including maritime security, disaster relief, and low-intensity operations, alongside its core warfighting capabilities. With a focus on export potential, the Type 31 is intended to be an attractive option for allied navies seeking a capable yet affordable frigate.
In terms of capabilities, the Type 31 frigate is equipped with a range of sensors and weapon systems suitable for multi-role operations. It features a 57 mm Mk 110 naval gun as its primary armament, complemented by 40 mm cannons for close-range defence. The frigate is also fitted with the Sea Ceptor surface-to-air missile system, providing area defence against airborne threats. Additionally, it is capable of deploying a range of smaller boats and unmanned vehicles from a spacious mission bay, enabling flexibility in tasks like boarding operations or mine countermeasures. The Type 31’s flight deck can accommodate a medium-sized helicopter, such as the Wildcat or Merlin, further enhancing its reach and capabilities for anti-submarine warfare, search and rescue, and reconnaissance missions.
The Type 26 frigate, also known as the City-class, is a class of advanced anti-submarine warfare (ASW) vessels being built for the Royal Navy. Designed as part of the Royal Navy’s modernisation efforts, the Type 26 is intended to replace the ageing Type 23 frigates, particularly in the ASW role. Each ship in this class has a displacement of around 8,000 tonnes and measures approximately 149.9 metres in length. The Type 26 is characterised by its focus on stealth, featuring a hull design and noise-dampening measures to minimise acoustic signatures, making it highly effective in detecting and countering submarines. The first four vessels, HMS Glasgow, HMS Cardiff, HMS Belfast, and HMS Birmingham, are currently under construction, with with the work on the rest of the order at various stages of procurement.
In terms of capabilities, the Type 26 frigate is equipped with an array of advanced sensors and weapons. It is armed with a 5-inch Mk 45 naval gun, providing long-range fire support, and is equipped with the Sea Ceptor missile system for area air defence. For ASW, the frigate carries powerful sonar systems, including a towed array, and can deploy anti-submarine torpedoes. The Type 26’s mission bay is designed to support a range of operations, from humanitarian aid to counter-piracy, allowing for the deployment of unmanned systems and small boats. Additionally, the flight deck is capable of supporting a range of helicopters, including the Merlin, which enhances its ASW and reconnaissance capabilities. With its combination of advanced systems and modular design, the Type 26 is intended to be a versatile platform that can adapt to a variety of operational demands.
We should match that with 7 in England, 7 in Wales and 7 in NI. Good for jobs.
None of it matters until we can recruit and retain crews. Money needs to go into shore infrastructure, base housing and pay as a priority over everything. That applies to all 3 services.
Valid points however it is pointless recruiting unless they have ships to sail.
In truth with each new design the necessary crew is likely to fall. That is the nature of things nowadays. The remuneration should be rising rapidly as the level of skill needed increases.
I’m convinced there is a a minimum crew you can have onboard based on vessel size regardless of automation due to damage control issues. Technically you could have 3 people on board to cover the watches if you went mad on automation, but it would be a one hit-kill vessel, or pirates will steal it.
I’d prefer there to be a surfeit of staff competing to be sent to the ships/squadrons/deployments rather than kit rusting away. Let the biffs rot at home on a lower pay grade.
Interestingly if you remove the people from the ship and put them in a control room half a world away it allows you to remove all the things that would attract pirates. Control over the destination, weapons etc. Even the air, food etc. could be removed. That would make damage control that much easier as a lack of Oxygen would starve fires etc.
My understanding is that reducing the crew to zero is gaining traction in the commercial sector with prototypes being tested. The RN adds a further level of complexity but in theory …
Merchant ships proceed between ports meaning they can be refueled and repaired on arrival. We would need a network of friendly bases to make large unmanned warships work. May be good in 40 years but unlikely till then.
The company in question are using redundancy as the main strategy for avoiding problems with kit. If one piece of kit goes wrong there are 4 waiting to replace it. These guys are thinking out of the box.
Crews are already stretched in terms of the right specialists etc. spread across the fleet; we’ve had a T45 and (I think) a T23 tied up over the last several years due to insufficient crew for them before we even get to new vessels. I agree that we need more hulls, but crew is the first task in my opinion. I did the maths the other day, comparing the required crew for a T26 vs T23, and I think you needed something like 7 T26 hulls before you made up the “extra” ship’s complement compared to a T23. And again,… Read more »
I think what I am hinting at is that crew sizes are set to fall with each new ship type and therefore that will solve the problem in part. As the skill level increases, which it will, then the RN will require better and better qualified and trained people and will be given the excuse to massively increase pay.
The bigger issue, is that because we’ve let the service stagnate for so long, once these works complete there is going to be a significant downtick.
UK Yards don’t win much international work, and the RN won’t be buying much of anything other than the Type 45 replacement, and not for a while at that… So what will these yards do in the meantime?
If we had been more proactive, a ship would roll off the line every 18 months or so in perpetuity and you wouldn’t necessarily need to ‘surge’ up to 7 at a time.
To be fair we are short at least 6 destroyers. We also need to work at streamlining the build process to reduce much of the cost and keep improving the quality. I also believe that these drone things will become a force multiplyer and we will need ships to move them around the world.
That’s a bit of a defeatist attitude. Using just the facilities that will soon be available we will be able to build four ships at a time. We really need an extra six destroyers as a minimum. Plus we are going to need drone carriers of various shapes and sizes in order to control this side of the Atlantic with more needed for Pacific if the Government want to keep us in that game.
I absolutely agree, having this capacity to build ships at this rate (4 at a time) is excellent, but I simply do not see a landscape where MoD and international orders keep them going at this rate. As soon as orders begin to slow the cuts to the yards will start, or the work will be slowed to a crawl.
In the current climate (under Labour) we have a Government who must be seen to be defending the country, following the Tory committment to ship building and supporting our allies. For Labour to deny the reality of a second cold war (at best) would surely guarantee defeat at the next election.
Once a drumbeat of shipbuilding has been established a cost of 2-3 billion per annuum on new ships will fit nicely into the budget. Unions will be happy as will industry.
Alas, when it comes to Shipbuilding, Scottish jobs are always the priority.
Ah but I wasn’t suggesting less ships were built in Scotland just simply more were built elsewhere. The order book is full to bursting in Scotland.
More needed. Can we squeeze any further type 26 out of the programme? Or additional batch of 5 more type 31s? Possibly optimised for surface strike with a 5 inch main gun and 16 NSM cells +/- LRASM?
If anymore Type 26s can be squeezed out, they’ll be going to Norway.
Totally agree. Norway are about to spend a fortune on defences
And let’s face it – a Norwegian ship is almost a direct enhancement to the RN!
Indeed if we go to war that region will be the number one priority.
Well Norway are about to start paying 2%. That said to achieve that they will probably need to buy a load of stuff off the shelf
I think with the MK41 VLS on T31s LRASM should be possible, I am siding with the choice of 57mm and 40mm cannons though, because in the age of drones/swarming they will be more effective than a 5 inch main gun.
Why LRASM?
FC/ASW will be along before too long and be a local missile.
We got lucky with the gun armament, for the modern threat environment with that and CAMM they are among the best defended ships (ignoring VLS count) out there.
Not when drones start dropping missiles out of range of 57 or 40mm
So they shoot the missiles instead…
That’s an interesting developing threat that is yet to be fully defined. Useful drones with missile launching capability are likely to be quite large in a naval environment where range will be an important factor for most of the time but not to be presumed as totally predictable especially over time. And there lies the calculations of a whole range of conflicting scenarios to get the right balance. Flexibility and a range of weapons are thus required with a good number where possible. And sensible use of your ships to suit environment too no doubt.
A drone that can do that would probably be treated like manned aircraft that can do that. CAMM, CAMM-ER and ultimately CAMM-MR would be used. Missile-launching drones won’t be magically cheaper than SAM missiles.
As usual silence from the SNP, I suppose their not interested in good news.
Doing what they are trying to do., they will never a cknowledge. Carry on w/o them.
“With a focus on export potential, the Type 31 is intended to be an attractive option for allied navies seeking a capable yet affordable frigate.”
Yes, I’m sure other countries will be champing at the bit to spend £250m on a frigate with basically no weapons.
24 cell Mk41 VLS + Sea Ceptor + 8 NSM is no weapons?
That is a very heavily armed frigate.
Don’t forget the ’57 mm Mk 110 naval gun as its primary armament, complemented by 40 mm cannons for close-range defence’.
Aside from what Supportive Bloke said:
You know countries decide their own weapon fits right?
Hi mate are you getting replies now?
No, sadly not it seems.
Exactly, a fair amount of potential and flexibility in this design and compares well to European designs I would say.
Try to keep up. They will be better armed than a T23 except S/L AS torpedoes.
Replying to my own comment to say I was well out of date on this one, didn’t realise we were getting the VLS. Much better.
Getting and staying free is not cheap. But all should be built with a view to export options.
I think the image of Venturer above is from April, would be good if Babcock released photos of the build progress each month
Recent article on Navy Lookout suggested that the focus is on fit out at the moment so not much to see externally which might explain the recent reduction in photos…
Cheers CR
What makes you think it’s from April?
Similar photo shots on other websites
Google this: “The Princess Royal visits HMS Venturer in Rosyth” scroll down these photos were taken in April and it looks like not much has changed
I took the photo yesterday morning.
Ok, happy to be proved wrong.
Other reports did claim that they as a result of concentrating on internal fit out, not painting the outside as due to the work being carried out would only mean further coating before launch anyway.
No you’re not lol
So all we need now is a complete, brutally honest rethink, Serving Personnel driven, debate and discussion, as to how we attract new recruits. How we retain service personal. How we treat service personnel. How to improve their
Pay
Conditions
Accommodation
Health Care
Etc
Etc
Etc…
Having seen little to no ‘desire’ to do any of those things thus far, maybe we need to look at completely autonomous ships and subs for starters.
When anyone leaves the forces (certainly by PVR anyway) they fill in a form which asks for their reasons for leaving. Also there is the annual Continuous Attitude Survey by serving pax. The info has all been there for years and years.
Not hard to turn those reasons for leaving and reasons for dissatisfaction into solutions.
Hi Graham I am well aware of the ‘form’. It’s useless, and it is almost pointless (I say almost, in order to maintain ‘an element’ of fairness and constructive input) It is merely a ‘tick box’ exercise, allowing those who have to perform this function, the opportunity to get it over as painfully as possible. Senior Military, the MOD… ergo Government in most cases, have little to no interest in these ‘surveys’. If they did, why has little changed for the ‘ordinary’ grunt, sailor or ‘Air Recruit’. (although historically, RAF personnel were better looked after than Army) Focussing on the… Read more »
Have you checked out Ameca and Azi robots in conversation I foresee them fighting over who will be taking charge in a few years when these ships enter service. Could all be a bit ‘left hand down a bit’ if others are familiar with the dated reference.
If a Serving Personnel driven debate for say ,snr rates and Jnr rates were too take place .The hierarchy would if the answers, were not to their liking, deem such debates as mutinous .’ Make do and Mend’ is the mantra with the added bonus of ROMFT ,roll on my Fxxxing time. .Sorry Tom, the Jack in me came out.
About time too.Lets get ship building back across whole of UK.North east ,belfast scotland and stop the steel plant s closing good jobs for people of scotland england wales northen ireland and in a very uncertain world improve our security and try too incentivise our young people to join the armed services
40 and 57mm rapid fire guns are OK for short range engaging of targets, but of no use where a larger calibre gun is needed for engaging other warships at longer range or for naval gunfire support. The Type 23 frigates should all have been replaced one for one with type 26 frigates. The Type 31 is just a poor man’s replacement; they are much lighter armed, less capable and much cheaper than the Type 26. CHEAP is the operative word. The Type 31s are not a direct one for one replacement for the Type 26. Even the older outgoing… Read more »
57mm and 40mm rapid fire guns on the Type 31 frigates are OK for dealing with short range targets, but they are of no use when the need arises to deal with large surface targets (warships) or for providing naval gunfire support. The Type 31s are really cheap and not so cheerful alternatives (with CHEAP being the operative word) to the much more expensive and far more capable Type 26 frigates. The older Type 23 frigates should have been replaced by the Type 26s on a one for one basis, but the government chickened out and opted for some of… Read more »
Is that a bow sonar I see in the picture?
No.
What’s the bulbous thing at the front then?
Simply a Bow Bulb – the design ( and funding ) didn’t stretch to fitting a Bow Sonar.
Dam! I got my hopes up for a minute there.
Is that a bow sonar I see in the picture?
No RFA no navy , simple as that .
Can’t recruit and retain .
Treated like 2nd class citizens , paid less ,4 moth rotations .