With the recent news that Rosyth will build a warship for Ukraine, the total number of warships being built in Scottish shipyards between 2015 to 2035 now stands at 24.
In addition to the now built 5 Offshore Patrol Vessels, there are plans for 8 Type 26 Frigates, 5 Type 31 Frigates, 5 Type 32 Frigates and 1 Ukrainian warship to be built in Scotland.
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Click the below table to enlarge it.
A Ukrainian warship?
Ukraine previously signed a memorandum with the UK to secure £1.25 billion in funding to build new military vessels for the Ukrainian Navy, the first ship will be constructed in the UK and the remaining 7 vessels will be built in Ukraine.
Type 32?
The new Type 32 Frigate will be built in addition to the Type 26 and Type 31 Frigates in the hopes of bringing the escort fleet up to 24 vessels from its current 19.
The Defence Secretary previously confirmed that Rosyth will be building more vessels than previously planned, with the Type 32 Frigate going into built at the yard after the Type 31 Frigate build finishes.
Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, recently stated that Rosyth would be building Tytpe 32 Frigates in addition to Type 31 Frigates.
“We are committed to building the Type 26 in the United Kingdom; it is under construction on the Clyde. In Rosyth, work is ongoing to build the facility needed to build the Type 31s and the subsequent Type 32s. He also knows that I recently recategorised the future Fleet Solid Support ship as a warship. I intend to make sure that, if not entirely, there is a considerable degree of UK build in that process, subject to tender. I have to be cautious about the contract, because the competition is to begin soon—very soon.”
According to the recently released ‘Defence Command Paper’, the Type 32 frigates will be designed to protect territorial waters, to provide persistent presence overseas and to support Littoral Response Groups.
The first mention of a new Type 32 frigate came in the Prime Minister’s 19 November statement. He said: “We are going to develop the next generation of warships, including multi-role research vessels and Type 32 frigates.”
The Defence Command Paper, titled ‘Defence in a Competitive Age’, describes the planned programme:
“Type 32 frigates, designed to protect territorial waters, provide persistent presence overseas and support our Littoral Response Groups.”
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And there’s already tweets going “nut tru contracts for 26 b2 frigates not signed yet” being posted I bet.
Rosyth may not get the chance to build ships for Ukraine if USSR invade ,hope it doesn’t happen but not looking good .😕
Aren’t the Russians demanding we stop supplying Ukraine
After what there did to us in 2018 why should we do anything for USSR,but do think we should keep out of this one .
Seriously, the cheek of them! Why don’t they just stop their invasion and go back home!!!
I mean the USSR doesn’t exist so that’s not likely to happen.
Sorry to repeat myself but if the T31/T32s are going to be such a bargain why not build a few more of them and get the fleet closer to thirty for them”30s”?! One to three more of each anyone? Especially for monitoring ASW activity, subs, undersea cables, offshore infrastructures. And re-jig the Army Wildcats for the RN.
Perhaps not politically a good idea as we are in the throes of Covid recovery?
cf the delays building battleships around 1930?
The RN’s biggest problem for the last 7+ years has not been a lack of hulls (few though they are) but a lack of trained sailors to man what it has. Numbers have been slowly inching up in recent years – largely by robbing the Royal Marines headcount – but the decision to have both QEC carriers in service has swallowed all the gains. Adding just one T32 to the construction programme would need approval to recruit an extra 250-300 sailors or it would essentially be a harbour queen. Indeed if the next defence review – due 2015 – doesn’t… Read more »
Manning costs- and indeed availability of willing manpower to sail them.
Capability, even if the RN got that money it would be better spent increasing the capability of the ships we have, extra hulls that are FFBNW doesn’t increase the lethality of the RN as a whole.
Thanks for your replies. I find it hard to believe with the UK population of 65-70M that they can’t find additional personnel for the service’s and in these hard economic times. I don’t know if we’re ever going to get a consistent full fit out across the fleet, here’s hoping but extra ships, subs should mean more operational availability even with 1-2-3 more vessels. I agree it’s sensible and necessary to fully utilise what we’ve got first. On a separate note. I noticed a nice new image of the USN DDG(X) on news.usni.org (12 Jan) – I wonder if the… Read more »
The Iranians recently nicking one of our ships from under us demonstrates the folly of that line of thinking. The ships can be as individually whiz-bang as you like but a single ship can only ever be in one place at a time. If you are tasked with protecting hundreds of vessels in a waterway all they need to do is go for one you aren’t nearby to and they can be off and away with it before you can even reach them.
A depressingly small number, especially in light of so many hulls being under armed with the ‘equipped for but not with’ policy. Perhaps the only good thing to come out of the Ukrainian crisis is a realisation from our politicians that Cold War defence spending may need to return.
Of course of the Scots vote to leave in their next referendum I would expect all contracts to be null and void.
Permission to ask two slightly crazy questions… With the RN 4.5″/114mm Mod 1 mounts… would it be feasible to rebarrel these all to 5″? As it only a 1/2 inch variance. Could you then add a case (sabot?) to the current 4.5″ shell so that could also be fired from the new 5″/127mm guns being purchased? It would involve a lot of rework but the calibre difference is so minor it got me thinking about re-using the current gunnery system.
Apologies in advance if this is a ridiculous suggestion… Lol… and I haven’t been taking anything!