In a recent analysis conducted by defence commentator Britsky (@TBrit90), the current operational status of the Royal Navy’s major combatants has been assessed.

Today, it is estimated that the Royal Navy has one carrier available, two destroyers (one deployed, one in work-up), two general-purpose frigates (one deployed, one in work-up), three anti-submarine warfare frigates (one on operations, one in work-up, one in maintenance), and three submarines (one active, two in maintenance).

With thanks to @TBrit90 for letting us use his data,  please give him a follow.

This data is not intended as commentary, just a snapshot for those with an interest.

The Royal Navy’s aircraft carriers are in varying states of readiness. HMS Queen Elizabeth is currently under repair, while HMS Prince of Wales is undergoing maintenance. Both are expected to return to operational status shortly.

The Albion class ships are both unavailable. HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark are in Devonport, with Albion laid up and Bulwark in refit.

Among the Type 45 destroyers, HMS Daring, HMS Dauntless, HMS Dragon and HMS Defender are undergoing refit in Portsmouth. HMS Diamond is deployed in the Red Sea as part of Operation Prosperity Guardian. HMS Duncan remains active and is currently engaged in work-up exercises.

The Type 23 frigates show a diverse range of operational statuses. HMS Lancaster is deployed in the Indian Ocean under Operation Kipion. HMS Iron Duke is active in the Channel and engaged in work-up exercises. HMS Northumberland is in Devonport for maintenance, while HMS Richmond is in Iceland.

HMS Somerset and HMS Kent are in Devonport and HMS Sutherland is undergoing a longer refit in Devonport. HMS St Albans remains active and in work-up status.

The Astute-class submarines are predominantly in maintenance. HMS Astute, HMS Ambush, HMS Artful, HMS Audacious, and HMS Anson are all currently undergoing various maintenance activities in Clyde. HMS Triumph, a Trafalgar-class submarine, is active and currently deployed at sea.

A Royal Navy spokesperson told the UK Defence Journal that the Royal Navy continues to meet its commitments.

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
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71 COMMENTS

    • I thought Daring was ready to go to sea? What happened there? What about Dauntless she pranced about after a refit last year then her crew were due a bit of r&r but suddenly she is unavailable. I know Defender has just gone into refit but I thought others were about ready get back to sea. What the f**k is going on?

    • Unbelievable, first the headline is wrong, we don’t have a fleet we have a handful of broken rowing boats, second is the only way the royal navy meets anything is by having nothing to meet. We need to stop asking around, we either admit we are defenceless and allow Russia to take over or we stop wasting money on crap like diversity managers, MPs pensions, civil servants, paying compensation to women who didn’t read the news or covering up for people who knowingly send innocents to jail and get tonspend 20 percent of GDP on rebuilding our armed forces with British arms right now

  2. So few operationally ready ships, none of which are permanently stationed in Scotland which happens to have twice as much coastline as Wales & England. The Royal Navy does however currently have between 40 to 50 Admirals in its ranks. That equates to approximately 1+ Admirals for every operational or under repair ship/submarine. ‘Rule Brittania, Brittania rules the repair shipyards’ is now being sung across this once great land. As for the Admirals the just sing all the way to the bank knowing that their full salary life pensions will be paid. Don’t you just love being part of this wonderfully great Union of Equals.

  3. Fleet availability always fluctuates. You should see other nations performance. The RN is particularly good at Fleet management, considering how complex a task it is.

  6. 11 hulls available – Thirty years of Peace dividends and Treasury input will do that to you. They say once lost you never get it back, so we assume further decline?

    • Nope. With T26 and T31 orders the escort fleet will be back to 19. We just need to see a proper financial commitment for T32 to get to 24.

      • Total destroyer and frigate numbers are 15 today – already two below what was pledged in 2021.

        It is doubtful that 19 hulls will be reached before the 2030s. By that time, several defence reviews, conducted under a new Government, will have come and gone. The trend is hardly upwards.

        • Hi Roy. Yes, it won’t be until the 2030’s until we are back up to those numbers. But at least we know that the warships are on order and being built to get to that number. We probably won’t find out until the next defence review if T32 gets the full go ahead. I think what is clear. Is that they will require much smaller crews to help them become a reality. The manning pressures are not a quick fix.

      • we won’t be UP to that number because more of the T23’s Will be going so even if we’re lucky we’ll be standing still

      • unfortunately Robert if China does decide it’s going through with its invasions plans in the 2027 to 2030 timeframe and the RN gets dragged into a bloodbath in the western pacific..it will not have 19 escorts…as no one will get out of that nightmare without losing a lot of the people and ships they commit.

        • Let’s hope diplomacy wins through, and the Chinese realise they have nothing to gain from attacking Taiwan. Economic ruin is pretty much guaranteed and isolated from the rest of the world. I have work colleagues in Taiwan. Most don’t pay much attention to it all, as they have been dealing with China’s rhetoric and threats for decades.

  7. Was passing Portsmouth today and saw, with binoculars, a T45 on the quayside on the sea side of an aircraft carrier with a crane moving above its foredeck. At first I thought they were loading VLS but that spot seems too close to the carrier and the centre of Portsmouth. Does anyone have an idea of what they could have been doing to a ship nominally in refit?
    Could see other T45s over the Portsmouth buildings, some of them missing their SAMPSONs.

    • HMS Dauntless status listed as currently being in refit, despite a reportedly successful post PIP mod shakedown cruise. Re-emergent issue or NSM mod?

      • Couldn’t see exactly what was being done, being on a moving boat several miles away, but the crane was moving to and from above the foredeck. Might be that they are doing the groundwork for NSM because I can’t see another reason for using a crane in that area in that part of the dockyard.

      • After her Caribbean Deployment Dauntless entered a Maintenance period, she is at short notice to sail and now will be the first T45 to have NSM fitted.

        • It is highly likely that the crane was positioning the NSM racks and possibly canisters.

          That work can be done without interfering with the short notice to sail.

          • Thanks
            I just got VLS reloading stuck in my head and it didn’t occur to me that they would be starting to fit NSM to them
            I’ll be passing the other way tomorrow so unless moved I might get a closer look.

      • Passing back today there was rain obscuring Portsmouth, so nothing new there, but I did get to see a Point coming back from Poland and HMS Iron Duke going to work up, so no loss.

          • Yes, forgot to reply when I read it, sorry
            An excellent piece, thanks. I wish the MOD were as informative.

          • I only mention as for some reason I’m not getting notifications to replies at the moment. It’s hard to keep track.

      • What’s the crane doing then?
        You sound pretty certain, so I assume you’re right, but I was curious as to what work would be done on the foredeck.

        • She was moved to the Victory jetty a few days ago ahead of her deployment. From your description, Duncan would be the only likely candidate given the time of your post, the move and the position in the harbour.

          Honestly, no idea what the crane was doing. Duncan still has the Harpoon racks mounted but without missiles, so I doubt it was anything to do with NSM. She has just deployed. so it could literally be anything from the addition of last-minute supplies/equipment to general dockside work.

          • Navy Lookout twitter confirms that it is Duncan.
            In that case, you’re probably right about it being more menial work rather than NSM.

  8. Royal Navy snapshot review, despite the UK having the 6th Largest defence budget on earth, the RN can hardly protect it’s on shores, absolute joke.

    • Why is it a joke? Is Denmark invading us. All fleets fluctuate with availability. Ita a very complex task. T45 availability once PIP is completed, and manning ans training is now being focused towards T26.

      • I hope Denmark isn’t invading us because the RN probably wouldn’t be able to prevent them, the surface fleet is the smallest it’s ever been, let’s face it, the RN has zero deterrence factor, as proved years ago when the Iranians captured several of our sailors with impunity, (we all know they would never have tried it on with the USA) we couldn’t even muster up a Frigate the other day to shadow some Russian naval ships sailing through the English channel!!

        • We don’t always use a Frigate to escort Russia vessels in the channel, because its a decades old routine passage. The Russians can’t defend themselves against a nation that doesn’t really have a Navy. (Ukraine)

          • Putin won’t openly attack a NATO nation because of that organisation’s Article 5 and the strength of NATO as a whole.

          • Agreed. Russia will not go nuclear and would be trounced in conventional warfare. Putin will focus on hybrid warfare: e.g. attacks on undersea cables, arson attacks on Polish supermarkets, hacking the reliability and security of systems which support western lifestyle. The intent is to undermine our confidence in democratic values and governance. Health system, retail, energy, transport, service personnel and voter databases etc.

  9. 1981 December Onboard HMS INTREPID some government minister come onboard in Pompey dockyard,stating why the ship was going to be mothball or scrapped and HMS FEARLESS who was going to come out of mothball to replace us as Dartmouth Training Squadron for young officer cadets.
    He said that this type of ship was no longer required .

    1982 March Invasion of the Falklands.
    The rest is history .

    The wisdom of of our glorious government

  12. The sub fleet is a bit of a concern. Only one running is the oldest of the previous class.
    I don’t know if it’s an issue having enough maintenance staff, facilities or if the astutes just require a boat load of work to keep running. 3 of them have be out of work for over a year.

  13. The T45s have a terrible record for availability it appears over their service life. Surely they’ll be extended as miles on the clock for 2 or 3 must be minimal

  14. Hi folks hope all is well.
    Not sure if I’ve got this right. On the the subject of the subs, I thought HMS Anson was at sea testing weapons the other week? So how accurate is the listing above?
    Cheers
    George

    • HMS Anson is undergoing a post-trials Maintenance Period,there might be some ‘snagging’ to sort out but that is all.

  15. This snapshot is a bit misleading. The RN Caribbean, Falklands, Gulf of Guinea, Pacific presence, Gulf and NATO commitments all met I think; plus significant missile and engine upgrades and new build programs underway or approved. We are in a period of transformation.

    • Has the extra ship for Caribbean storm season been announced? NOAA have announced they are expecting more than double the number of hurricanes this year.

      • Good question. I think marine trackers show Argus in Singapore – next stop Papua New Guinea? And Cardigan Bay in Cyprus. Has the US Gaza pontoon been finished?

        • I think so. Whether it’s still needed as a floating hotel for Americans, I’m not sure. It would be nice to have a Bay class out there this year as opposed to a destroyer or an Antarctic patrol vessel.

          • Hardly a week goes by but that circumstances demonstrate the utility of the Bays. It will be very interesting to see how MRSS turns out. Folks are trying to design a chimera, an armed LHD that’s as cheap as a Bay replacement. Good luck with that…maybe we will win the lottery. It looks like Shapps has committed to 3 new ‘non complex’ ships….sounds like new Bays to me.

          • And an update on my “I think so” from above. Due to bad weather the Americans decided to move the pier from Gaza to the Israeli port of Ashdod. However, a piece broke off and was washed ashore together with the LCU that chased after it. I’m changing my “I think so” to “I think not”. Still no idea what it means for the Bay. The whole thing is gesture politics, so logic and sanity simply don’t apply.

  16. As GB has tried to explain countless times.
    Ships in maintenance have differing states of readiness and capability. More could put to sea if they needed to.
    So these figures don’t tell the whole story.
    Whatever, the fleet is far too small and both Labour and Tories take responsibility for that.

  20. With a nod to Daniele and Gunbuster, I have to disagree and say that the state of our Navy is deplorable. Simply not enough sailors and not enough platforms

    14 years was enough time to turn things around and improve the state of the Navy, instead we have had 14 years of decline and missed export opportunities.

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