Robert Beckhusen
In 2023, the Royal Navy hopes the first of its new Type 31 frigates will hit the waves to replace HMS Argyll, the first of 13 Type 23 frigates scheduled to begin retiring that year, with another to retire every year until 2035. The new vessels will add desperately needed modern warships to the United Kingdom’s depleted fleet.
However, that’s the hope. It’s not realistic, according to program officials cited in a report from Defense News. The compressed timetable will likely delay the Type 31, and worse — tight budgets are forcing compromises with the vessel’s weapons and capabilities. The result will be a Royal Navy adopting a smaller, less combat-capable ship than the Type 23, which has served since the 1980s as the backbone of Britain’s submarine hunting fleet.
Keep in mind that the United Kingdom is not replacing all of its Type 23s with Type 31s. Britain plans to build five or six Type 31s — the number is not clear — along with eight new Type 26 frigates which will have dedicated anti-submarine warfare equipment. While the Royal Navy has not selected a final design for the Type 31, the preliminary proposals from British shipbuilders fall short.
Whether the Type 31 will even be proper frigate is up for debate. One possibility for the frigate is a stretched version of the Samuel Beckett-class offshore patrol vessel built by Babcock Marine, currently in service with the Irish Navy. Another is a BAE-built enlargement of the Al Shamikh-class corvette in service with Oman — renamed Cutlass — or an enlarged River-class offshore patrol vessel.
BMT Defense Services should offer a new design, the Venator-110, which is favored by Royal Navy officers. A fourth design is Stellar Systems’ Project Spartan which distinctive for its bow ramp — to deploy small boats — and large hangar for helicopters and drones.
This final ship offers towed-array and hull-mounted sonars, but appears to lack dedicated anti-submarine weapons unless carried and deployed by an onboard helicopter. The existing Type 23 frigate has that equipment, plus its own torpedoes, anti-ship missiles and a 32-cell anti-air missile launcher.
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-royal-navys-new-ship-plans-have-serious-flaw-22111
