The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that the Royal Navy currently operates eight active Type 23 Duke-class frigates, with six deemed at readiness for operations as of 2 April 2025.
In a written response to a parliamentary question from Helen Maguire MP (Liberal Democrat – Epsom and Ewell), Minister of State for Defence Maria Eagle outlined the status of the UK’s major frigate classes, including the newer Type 26 City-class and Type 31 Inspiration-class vessels.
“The Royal Navy operates eight Type 23 Frigates, and as of 2 April 2025, six Type 23 frigates are at readiness and available for operations,” Eagle stated. She added that individual ships follow standard operating cycles that include maintenance and scheduled upgrades.
Three additional Type 23s — HMS Westminster, HMS Argyll, and HMS Northumberland — are currently in the process of being decommissioned. The decommissioning timelines were also confirmed: it has been 321 days since the decision to retire HMS Westminster and HMS Argyll, and 133 days for HMS Northumberland.
The retirement of these legacy vessels forms part of the UK’s wider effort to modernise its surface fleet, with the Type 23s set to be replaced by the upcoming Type 26 and Type 31 frigates.
According to Eagle, “All eight world-class Type 26 ships are scheduled to enter service commencing from 2029, with all five Type 31 ships expected to be operational by the early 2030s.”
The Type 26 will offer advanced anti-submarine warfare capabilities, while the lighter and more versatile Type 31 will focus on general-purpose tasks, global presence, and forward deployment.
17 in 2010.
Should be a national scandal, but too few care or probably even notice.
There appears to be a renewed interest by the public in defence, at least to a point. The issue is the media does a very poor job of explaining issues and/or the public isn’t that interested in the details. Luckily there is no realistic threat to the UK currently that would require a navy and nothing really on the horizon.
Clear horizons indeed, Apart from a load of cruise missiles armed Russian submarines and surface warships, its long range aviation.. attacks on shipping interests from the eastern Mediterranean to the western Indian Ocean.. attacks on undersea infrastructure etc etc etc..
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You should be blocked!
I have complained, even offered simple solutions, they didn’t like my tone \o/
Ain’t that the truth. If you listen to any of the BBC’s ‘defence correspondents’ for example, they are utterly clueless.
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Toxic masculinity is Britain’s main problem according to the BBC
No threat till one appears that you didn’t foresee!
In most polls people do support increasing the defence budget.
Unfortunately too many stories have been run on MoD waste rather than on ‘what amazing value T26B2 are’ compared to their AUS or CAN cousins!!
If Norway selects T-26, could BAES realistically satisfy the in-service schedule requirements of RN and RNoN for T-26 simultaneously? Even w/out fiscal constraints, there is an upper bound in production capacity. Would a favorable RNoN decision be a blessing or curse? 🤔😱
Im sure BAES would bite their own hand off for a Norwegian Type 26 order,and our Govt would be pretty pleased too.Delays would result in some ways but it would be worth it in the end,and with what has been previously noted they will be Operating in the same areas anyway for the most part.
I’d suspect the Norwegians would want to build at least some of their T26s in their own yards. Maybe the first 1-2 in Govan while they spin up the production if they’re in a hurry.
On the Clyde, BAE’s Glasgow facilities have space to assemble the hulls of three new Type 26 frigates simultaneously ….. two in a new covered Build-hall and one outside on the hard-standing.
Hull sections are built in Glasgow, but also sub-contracted to Cammell Laird (Liverpool) and Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow).
Manpower could be an issue – but additional recruitment and masses of overtime might be a fix.
The thing is it depends on your perspective and it helps if you just step back and think outside the simplistic single state Nationalistic viewpoint.
Just ask yourself a question can you see the U.K state going toe to toe with Russia on our own in the Atlantic and off the North Cape ?
If the answer is no (we aren’t that silly) it will involve NATO (but possible without the US) then what really matters are the numbers of assets available, their capability, interoperability, training and resilience.
So if it’s ASW warfare it comes down to ASW Frigates, SSN’s, MPA, interdiction against support /C2 and underwater surveillance.
So it actually doesn’t matter if Norway orders 5/6 T26 Frigates from BAe and that slows down the delivery schedule of the 8 the RN have in build / on order. In fact it’s not a bad thing at all, but a real positive.
Many people in the U.K. will not see this, but overall short term the ability to fight a common enemy is no worse off, better off in the mid term and potentially far better in the long term.
Bae have spent a fortune modernising the facilities and have been quite upfront that if the extra orders happen they can speed up the delivery schedule to 1 pa. The only reasons they aren’t is the schedule of payments and they’d run out of work, they are delivering to the agreed UK MOD schedule.
So what does that look like ?
Short term our RN Frigate numbers may drop but we and Norway will still get 8 T26 between us in the same (or shorter time scale). They use the same weapons, sensors, train together and operate in the same waters so what have we lost overall as an alliance ? Nothing, in fact we are slightly better off.
Mid Term we end up with 13 T26 Frigates between us and those extra numbers mean a quicker and more efficient production run.
Long Term that may just lower the cost per hull enough for us to be able to order a couple more and if Norway orders it’s optional 6th then it’s now up to 16.
So other than a few upset politicians we all end up better off and a lot safer.
And then you have to consider the missing link in this little story the RCN on your side of the pond are building 15 T26 derivative CCS so it’s not too shabby at all at 31.
As an aside the US tends IMHO to forget its allies even more than we do, I sometimes wonder if it’s Nationalism or a way to get as big a budget as possible out of congress.
So can you see US at war with China and Japan, S Korea and Australia joining in ? I can’t, but it’s handy to forget them.
For instance when the USN is screaming about the size of the PLAN and their lack of sufficient Submarines or Frigates they tend to just compare the numbers like for like.
They never mention the fact that the USN outnumbers China in SSN about 10:1 or that Japan, S Korea and Australia can match the PLAN SSK numbers 52:52. Same with everything else, when you add on what your Allies have it’s about evens on numbers, but with tactics, tech and training I think that edges it.
Hmmm…per suggestion w/in Dern’s response, have discovered that BAES has signed an MoU w/ Norwegian shipbuilder Hamek re collaboration on a possible T-26 order. BAES is attempting to score as many wicket points as feasible. 🤔😉
Re Derns reply. Yes BAe has signed an MOU of understanding with Hamek, but Hamek is a maintenance and support company. If you read the MoU it is for them to build new facilities to support those ships in the future (probably a large covered dry dock).
So we now have BAe partnered with Hamek (T26), TKMS with Ulstein Verft (F127) and then we have the odd one which is the Constellation class offering from Fincantieri. I say odd because it’s a USN mod of the Franco / Italian FREMM class and Fincantieri owns VARD.
The Norwegians want an off the shelf design and an industrial partnership with a close allied nation. This strategic partnership is to include joint acquisition, operation, maintenance, continuous development and upgrades of the new frigates
So as it would cost a fortune and delay the ships I’d be seriously surprised if the hulls are built in Norway as they would have to build / recruit / train a large Naval shipbuilding industry pretty well from scratch.
Improve cammellaird to full production again
Apart from the rise of a belligerent ruZZia & the unpredictable USA threatening the withdraw from Europe as they pivot to face 1 major foe, China. They have stated clearly they can no longer fight a conflict on 2 fronts simultaneously. Mind you without a credible AM defense in the UK all our ships at port, air bases, barracks and infrastructure are sitting targets.
Surely there is always a threat. Houtis attacking British shipping off the Red Sea . A very hot cold War with Russia with constant naval activity including sabotage . The Falkland islands and other territories require defending . And of course China who are constantly expanding their Blue water navy with increasing presence in North and South Atlantic . China alone is a reason to double ship numbers to protect UK trade which we rely hundred percent on the Seas
We need the numbers of 1980, not patrol boats acting like frigates, even in 1982 we had to draw on frigates from the reserve fleet
Imagine the USA no longer exists as a friendly force and is at best, completely indifferent towards Russia’s continued wars. Perhaps, in time, even hostile towards Europe.
What then – do we still have “clear horizons”? Will they remain clear until the cruise missiles hit HMNB Portsmouth? Then should we invest in our Navy? Or is it still technically a Hybrid war until they land in mass? Maybe then such drastic action as a 0.5% increase in defence spending should be encouraged.
And in 2005 it was 20…
With the frigates I give it an 80% conservative government fault and a 20% labour… with the destroyers I then reverse that and make it 80% labour 20% conservative…
My big concern is that so far no T23s have lasted 7 years beyond their lifex and that means of those 8 that are left there is a very reasonable chance that as each one hits its 6/7 year post lifex refit it will be beyond economic repair and the RN losses 1-2 a year until they all disappear in 2031.. at which point the RN will have a couple of T26s and maybe 3 T31 operational.
The T23’s simply weren’t designed and built for more than about 17 years service. I thus tend to accept the official line that refitting Westminster and Northumberland would have been too expensive to justify. Not so sure about Argyll, not enough info in the public domain.
Ultimately the root problem was the cancellation of the Future Surface Combatant project in the November 2004. The first FSC was supposed to enter service in December 2015, and about one a year thereafter – replacing initially the 4 or 5 remaining T22’s and then the T23’s on a one for one basis.
In the end it was manageable up until cam/os delayed the ordering of the frigates in 2011..because essentially the treasury insisted on a cheaper smaller design.. if they had cut steel in 2011 and full funded the project for speed of delivery we would have seen the first new frigates in the water in 2020 and commissioned 2 years ago with a new frigate every year or so after that…
we need an act of parliament for the minimum level of our armed forces
Agree . Some nations have a minimum spend set in stone . Naval ships should also have a minimum number as the uk rely entirely on sea routes for trade and food supplies
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Hahahaaa who will serve ? The government’s have alienated their recruitment base, the working class lads of the 70s and 80s, and none of these immigrants would sign up ????
The Chileans have no issues with their T23s?
They don’t do much
Hi rmj, they underwent a local modernization process with Lockheed Martin
https://www.infodefensa.com/texto-diario/mostrar/3128058/nuevas-capacidades-fragatas-type-23-armada-chile
What a waste of money.
Spot on… unfortunately.
it is a scandal and the fault of Every GOVERNMENT since the 1980’s
shocking and embarrassing.
Hi DM. Hopefully we may have some pleasant news from SDR 25. A big defence increase in NZ this week – an additional nz$12 billion over 3-4 years. Includes strike missile capability for the 2 frigates and the P8s. Other new projects include replacement ASW helos, and investment in swarm drones.
On a side note in AUS, the leader of the opposition (Peter Dutton) is pledging a fourth F35sqn for the RAAF, if he wins the upcoming election.
Agree but why are we telling all the world what should be. Secret? Why is this banal MP wanting all to know.
One has to wonder is it too late to reverse the decision to de com Argyle after a £100 million refit ? Was she really that bad, was it down to crewing issues or is it the MOD Mantra to never reverse or question a bad decision ?
I agree this decommissioning of every T23 after its post lifex refit is destroying the surface fleet.. it’s reducing mass to such an extent that the RN is not going to be able to regenerate crews even after it gets new ships and those crews it generates will have lost the RNs edge.. as one US admiral put it.. mass is a requirement for quality, without mass you cannot deploy and exercise and so become a poor quality navy.. you cannot essentially preserve quality by constantly reducing mass as in the end quantity disappears.
Thing is ships like T22 you could have extended hull wise. Very solidly built to last.
T23 just wasn’t built or maintained like that.
There is another issue which is the technology gap between T23 and T26 that is mitigated by having obsolescent equipment in T26.
my brother in law is a dicky in Pompey naval base and said that the alleged conditions of the type 23 class are greatly overstated and that they are nowhere near as bad as they are made out to be. he also said that Montrose was drydock ed before being dumped in Fareham creek and found to be in sufficiently good condition to remain in service smoke and mirrors? or has someone got a different agenda. we have a history of retiring ships because of money not long ago the whole type 22 frigate class went almost overnight. ark royal was retired 5 years before her due date ocean was sold and didn’t need to be. the naval department of the MOD IS NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE and it should be culled. and replaced by us lot on here.
I would suggest it reflects a lack of sailors particularly those with key skills such as engineering. Whilst the overall headcount might not have seen to dramatically drop the retention of skilled and experienced people has been a real problem for the Navy. There is still no sign of an improvement and blaming the younger generation for not wanting to join masks years of cuts that have been the root cause.
Below inflation wage rises since 2008 won’t have helped with retention of engineering posts when they can get commercial jobs with close to 50% of time at home.
Maybe the Royal Navy should have it’s own complete Government department, like in past?
Own seat in Cabinet as well!
shockingly bad situation. Cant do anything about it now but lets hope SDSR and the bean counters in Whitehall find additional funds for more frigates then the 5 type 31s and 8 type 26s under construction.
6 may be technically available (St Albans and Kent are in refit) but Lancaster is being flogged to death in the Middle East and is due to leave service later this year, whilst Iron Duke has been worked hard around the UK and has gone in for some maintenance. With Richmond off on the CSG deployment that leaves 3 to play with.
Given what’s happened with Westminster, Northumberland and Argyll id have serious concerns around whether the 6 remaking ASW examples in particular are going to last until the 2030’s.
The RN is basically down to two DesRons for fleet escorts now, and it this is terrible. A far cry from the 70-80s, when it had around 46 fleet escorts.
👍Exactly, I agree for an Island nation, appalling!
But….5 batch 2 Rivers performing roles that historically needed a frigate; and 6 available is almost 50% of 13 so we are scraping through. Looks like this is the nadir….Venturer and Glasgow not to far away.
Unfortunately not as if we keep losing the T23s at the historic rate ( 6/7 years after lifex) then by 2031 there will be no more T23s and the operational surface fleet will consist of 2 T26s and maybe 3 T31s…
Hi, I follow your numbers and projections; it will be a close run thing but I am looking wider. Firstly, I note the contribution of non US allies to escorts for CSG 2025; the fruit of relationship building. Secondly the partnership with Norway on P8 and the German purchase of P8 will result in a large P8 fleet. Thirdly we are seeing the long awaited availability of Astute numbers. Fourthly the new frigate builds look to be well managed and I suspect they could be brought into service earlier than we think if necessary – RN sailors shadowing T31 Venturer build for quite a while. So overall I see low risk that the UK will not be able to fulfil our NATO obligation for North Atlantic ASW. The RN has not pushed for R2 upgrades because they believe T31 will arrive on time.
While progress on the Type 26’s is pretty well known, Type 31 is still something of a Curates Egg – we all await with bated breath when she is moved out of her Build Shed and is shown the water for the first time.
Curates Egg ….agile and adaptable, right 😂
When she is rolled out maybe we will finally see whether the number of Ceptor cells is 12 or 24. More interesting is whether there have been any changes to the mission bay and boat bays. It looks like T31 will have to live up to its designation as ‘general purpose’ and be patrol frigate, MCM mothership and mini MRSS rolled into one.
I think frigate destroyer building is finally in a decent place , its just 5 years behind . And hopefully the momentum will continue. I really do think the govt should place a new order for t26 and t31 now to demonstrate a commitment to increase the critical mass of the navy which will obviously be too small during t26 t31 completion
An accurate assessment I think. Since October 2024 I count 3 govt ministerial visits to Rosyth. The govt has chosen defence industry as one of the 6 sectors of their growth strategy for the economy. They want creation of skilled jobs, an expanded domestic supply chain and exports. Hopefully the RN will get a few more ( well equipped) frigates. At the risk of being cynical I see the RN GP frigates as the Babcock technical sales force 🙂
“…I really do think the govt should place a new order for t26 and t31 now…”
Any new order now for extra T26’s, will not be available for service until after 2035.
Extra T31 as an ASW variant could be an option?
Physically perhaps, but Operationally a different kettle of fish.
Physically perhaps, but Operationally, a different kettle of fish.
6 may be technically available (St Albans and Kent are in refit) but Lancaster is being flogged to death in the Middle East and is due to leave service later this year, whilst Iron Duke has been worked hard around the UK and has gone in for some maintenance. With Richmond off on the CSG deployment that leaves 3 to play with.
Given what’s happened with Westminster, Northumberland and Argyll id have serious concerns around whether the 6 remaking ASW examples in particular are going to last until the 2030’s.
Both T26 and T31 Progress news is a little quiet at the moment, anyone have any updates ?
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Great photo of Montrose – she looks like a proper good-old-fashioned warship that you wouldn’t want to mess with when she comes charging over the horizon!
So sick of this legacy crap . What they mean is 8 out of date worn out long overdue for replacement frigates . Legacy just means worn out ..if they were new they’d be pretty good still. Could always put the rubber boats in the Chanel into service .. already have plenty of crew on them.
Would be nice if mod committed to further 3 t31 ASAP in defence review! And commit to t32
‘If I should die, and be opened, the reason will be graven upon my heart, want of frigates’
Less escorts than Greece, Spain, Turkey, Italy, France…..It can still be reduced further, wait for the strategic defense cuts (review)
You’re not including the destroyers, so it’s not less than a lot of those. Not that it’s great
Yes, of course I include them. 6 Type 45s + 6 Type 23 = 12 escorts. All of those countries have 12 escorts (including destroyers and frigates) or more. Forty years ago, Britain had more escorts than any of them. Very sad and pathetic.
We have 14. Those countries don’t not include their ships in refit lol. Otherwise we’ve only got 2 destroyers
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Shocking!
Just 6 frigates to police the oceans looking for Putins subs , he must be shaking in his boots. What has our once proud Royal Navy been allowed to shrink to by our clueless politicians . We should have a surface fleet 3 times what we have not this pathetic number
“…Lancaster is being flogged to death in the Middle East and is due to leave service later this year…”
Argyll could be fit enough for GP service in the Gulf? While Iron Duke could be given TAS next year or in 26?