Five new frigates confirmed for Royal Navy's fleet

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Five new frigates confirmed for Royal Navy's fleet

Post by MikeJames »

This is for the Type 31 frigate, designed to be substantially cheaper than the Type 26, with price being the overwhelming driver. The RN wanted frigates, the Treasury won't fund the numbers of Type 26 frigates needed so the result is the bargain basement Type 31, which will be doing duty as West Indies and Falkland Island guardships, plus training roles.

The selected design, the 'Arrowhead 140' concept by Babcock and BMT, is based heavily on the Iver Huitfeldt-class frigates for the Royal Danish Navy


Five new frigates confirmed for Royal Navy's fleet

A deal has been signed for the construction of five new navy frigates.

Image
Artist impression of the Type 31 frigate. Picture: Babcock/PA Wire

The Ministry of Defence has awarded a £1.25bn contract to Babcock for the construction of new Type 31 frigates.

The frigates, expected to be based in Portsmouth, will feature the Sea Ceptor missile system, a combat system with a 4D air and surface surveillance and more.

Each ship will cost approximately £250m.

An MoD spokeswoman said: ‘Today we have signed a contract with Babcock for the design and build of five Type 31 general purpose frigates.

‘We expect to have the first ship in the water by 2023, with five ships delivered by the end of 2028.’

Construction of the new ships is set to take place in Rosyth, Scotland.
Last edited by MikeJames on 09 Nov 2021 22:14, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Five new frigates confirmed for Royal Navy's fleet

Post by MikeJames »

The RN have announced the names of their five new Type 31 Frigates which will be known as the Inspiration class.

HMS Active, Bulldog, Campbeltown, Formidable and Venturer.

The names were selected to represent ‘key themes and operations’ that are set to dominate the mission of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines.

Formidable will represent carrier operations; Bulldog, the operational advantage in the North Atlantic; Active, the forward deployment of ships across the globe; Venturer, the drive for technology and innovation; and Campbeltown representing the Royal Marines new Future Commando Force.

+++

Obviously the RN of today have absolutely no respect for traditions, after all its not like they don't have plenty of frigate and destroyer names to choose from..

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Re: Five new frigates confirmed for Royal Navy's fleet

Post by RussF172 »

God awful names. They had a much better choice of names than we do.
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Re: Five new frigates confirmed for Royal Navy's fleet

Post by littoralcombat »

Gents,
I don't think it's so much the actual names themselves. All have a bit of interesting History to them. It is more the lack of commonality and respective association.
Active is good, but I wish they had stuck with all traditional 'A's, like the Type 21's.
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Last edited by littoralcombat on 21 May 2021 17:59, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Five new frigates confirmed for Royal Navy's fleet

Post by MichaelB »

Not really good choices of names. The last Active was a type 21, last Bulldog was a survey ship, Campbeltown is not a traditional RN name and there were only two of them, Formidable was a carrier and the last Venturer was a trawler converted into a minesweeper. Apparently commissioned from 1978 to 1983.

Afraid a frigate armed with a 57mm gun and a couple of 40mm bofors doesn't sound very Formidable to me. They should have named one after Boris Johnson. HMS Buffoon has a certain ring to it. :D
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Re: Five new frigates confirmed for Royal Navy's fleet

Post by SlatsSSN »

It would be good to find out for members, if the hulls are fundamentally the same as the Iver Huitfeldt class frigate to which I understand that these are based off. Do we know?
Only asking as Tim makes a beautiful hull that might be 100% compatible should members wish to build these RN versions.

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Re: Five new frigates confirmed for Royal Navy's fleet

Post by littoralcombat »

Possibly John, but we are unlikely to find out for many years....if ever. So Tim's hull would do the job.
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Re: Five new frigates confirmed for Royal Navy's fleet

Post by MikeJames »

There are modelers who have already built models of the Type 31, but its a lot of guesswork.

My thought is that it will evolve a bit before being finalised, so I'd expect we won't know for at least 6-8 years. Look at how the Type 26 continues to evolve in all three navies as the design firms up and construction commences. The same is very likely for the Type 31, let alone the Type 32 and 83s.

On the other hand, images like these would be a good starting point for someone who really wanted to build one. The hull probably won't change all that much, its the topside superstructure, weapons and particularly the sensors of your model that will need to be modified as the ships start to complete.

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Re: Five new frigates confirmed for Royal Navy's fleet

Post by MikeJames »

Further news from the UK version of Senate Estimates, with the outgoing First Sea Lord (who got promoted to Chief of the Defence Staff) talking about future Royal Navy surface ship numbers.

The RN will end up with

5 x Type 45 (Daring class) anti-air warfare destroyers (to be replaced in the late 2030s by the Type 83 destroyer currently being defined)
8 x Type 26 (Glasgow class) anti-submarine warfare frigates (under construction)
5 x Type 31 (Venturer class) general purpose frigates (under construction)
5 x type 32 general purpose, possibly modular frigates )in definition and may end up being Type 31 Batch 2)

All of the current Type 23 frigates will be gone, decommissioning at a rate of one per year, though that is likely to accelerate as a cost-saving exercise.

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Re: Five new frigates confirmed for Royal Navy's fleet

Post by MikeJames »

The keel for the first of five Type 31 frigates, the future HMS Venturer, was laid today In the brand-new assembly hall in Rosyth dockyard in Scotland.

Construction of Royal Navy’s new frigates begins in Scotland

26 April 2022

Type 31 01.jpg


The future Royal Navy fleet today started to take shape as the construction of the first of five new frigates began.

In the brand-new assembly hall in Rosyth dockyard in Scotland, the keel of HMS Venturer was laid in a ceremony which blended cutting-edge shipbuilding with naval history.

The construction of the fleet will support around 2,500 jobs both at Babcock and nationally through the UK supply chain, as well as creating 150 additional apprenticeships.

The keel laying is the formal moment of construction beginning for the ship, following September’s steeling cutting for the Inspiration-class Type 31 frigate.

Over the coming months it will rise a 6,000-tonne ship and, alongside it from next year, the second ship in the class, HMS Active. The Venturer Hall is large enough to allow two frigates – each longer, wider and heavier than the Type 23 warships they replace – to be constructed side by side.

“Today’s keel laying ceremony connects Royal Navy tradition with 21st century shipbuilding,” said Rear Admiral Paul Marshall, Director Navy Acquisition for the Royal Navy.

“The short seven months between HMS Venturer’s first steel being cut and her keel being laid demonstrates the continuing pace of the Type 31 programme building on cutting edge processes, skills and facilities in Scotland and the UK which should ensure that the Royal Navy gets the capability it needs on time.”

The construction of the Type 31 frigates is part of a wider investment in UK yards and industry under the Government’s National Shipbuilding Strategy of more than £4 billion over the next three years alone. The money spent by the MOD alone directly supports around 25,000 jobs across the United Kingdom, plus some 20,000 jobs supported indirectly.

Defence Procurement Minister Jeremy Quin said: “The keel laying is a hugely important milestone in the build of any new ship and particularly for HMS Venturer, being the first of a new frigate class for the Royal Navy. It is testament to the work of Babcock UK that they have reached this stage so soon after September’s steel cutting.

“We look forward to more Type 31 milestones at Rosyth dockyard, demonstrating the Government’s commitment to UK shipbuilding and to modernising the Royal Navy."

The keel was placed upon a coin minted especially for the occasion – in keeping with Royal Navy tradition – watched by representatives from the Navy and the shipbuilding industry.

The special coin – designed by seven-year-old Josh Duffy, whose mother works for Babcock, the firm constructing HMS Venturer – is said to bring the ship and her crew luck.

Each ship is larger than the current Type 23s they replace but slightly shorter and lighter than HMS Glasgow and the seven other planned Type 26 frigates also being built for the fleet in Govan, just 35 miles away.

The 26s will focus on anti-submarine warfare – like eight Type 23s fitted with towed arrays – leaving the 31s to carry out patrols wherever they are needed, from conducting counter-terrorism/drug smuggling patrols in the Indian Ocean to helping out in the aftermath of a disaster.

The 31s have been designed and are being built for the Royal Navy, but with one eye firmly on the export market; the Polish and Indonesian Navies have selected the design for their future fleets.

Each ship is equipped with three Pacific 24 boats, – crucial for board-and-search/counter narcotics work – a 57mm gun and two 40mm secondary guns, Sea Ceptor air defence missiles – also fitted to Type 23 and 26 frigates – with off-the-shelf sensors and computer systems.

And the flight deck can host helicopters up to the size of a Chinook, although more typically Royal Navy Merlins and Wildcats.

A typical crew will be just over 100, but with space – notably for Royal Marine detachments – for up to 187 personnel on board.

All five ships being built take their names from previous predecessors which wrote their name large in naval annals thanks to inspirational actions and deeds.

In Venturer’s case, she’s named after the first submarine to torpedo and destroy another boat while both craft were submerged. After Venturer and Active come HMS Formidable, Bulldog and finally Campbeltown.
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