The Ministry of Defence does not want to extend the life of the Type 45 destroyers and would rather spend the money on new technology, with £1.5 billion set aside in this Parliament to initiate hybrid Navy projects, according to evidence given to the Defence Committee.
Air Marshal Tim Jones, Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff for Force Development, was giving evidence alongside Wes Streeting, the Secretary of State for Defence.
Jesse Norman, the Conservative member for Hereford and South Herefordshire, asked about the timing of the Type 45 replacement. Jones said: “As you know, the Type 45s are due to start going out of service from 2035. At the moment, we have started investment in a hybrid Navy alternative for that. You probably heard the First Sea Lord talking quite passionately about his vision for a hybrid Navy. The early investment that we are doing is to get those projects up and running so that, by the time the Type 45 starts going out of service, we have a hybrid replacement for that capability coming into service.”
Asked whether the current ships would have their lives extended, Jones said: “We don’t want to extend the Type 45. Rather than extending older platforms that cost a lot of money to run, we would rather spend the money focusing on new technology. That is what the First Sea Lord wants, and that is what we are aiming to do.”
Pressed on whether a capability gap could open before the hybrid Navy is established, Jones said: “We have almost 10 years to get the Type 45 replacement up and running. We are in a world where we are seeing innovation moving quickly and the market being disrupted by start-ups and new tech companies.”
Norman asked for reassurance that adequate capability would cover the gap and more by the time the class is retired, and Jones said: “We will.” Asked whether the replacement would be comparable or better, he said: “It should be better, because new technology will come online, and the aim is to do that in a more effective way. As to when the transition happens in detail, that is what we are working through at the moment. We do not want to extend Type 45. It is clearly an option, but it is not part of our plan.”
Luke Pollard, the Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, told Andrew Bowie, the Conservative member for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, in a written answer in July that detailed planning for the transition between Type 45 and the hybrid Navy maritime air defence capability would be done with industry, “which will determine whether a Type 45 extension is implemented”, and that “a final decision is not expected until 2027-28.”
Answering James Cartlidge, the Conservative member for South Suffolk, in August, Pollard said the Defence Investment Plan contains “a specific funding line within this parliament to conduct a study” covering “whether a life extension will be required”, and that this “will be assessed in 2027-28”, as this publication reported at the time. Jones did not mention the study to the committee, and Norman was pressing on exactly the transition it exists to examine.
On funding, Jones said: “We have £1.5 billion in this Parliament set aside for initiating hybrid Navy projects, and that project team is standing up now.” He described it as a start, and said it is by no means the limit of investment.
He told the committee that the Royal Navy is “already almost on contract for an uncrewed surface vessel; the competition is in the final stages, and the results of that will be announced soon. That vessel will be in the water next year, so we are getting on with it.”
The Royal Navy operates six Type 45 destroyers, which provide the fleet’s area air defence through the Sea Viper system. The Defence Committee reported this week that it is not persuaded the Hybrid Navy allocation will be sufficient to develop, procure and integrate its five planned classes, which include a crewed Common Combat Vessel to replace the Type 45.
Streeting told the committee that innovation always involves risk and that politically “we need to be more comfortable than we sometimes are with carrying risk.” He described the First Sea Lord’s hybrid Navy concept as “genuinely world-leading” and said counterparts are actively tracking it.
There’s a plan???
You might think so – but I couldn’t possibly comment.
Does Anyone have confidence in MOD supplying this Hybrid Navy Concept taking into account its Previous track Records and numerous other botched building Projects..!!
Convenient cover for money saving Cancellation of t83 by Starmer…!
Why do we seem to be the only NATO country that does not seem to see the need to invest in AAW destroyers (that has them)? Are we taking too much risk on a unproven technology that other more prudent countries are not prepared to make. Seems the MOD is playing at a high stakes table when it comes to our security. What do we do when we have bet all our money on red and it comes up black. Surely we need to have a working proof of concept before taking such a risk. Seems politicians are happy to gamble with the country’s security and money that is not theirs. Something’s never change!
Passion is what matters…
I don’t think France is planning a dedicated Horizon replacement yet but a MLU? But them they have Aster 30 on more platforms , including the FDI, much wider landscaping based GBAD and a carrier with Hawkeye.
Others are those. I think unmanned will be add ons to big Air defence vessels.
No one believes this is choice, not budget driven though. The RN chose 2 large carriers over escort numbers. The SSN dock modernisation is a vastly expensive project, let alone Dreadnought. They now have to sing the tune.
French Horizon MLU i think 2028 and 2030, Italian 1 year earlier plus they will build DDX or should i say CCX…
Seems to be a massive rush to hybrid and what about all the millions being.spent currently on the T45s? Doesn’t seem like they’re getting good value if just for next 10 years. Why not have a mixed fleet of T83s and complementary T91/T94s? Is the hybrid fleet going to be as effective over longer deployments and if they also need a tender/mothership is that going to be a hindrance to ops? Can you imagine port visits and having to park all these bits and pieces of a hybrid fleet. And if one piece breaks down will that reduce the effectiveness of the whole?
The new hybrid fleet AD system absolutely must start to be fielded in 2035 then. I doubt it will be!
Maybe the inbuild T31s could also get a bit of a AAW upgrade to their capabilities for bit of a gap filler?
So Brazil has a requirement for some Type 45s from 2035? Suppose we could get a couple of million each for them and Brazil should get a few years service.
In 10 years the UK has just about built one Type 26 anti-submarine platform largely based on existing technology. To suggest we will develop the new Hybrid Navy using wholly new technology based around multiple new platforms in the same timescale is absurd. What is really scary is the people in charge will hamstring the limited remaining capability. This guarantees the loss of one of the few remaining ‘real’ capabilities starting in 9 years, unbelievable. The alarm bells are ringing, but no one, bar the Defence Select Committee, notices.
Move along there. Nothing to see; just the RAF doing what it does best, try and sink the Royal Navy. I’d actually forgotten the RAF had a man in charge at present.
This sounds less like new information, and more akin to a repetition of the ‘Hybrid Navy’ mission.
Knowing our luck they’ll get retired without replacement like everything else these days. Probably replace them with a few speed boat drones with LMM.
The fools have decimated every facet of our once glorious armed forces. This would be a final nail in the coffin of the RN – gone from the ruler of the waves to a Maritime defence force that is akin to Spain with nukes
A 26 year life span for such a high end asset is unimpressive. The Americans have 35 year lifespans for the AB destroyers.
With so little seatime across all 6 Type45s,LIFEX is a nobrainer..MK41 VLS,Dragonfire,command hub for Type 90s drone vessels,5inch gun?.AType 45 could act as a command vessel for unmanned.Can anybody see any real chance of these Common Command ships being built.At least the 45s are already in the water.
Look at the Polish version of T31/A140 & you will see a budget air defence ship that is better than some glitching drone stuck in limbo. A bird in the hand…….
Astute. Type 26. Type 31. All moving at glacial pace. There’s not the remotest chance a replacement that doesn’t even exist yet will be ready by 2035!
Then get on to make absolutely certain we have the next generation fleet air defence replacements ready to come into service before/as the T45s have to be retired. Don’t make the insanity of replacing the T23s happen again. We’ll need more of them this time as we have all the needs for the fleet including 2 large carrier strike groups to protect.
Unmanned sounds great until major parts of your capability suffer damage or breakdowns at sea & there’s nobody on board to effect repairs.
Even in 2024, it had become obvious we would need a plan to extend the Type 45s. Just adding up the time it takes to decide requirements, put it to competition, agree the final design, build and work up the first ship, it was already too late to gamble on getting the first ship ready to replace the destroyers. Only a variant of a current design could have been built that quickly, and T83s were not going to be that. So here we are two years later with no agreed requirements and still no plan to Lifex the destroyers, not even just in case. We have an acronym though. CCV. And that will count when a war kicks off: nothing more important than a cool project name and an acronym.
Omnishambles dectector is glowing red!
About time MOD grew up and was honest with itself. It has a long history of utter FU’s and this is going to be another. The best thing they could do is extend the Tyoe45’s!
Whilst drones could be useful adjuncts in ASW, AAW is a very different situation needing high power radars etc. If it is ever solved drone-wise it wull be a decade plus before it is mature ( likely longer). Extending the T45’s would give time to see whether it is feasible.
Really? You don’t like Mr Streeting’s cunning plan then? Automated turnips and Mr Cockup come to mind. It would seem that politicians, more than ever, feel they can just say whatever they like. Whether it’s vaguely true or will happen doesn’t seem to matter anymore. The T45 will need to be extended, we may even need another fully manned replacement! The First Sea Lord’s plan has more holes in it than a swiss cheese. Which will all be blamed on something or someone else come 2035.
The real problem is the senior leaders of the armed forces. They drive procurement decisions while ministers just spout whatever is written for them. If poor decisions have been made( they have), the responsibility lies primarily with senior officers.
The ambition for a hybrid navy is being driven primarily by the current RN leadership not by politicians.
Britain has had 15 defence secretaries since 2000 . With such short terms in office, what could they be expected to achieve, even if they were knowledgeable and competent?
It might be time for Defence ministers and planners to get real. Fantasy budgets, armanents, out of service and in service dates. Just makes a mockery.
I really do encourage people to get a transcript off the UK Parliament wesite > Business > Committees > Defence Committee Oral evidence transcripts. There is a lot to learn there.
Direct Link you can access the document repository on the Defence Committee Oral Evidence Page, where it is available to view in both HTML and PDF formats.
Change DOT back to a period, and hit enter to go straight to the official transcript.
parliament DOT uk/oralevidence/18111/html/
Evidence session titled “The work of the Secretary of State for Defence”:
Session Date: October 13, 2026
Publication Date: October 14, 2026
I’ll get round to having a good look over the weekend.
T31 – delays
T26 – giving slots to Norway
T23 – knackered, rotten keels
T45 – rarely at sea, PIPs costing years and a fortune, dont want to extend.
Come 2030 we will be an island with no navy
There may come a day when someone is at the wheel, but it is not this day.
Do I detect a LOTR quote in there?
Yeah, you know it’s getting real when Aragorn enters the chat.
It’s close to the film LOTR black gates quote “ Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers! I see in your eyes, the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand! Men of the West”
But in the books it was never made.. as they were all just getting ready to hold and die for time.
“Little time was left to Aragorn for the ordering of his battle. Upon the one hill he stood with Gandalf, and there fair and desperate was raised the banner of the Tree and Stars. Upon the other hill hard by stood the banners of Rohan and Dol Amroth, White Horse and Silver Swan. And about each hill a ring was made facing all ways, bristling with spear and sword. But in the front towards Mordor where the first bitter assault would come there stood the sons of Elrond on the left with the Dúnedain about them, and on the right the Prince Imrahil with the men of Dol Amroth tall and fair, and picked men of the Tower of Guard.
The wind blew, and the trumpets sang, and arrows whined; but the sun now climbing towards the South was veiled in the reeks of Mordor, and through a threatening haze it gleamed, remote, a sullen red, as if it were the ending of the day, or the end maybe of all the world of light. And out of the gathering mirk the Nazgul came with. their cold voices crying words of death; and then all hope was quenched.”
In the books they were nothing more than a final last stand to desperately distract from what was itself a desperate forlorn hope.
Ah, another Tolkien fan I see! Good.
Quite, that stirring Aragorn speech is what I was referring to.
The books would have been impossible to create accurately in films, I think the films are great, sone purists complain.
The films are in truth a marvel and keep the core adventure part of story well.. but they don’t quite capture the desperation of the books, the ultimate story of the destruction of everything good and the suffering that time and history force on the world as the world changes utterly and everything is destroyed and forgotten.
But Arwen went forth from the House, and the light of her eyes was quenched, and it seemed to her people that she had become cold and grey as nightfall in winter that comes without a star. Then she said farewell to Eldarion, and to her daughters, and to all whom she had loved; and she went out from the city of Minas Tirith and passed away to the land of Lórien, and dwelt there alone under the fading trees until winter came. Galadriel had passed away and Celeborn also was gone, and the land was silent.
‘There at last when the mallorn-leaves were falling, but spring had not yet come, she laid herself to rest upon Cerin Amroth; and there is her green grave, until the world is changed, and all the days of her life are utterly forgotten by men that come after, and elanor and niphredil bloom no more east of the Sea. Here ends this tale as it has come to us from the south; and with the passing of the elevenstar no more is said in this book of the days of old.”
Ultimately the lord of the rings is about the death of an age.. at the end of the late modern period and transformation into post modern age. Written by a man who had lived through the killing fields of France and started in 1938 as the world was again about to fling itself into destruction and darkness.. but it’s about the death of an age and the March of history.. as Tolkien famously said if it had been about WW2 Gandalf would have grabbed the ring,nuked Mordor and Bugger the consequences.
I first read LOTR in 1981. The Fellowship of the Ring from the Commodore 64 adventure. Still have the book too. I agree the books would require a 10hr film. Although I found them excellent for teaching my son to read. There are some real tongue twisters in there.
This is all going to end in disaster for the Royal Navy and the British People.
We will have our backsides handed to us on a plate.
We’re doomed, I tell ye! Doomed!
Clearly the lesson of having all your eggs in one basket has not been learned by the Lordships at the Navy.
What could possibly go wrong,
I used to say that to my children “ it’s not my preferred option to feed you Burger King, but eat your burgers”.