The Ministry of Defence say that potential upgrades to the Royal Navy’s Type 31 frigates remain on the table, including options to adapt the ships for evolving operational roles.
In response to a written parliamentary question from Labour MP Luke Akehurst, Defence Minister Luke Pollard said the department keeps the capabilities of its platforms under continuous review, including the Type 31. The frigates, currently under construction at Rosyth, are designed as general-purpose vessels intended to undertake a wide range of global tasks.
“The Type 31 frigate has been designed as a capable, flexible and affordable general-purpose platform that will undertake a wide range of global tasks,” Pollard said.
He added that the MoD regularly examines whether Royal Navy platforms could be adapted to meet changing operational requirements. “The Department routinely assesses the potential merits of adapting Royal Navy platforms, including Type 31, to respond to evolving operational requirements.”
While the question specifically referenced possible enhancements for air defence or strike roles in support of carrier operations, the minister did not comment on specific capability changes. “As with all Royal Navy platforms, options for incremental upgrades are kept under regular review,” he said.
Photo Credit: Babcock, Peter Devlin
Repetitive PMQ questions to make some noise!
Well, that was always meant to be the point of the T31
Cheaper and adaptable…
Let’s get on with building plenty of them
At pace🤔
News Flash!
Large, empty hulls with lots of surplus freeboard _still_ useful for putting more stuff in. 🙄
Pointless question with a non answer.
And a few more T26s
Sadly, even in the face of current criticism of the initial T45 orders, I’m sure the same mind block will apply to a batch 2 T26. The chance of a batch 2 T31 is a higher probability, and these could accommodate advanced weapon fits from commissioning.
There already are two batches of T26.
BI was three ships @ £1.2Bn ea – because of the R&D and prototyping spend.
BII was five ships @ £850m ea
I would think that a third batch of T26’s is a racing certainty, given that the Norwegians want five. My guess is that they will get two from BII and then BIII will consist of three for Norway and two for us. I hope that the DIP, if it is ever published, will state whatever scenario is being developed to fulfil the Norwegian contract. Bearing in mind that as we all know there are eff all frigates for multiple and increasing tasking I hope that the DIP will state that the build rate will be increased, but I am not optimistic. Although thinking about it has there yet been an announcement of formal contract signing?
Also on the original topic of the T31’s I have yet to see any pictures of Active in the water, having been rolled out three weeks ago I would have expected her to be afloat by now.
Yes, there has to be another batch of T26 to fulfil the Norwegian order.
There could be good reasons for doing work on the hard before floating off.
The photo is on NL of her on the barge a day or so ago.
Just seen that, thanks!
By the time the DIP is published, it won’t say anything about type 26 frigates as they’ll all be built at this rate, even at the prest glacial pace
The trouble with what you say is that I just wish it wasn’t true!
Upgrade? If the mod didn’t skimp as it usually does on the construction to the point.we have a boat that will last a week or two before it’s half rusted it and beyond repair. As with other ships. We have an enemy too the easy, a more veligerant one to the west and a huge one to the south and we still don’t seem to understand the urgency and we aren’t spending enough or making enough ourselves we need to put another 12 or so heavily armed nuclear subs with nuclear missiles of our own design and control on board, we need a dozen nuclear aircraft carriers, a couple of dozen nuclear powered powered supply ships, more than 3 dozen nuclear powered frigates, a load of plane dropped nuclear bombs and the British aircraft to drop them (even if that means dusting off 50 or 60 year old designs because we can’t buy planes off one enemy). As for the army a, tanks and drones we are going to need multiple thousands. Get real, trump will attack us at some point for the oil millibrains refuses to believe exists. Putin won’t stop until we bloody his nose and china is about to start. If we had been strong not about weakling we would have been able to tell trump the moron to stop either of his recent wars and we would have been able to have put boots on the ground and planes in the air to help Ukraine, 80 years of not investing means we can’t and are disregarded and even directly threatened. We need to stop the wasteful spending in schools, NHS, councils and millibrains stupidities and instead build the armed forces we obviously need. Do that with UK materials and machinery in UK factories and we will have zero left to be unemployed, manning it all will moo up anyone that is incapable of operating a spanner.
Thanks, SB, I wasn’t aware of that fact.
The T31 does not have the Stealth Hull and silent propulsion that the T26 has. It would not be very effective in the anti submarine role.
Maybe they could raft the final 2-3 of this batch and or order another 2-3 with these features.
If the Norwegians only order 3-4 maybe the RN could get any spare slots. With costs down why not take advantage of the live production if they want to strengthen ASW capacity? They could also look at putting an additional mk41 on the T26s and using 2 Exls for the CAMM.
We’ll be very lucky if the DIP doesn’t cut the current numbers, plenty of rumours the navy will take the hit to ensure the budget won’t be increased and the army still gets their soldier -shaking machines.
So Pollard says “no idea” but it’ll be in ten years if it happens at all.
A non answer telling us nothing, more stalling and waffle about nothing, every day its the same. Half truth statements, re released old stories to make look lik they are doing some thing. Sad sorry state of affairs its past embarassing, shame those leaders of men/women who let it get to this state on thier watch.
Pollard BS – he’s getting a lot of practice
Or in other words, equipped for but not with ….
Does the monitoring of changing operational requirements include noticing how many countries are adding new high capability SSKs to their fleets, and then wondering what relevance a new frigate class without any organic ASW capability will have?
He is banking everything on that there won’t be a gunfight, which considering recent events in the Middle East is about as crass an approach as you will find. His own and that of his party is his only consideration and defence is not a big selling point to most of his remaining voters, especially now that the Greens are encroaching so deeply into his leftish wing.
You can see how Starmer thinks: give away the hard won Fishing to France and hope they want us back in the EU and they might even be nice to us and have us there on holiday. Same with The Chagos Give Away. Buttering up the Southern Hemisphere and China. More Overseas Trips and Holidays. No hard deals in return to gain proper advantages for the UK. In fact we have been ruthlessly snubbed by France and China as they have sussed how weak we are.
I personally think that some ssk along the lines of the Dosan Ahn Chango would be a great addition to the fleet. The current plans are to have 12 AUKUS, but instead I think we should cut that down to nine and use the remaining money to buy some ssk. Under a basic assumption the AUKUS will be the cost of an astute accounting for inflation, for three of them we would be able to buy 7.5 Chango. Even if we can only get six that would still give us 15 submarines instead of 12. And 5 in the water instead of 4.
If using them in the North Sea none of the advantages of nuclear really apply that much as it’s not a deep ocean nor is the range very high. But it would allow us to build submarines more often, give submariners a short deployment, better for training. And if we ever need to quickly build as many submarines as possible we already have an existing design to do so with.
There’s UKs BMT Vidar 36 design and TKMS 212CD and SAAB A26 made in Europe. Spoilt for choice a bit. SSKs might be better suited for coastal and regional infrastructure patrols and working with current drones freeing up SSNs for hunter killer roles.
I think yesterday’s PMQs summed up the overriding stance of this Govt and PM. Total deflection, inconsequential, unrelated and unspecified promises and attacks on those asking rather poignant questions for daring to doubt his competence. I would say he is taking it to an art form but it’s far too unsubtle for that. Scary days as there is not even a Chamberlain around let alone a Churchill.
Click bait.
Better start thinking what is required, fund it and get the wheels in motion. Far cheaper to incorporate during built stage rather than wait for a refit or CUP. Plus need a decision which is something this Government and the last is poor at. As for the top brass a warning not to make these ship too expensive otherwise you will end up with half or a quarter of what you need!!
In ‘political speak’, does flexible and affordable mean cheap and nasty?
I hope flexible means in capability, not that it turns into a pretzel in high seas.
Is what concerns me is the idea small is better. Allied to that is the newly announced notice that we are going to concentrate on the Northern hemisphere which could mean less range in our ships. A lot of people who should know better need educating.
The Navy can never accept an agreed spec. It always has to add and change. Therefore ships are always late and over cost. We have too many senior officers for the number of ships, reducing senior officers would increase efficiency
Perhaps the £8bn pounds which will buy 4 Type 83s by 2045 would be better spent on 12 Batch 2 Type 31s? 5″ gun replacing 57mm,as many Mk 41slots as are practical,Canister NSM.Wildcat/Martlet combo at back as usual.And a limited offensive anti sub ability might be useful.Off the shelf ASROC for the Mk 41 with a bow or tail detection.Then if the first 5 (Batch 1 ) are refitted to similar spec you have 17 really useful ships.
The RAN here has gone for the Mogami frigate that i believe that will have all what you’ve listed there by the sound of it and maybe more so upgrading the T31 spec could make good sense so long as costs don’t approach T26 levels otherwise you might as well have more of those.
There have been press reports that the MOD is looking to defer the OSD for T45 to delay T83, in order to close £10b of a £16b gap in the defence plan. More export orders for T26 might help BAE if govt does postpone T83. The 6 x 25,000 ton MRSS could also be a possible target for savings. I wonder whether we need to start building these sooner to give the likes of Navantia a successor to FSS? The 3 autonomous UUV ‘motherships’ and Bastion seem to be the priority. Export orders for T31 would help Babcock if the MOD caps the RN at 5. If T83 is delayed maybe a small class of 3 additional AAW destroyers could stretch out the T45 OSD for a few more years? Interesting times.
Well you armchair admirals you will just ask Mohammad what you will get. I’m thankful Starmer did not send us to war. I’m no expert, but guess we would lose badly taking on the Yanks !
But we’d say that we won, and for the current government what is said (loudly and often) is reality.
….But there’s no money to do so & we’re not getting any more than already ordered. Just the usual word salad smokescreen.
Slightly OT but any further news on potential orders for Denmark AH140s and Sweden AH120s?
Not that I’ve heard, but renewed rumours of Ireland from when the MOU was refreshed last week.
More Fantasy Fleets
Big cuts across MOD and RN in particular orders incoming
Press reports that the MOD is finding £10b in cuts by deferring T83. The MOD say it’s pure speculation and that the defence plan is being finalised 🙂
If they were serious they would have ordered the MK41 and installed them from Formidable onwards as they announced it in May’23 almost 3 years of procrastinating MOD is the most un organised department ever
Trust me, it’s VERY organised.
MOD has a truly formidable ability to internal review anything into the long grass or next parliament
So what they’re saying is they’re “fitted for, but not with, for, but not with” 🙂
Well, if you look at the export versions, you could have captas 2 towed sonar + lightweight torpedo tubes. Plus make sure the touted MK41 vls is fitted.
Agreed and how much would that cost? Not a great deal and you then get a ship that can take part in a wartime fleet. MOD and FCO counting that we are passive or neutral from here on in. I do wish who wouldn’t? I don’t see that Working out with Russia China and Iran, N Korea.
Just get the things built, crewed and in commission. We need at least another 5 on top of the initial batch, preferably with an ASW twist. Put MK41 in the first hull you can during build and worry about retro-fitting the earlier ones when money and shipyard capacity allow. But don’t fiddle around with the first two or three and delay the rest. They are desperately needed.
I suspect that’s the plan, but an export order might change things.
8 or 16 anti-ship missiles
Towed sonar and anti-submarine warfare system
Torpedo tubes
16-cell or 24-cell Mk.41 VLS
These additions are the minimum requirements for a successor to the Type 23 frigate and must already have been decided upon at this stage.
If the budget is truly insufficient, the Royal Navy should find the funds by further reducing the planned deployment numbers for the Type 26 frigates. This would make it possible to deploy a larger number of properly armed Type 31 frigates.