HMS Bulwark is to be sold to the Brazilian Navy, the Ministry of Defence has officially confirmed, formally closing more than two decades of Royal Navy service for an amphibious assault ship whose disposal had been expected for some time.
The department published the confirmation on Friday, framing it around the transition to a new fleet of amphibious transport ships being developed with the Netherlands under a £2.4 billion partnership signed in July.
Lord Coaker, Minister of State for Defence, said: “HMS Bulwark served this country and our allies with distinction for over two decades, and I’m pleased that she will continue her story in Brazilian service, with a nation that has long stood alongside us as a defence partner.”
He said: “This partnership with the Netherlands marks a real step forward for our Armed Forces, giving our personnel the modern, interoperable capability they need to operate alongside our allies for decades to come. It’s also a vote of confidence in British shipbuilding, backing the skills and shipyards that will keep our industrial base strong and our nation secure.”
Bulwark was commissioned in 2005 and based at HMNB Devonport. She served as Fleet Flagship between 2011 and 2015, supported the evacuation of civilians from Lebanon in 2006, and provided maritime security for the sailing regatta at the London 2012 Olympics. Her sister ship HMS Albion remains alongside at Devonport pending disposal.
The decision to retire both ships was announced in November 2024 as part of a package of early withdrawals intended to free money for other priorities, and interest from Brazil has been reported since. Friday’s announcement puts the government’s name to what had until now been expectation.
Under the arrangement with the Netherlands, each nation will operate four of the new vessels. The ships are to be 160 metres long and displace 15,000 tonnes, capable of carrying troops, vehicles and equipment including drones, and are to be built in British shipyards working alongside Dutch industry in a programme the department says will sustain hundreds of skilled jobs.
Their flight decks are being designed around current and future long-range drones and autonomous systems, which the department presents as part of the wider move towards a hybrid fleet, with £1.5 billion confirmed for the amphibious programme in the Defence Investment Plan.
Brazil already operates the former HMS Ocean, sold in 2018 and now serving as the Atlântico, so Bulwark would join a fleet with existing familiarity with British amphibious practice and equipment. The Brazilian Navy has been rebuilding its amphibious and expeditionary capacity around that ship.
The Royal Marines have meanwhile been reorganising around the Commando Force concept, which emphasises smaller teams operating from a wider range of platforms rather than the large-scale landing the Albion class was designed to deliver, and the new ships are being specified with that in mind.
Ah, another ship that this government stated wouldn’t put to sea again.
I wonder how many years she’ll continue putting to sea with Brazil?
Quietly forgotten by most, but not all, at what they said, what they then say, and the spin, lies, and half truths they regurgitate on a regular basis.
👍
So true DM. The British policy of writing off military assets before a direct replacement is available is simply crass and there is no other way of describing the policy. On a day that Russia openly talks of a war between them and the UK, which is all but real, apart from a formal declaration, the government carries on as if we live in pre-Ukraine war times.
This same government reassures the people of British towns that manufacture drones, need not worry about their safety after Russia declares all such sites as legitimate targets! Am I missing something here?
You’re not missing anything.
They’re all words, I won’t vote for any of them until they’re not and the forces start to expand, but with welfare and vote chasing being the number one priority nothing will change until we’re caught with our pants down.
By then, the recriminations, excuses, and “lessons learned” will no doubt be in full flow amongst the grandstanding.
Then you will be waiting a very long time pal because we won’t be seeing announcements like 25k increase in Army numbers or 150 additional Ch3s or RN Escorts back up to 30+ or a big increase in fast jet numbers. Capability will increase. But like many nations around the globe, it’s acknowledged that recruitment is very difficult in this modern age. I would love to see those kind of announcements, but the way we would fight in a future conflict is not how it would be done under last org structures. We have always centred around capability. Because some very hard lessons have been learnt over the decades. When we had impressive sounding numbers but were equipped with crap kit. The RN was very poorly equipped during the Falklands, the quality of our people got us through it, not the quality of our kit.
It’s just been reported that Healey’s first budget is ignoring the promise of 3 per cent on defence by 2030. Apparently there will be an anouncement of a “pathway” towards it in the 2027 spending review! More lies and deception ? I think so .🤔🙃
Can kicking, it’ll carry on as 3% is unaffordable without cutting waste and welfare, which they will not do as it wins votes.
Of course it will. I am constantly amazed as to how many people believe this crap. Our forces are closer to extinction than salvation.
Spot on, would have the funds to keep our ships in our own hands if the authorities stopped spending so much money on taking care of the ilegal migrants and asylum seekers
There never was a promise of 3% for 2030. 2.6% was the promise, and a pathway to 3.5% for 2035. We need to be at 3% but it was never a firm commitment or a promise.
That may be Robert but Healey resigned over the fact that he said we needed to be at 3% by 2030 and that Starmer and Rachel from Accounts wouldn’t. To me, Healey has lost all credibility.
So much for Streeting’s friend for defence…..
Maybe we should wait until the budget rather than just speculation. We have to remember their are lots of demands on the economy and government departments
Per the UKDJ article of Sep 3, Forces recruitment exceeded losses in the year to June 26. Streeting on TV this morning quoted defence spending risen since the election from 2.3% to 2.7% of GDP. Govt are turning around MV UK oil tanker in the face of significant economic and social headwinds: no prison places, Trump chaos, Ukraine, not enough homes, not enough reservoirs, not enough gas storage, too much debt. I don’t think people realise just how bad a state the Tories left the country. Lots of people are looking to kick us while we are down. I see Milei has latched onto Trump’s ‘review of the US neutrality position’ on the Falklands. Get a couple of the new frigates in service and Astutes at sea and the RN picture looks a lot different. Ditto for the army as a reliable Ajax and RCH 155 artillery deliveries kick in. Lots of sensible decisions being taken e.g. boom refuelling for big RAF planes; big money being spent on bases and infrastructure, long range missiles and OWE drones. The next 12 months will see significant increases in capability.
A sad but inevitable day and now it is quite clear that with the adoption of the Netherlands ATS programme which are likely to be based on nothing more than a modernised Bay (Enforcer) design, that all the BS written about the Albions being obsolete can be seen for what it really was – total lies to justify a cost saving cut.
We are not getting some revolutionary ‘strike’ vessels but an amphibious transport that will have a couple phalanx bolted on that could well end up being RFA crewed.
The best amphibious troops on the planet are currently hamstrung with no ‘real’ amphibious shipping or modern landing vessels and are going to be sadly screwed by this decision unless the ATS design proves to be something far more capable than currently indicated.
Spot on
We didn’t have enough crew from them. Simple as that. These vessels don’t go far in Brazilian service.
So we are changing strategy/doctrine to match low force numbers, rather than ensure we have the force numbers to match our strategic requirements. We can however man 2 Carriers to accomodate the perceived influence that provides? It seems to me the argument around force numbers vs. Asset viability is somewhat circular and self fulfilling TBH
Yes, it looks that way does’t it? But isn’t the truth that the decision to sacrifice the Albions in order to fund the carriers was made years ago?
Yes it was. It was either crew both carriers, or crew one and a Albion.
The RN sold down the river by the weak liberal governments we have had these past years. She will soldier on for some years yet and Brazil will have an Amphib force way better than the UK. We are truly becoming a 3rd world state in every way possible. Drones? not going to work either and will cost as much as a regular manned warship to operate. Sad times ahead for once the master of the world seas.
You are absolutely clueless. Another moaner
Really? Clearly you never served at the pointed end of conflict. UK and the likes of you deserve what it gets in future and it is a dark one coming. Kindly leave military matters to those of us who actually live in the real World. Proud of my service but not of the services today. Plonker.
14 years in the RN Fleet Air Arm. What did you do? Serve in the Scouts. You’ll be another one who comes and goes. Talks some crap, then disappears. Just like all the others.
Wow so your served (but did you go on real operations?), well done sonny. But some of us did a a tad more and served through a few conflicts too, so talking from actual experience. So do us a favour and go play with your petrol pigeon in the garden and leave the hard stuff to those that know what they are doing……………
Nothing new about any of this news.
Time to move ahead and look to the future. That future by the way is very exciting, even revolutionary.
Most revolutions end in abject failure.
Letting assets go without the replacement in place is not a good idea. We can have many sea worthy ships left in the RN can we? Good job we are not at war or under any imminent threat!
is right caused me considerble
all plastic
plas tuiqe for girls
life insurance these ppl dont like pay out judication up
im proud of you yes full body comicon ok maybe not
If the UK government (of all colours) really wanted to save money they would cut out all of the “middle men” in each and every department like Capita who are in bed with the DWP, MoD, NHS and are acting on behalf of No 11 Downing street to reduce costs but are just increasing costs and delaying payments. Then we have companies like Reed who are trying to replace Universal Credit (UC) all they are doing is adding cost to the system. If we look at how 99% of private companies operate they keep in mean and lean with little to no middle management as they cannot afford to waist money.
The end result of all this “extra management” is there is no money at the end of the chain for the workers or the people needing the money or for the investment in equipment needed to do the job.
The UK is still a rich country that is why 100’s of 1000’s of migrants come to our shores to leach off our good will but if we are to have an effective economy IE able to deliver for the people of that country we have to get rid of the layers and layers of middle management then we will have money for new ships and their crews and money to invest in the infrastructure to support the MoD, NHS, DWP.
Be careful if any serious offers come in for any of the aircraft carriers. This government would be happy to sell at least one.
Governments will only wake up to the threats facing the UK when it is too late. 1936-38 all over again but this time the UK will not prevail. We need to spend 5% now not in 10 years?
Right now we don’t need Albion or Bulwark and we do need their crew. We need to do what we are doing; upgrade the T45s, conserve the best of the T23s, get the T26s into service asap, sort out the Astutes and find the best way to make use of the Bays, the R2s and T31s.
You have very low expectations because we actually need every military asset we can bring to bear. It seems our ‘strategy’ is total reliance on the Ukrainians (it is cheaper for the Treasury after all) and our allies. It is unlikely RN escort numbers are going to go get above a dozen before the mid 2030s and the Astute’s are unlikely to increase in availability much before then either (there is a substantial refit backlog). It’s a frightening situation that many in the U.K. seem to accept or are oblivious to.
Just being realistic. Our priorities are Cabot, Bastion and UK economic area sea bed. HMS Albion crew roughly equivalent to 2x T26 or 3x T31 or 3x Sterling Castle. I know it’s not that simple but you get the idea. We shouldn’t be in this situation but we are where we are. No point in crying over spilt milk.
Unfortunately for our politicians like a few people I have a memory longer than a Goldfish and to quote our Government less than 9 months ago who were spouting that ‘we are now on a war footing’. Is this the actions of Government who seriously believe this?
I totally get your point but please remember we now only have 11 escorts from a stated requirement of 19. One of those 11 hasn’t left the dockside for years. So where are those sailors from those missing escorts? and we have also lost 1 LPD, 1 LPH and countless MCM vessels.
Something is very wrong
And yet Healy now he’s Chancellor of the Exchequer has reigned back on the 3% comitment he supposedly resigned over !! Those of you that aplauded him for his ‘integrity’ on resigning must feel.bloody stupid now. His only driver was to undermine Starmer in order to get the useless Burnham in via his coup d’etat , it was nothing to do honour or integrity whatsoever-He is naught but an absolute hypocrite!