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BMT Defence bid for the Royal Navy Type 31E Frigate LONDON — The Royal Navy’s planned Type-31e light frigate will transform the dismal export record of U.K.-based shipbuilders, a senior government minister told attendees at the DSEI exhibition in London. U.K. defense secretary Sir Michael Fallon said that Britain’s shipyards have not built a frigate for another country since the 1970s. “We’re changing all that”, he declared in a keynote speech on Wednesday. “This frigate will rock the exports boat and it’s a model for the way we will approach shipbuilding in future.” The U.S. Navy is among potential overseas...

The launch this week of Britain’s national shipbuilding strategy, with an order of five vessels to be designed and built in English shipyards, sees the UK’s aspiration to compete in the global warship export market. The British government this week launched a national shipbuilding strategy with an order for five new vessels for the Royal Navy to be designed and built across English shipyards. The core design of these new ships is called the Type 31 export (T31e) frigate, although there are already questions as to whether the type is a frigate or a corvette. Either way, the proposed price...

The CAMM missile is seen on its first flight from HMS Argyll. The missile’s clean aerodynamic design provides it with improved performance in the air, while also making it highly compact for installation onboard ship. Photo: MBDA The Sea Ceptor weapon system recently completed its first successfully firings from HMS Argyll. The frigate is one of three Royal Navy Type 23 frigates being modified with the Sea Ceptor system, replacing the older Sea Wolf. The test is a major milestone for the life-extension program of Type 23 frigates. HMS Argyll is the first Type 23 to undergo the life-extension program....

Perseus, an earlier concept missile Royal Navy ships will lose anti-ship missile capability in 2018 when the Harpoon missile is withdrawn with a replacement not due until ‘around 2030’. We reported today, incorrectly, that the new frigates would more than likely have anti-ship weapons ordered to fill this gap before they enter service. We were mistaken and have since amended earlier articles to reflect what is written in this article. While the Royal Navy will still have an anti-ship capability via the submarine fleet and embarked helicopters, this will still be a significant capability gap and even then, no Royal...

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...

ngineers working with the Royal Navy have let their imaginations run wild designing what submarines of the future could look like and have come up with stunning concepts which mimic nature. Vessels shaped like manta rays, eel-like drones and swarms of fish-shaped torpedoes are just some of the ideas proposed for revolutionising underwater warfare. Eel-like drones could be deployed from the submarines “With more than 70pc of the planet's surface covered by water, the oceans remain one of the world's great mysteries and untapped resources,” said Commander Peter Pipkin, the Royal Navy's fleet robotics officer. "It's predicted that in 50...

The countdown is now on for the return of UK Carrier Strike. TIM ROBINSON reports from BAE Systems Warton on the behind the scenes activity to make the Lockheed Martin F-35B ready for the Royal Navy's new Queen Elizabeth class. In just over a year's time, one lucky UK test pilot is set to perform a historic flight - the first landing of a new fighter aircraft on a brand-new aircraft carrier - a double first that is a major milestone. "This is the SuperBowl of flight test - a once in a lifetime opportunity," enthuses RAF F-35B test pilot...

She is the £3billion behemoth charged with leading the Royal Navy into the future - and she dwarfs all those who have done the job before her. Much is expected of the 65,000 tonne, 920ft-long HMS Queen Elizabeth when she eventually enters service as Britain's flagship aircraft carrier in 2020. And she arrived at her new home of Portsmouth today to much fanfare as thousands came out to give her a proper British welcome. Known as 'Big Lizzie', she is the biggest and most powerful ship ever built by Britain and is far superior to previous leading naval vessels. The...

RIGHT now, a British Trident nuclear submarine is gliding deep beneath the waves, primed and ready to launch a devastating strike if the worst should ever happen. Our nuclear subs operate in the depths of the ocean, where nobody can detect them, and are always on alert to respond to the threat of a nuclear war. Trident sub commanders keep in contact with the surface as much as possible, but they're relatively cut off from Britain when on deployment. In the event of a sudden and unexpected strike, the sub crews may have no way of knowing exactly what's happening...

The Royal Navy’s new supercarrier HMS Queen Elizabeth and her battle group met the U.S. Navy’s carrier USS George H.W. Bush in the North Atlantic for an exercise beginning on Aug. 1, 2017. The 10-day exercise Saxon Warrior 2017 “allows both U.S. and U.K. naval forces a chance to hone our interoperability skills,” said Rear Adm. Kenneth Whitesell, commander of Bush‘s Carrier Strike Group 2. “Particularly important is the alignment of U.S. carrier strike groups and the U.K. carrier strike group.” Both navies — and one NATO ally — sent ships and crews to the exercise. But one key component...

Fixed-wing aircraft carrier aviation is not cheap, and short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft have a limited ability to bring back unspent fuel and ordnance to the ship after a mission is completed. This means good gas gets dumped, and even worse, weapons that cost thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars get jettisoned into the sea. The Royal Navy wants their F-35Bs to be able to the return to the ship with more gas and weapons than they normally could by landing vertically on the decks of their two new Queen Elizabeth classaircraft carriers. The aim is to...

Life for British Phantom pilots was seldom boring. Whether it was training for near suicidal night attacks against the Soviet Navy, intercepting ‘Bear’s or performing low-level attacks. During the Cold War Chris Bolton flew the mighty F-4 for both the RAF and the Royal Navy. Hush-Kit met him to find out more. (Note: As some readers were super keen to read this now I have blatted it out warts and all. I will be correcting typos etc over the next few days) Hush-Kit: It seems the F-4 wasn’t particularly agile for its generation – is that fair? “It could roll...

After years of delays and debate, construction of the Royal Navy’s future Type 26 frigates has officially begun at a shipyard in Scotland. The full class of eight ships will provide a number of critically needed capabilities, including acting as additional escorts for the United Kingdom’s up-coming pair of supercarriers. The first of those flattops, HMS Queen Elizabeth, is in the middle of her first sea trials in the North Sea. On July 20, 2017, the United Kingdom’s Defense Secretary Sir Michael Fallon led a ceremony to cut the first steel for the lead ship at BAE Systems’ Govan shipyard...

Britain's new £6.2billion aircraft carriers are vulnerable to relatively cheap long-range Russian and Chinese missiles, a report has revealed. Multibillion-pound defence projects are at risk from technological advances by potential enemies of the UK, the think-tank study found. Missiles costing less than £500,000 each could 'at least disable' Britain's new £3.1billion HMS Queen Elizabeth, it claimed. The report noted: 'Key Western military assets had become vulnerable to targeting and disruption and destruction by long-range precision missiles to a degree that had hitherto been unthinkable.' It warns the Government has focused more on offensive systems over protective capabilities. 'There has been...

The £3.1billion HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier proudly hit the waters earlier this week - but currently its crew only has replica planes to practise with. Life-size models of the F-35 Lightning II jets have dubbed the 'faux fighters' and will be pushed around the tarmac at Cornwall's RNAS Culdrose, so flight deck teams can get a feel for the world's most advanced warplanes. The real jets will be deployed on the 65,000-tonne Queen Elizabeth - dubbed 'Big Lizzie' - was put into the sea for the first time in Scotland. Life-size copies of the F-35 Lightning II jets will...

The largest warship ever built in the UK is due to set sail for the first time today. HMS Queen Elizabeth, the Royal Navy's new aircraft carrier, will leave her dock in Scotland around lunchtime to start two years of sea trials. She is named after Elizabeth the first and is the second ship to carry the name - the first was a World War One battleship. More than 700 crew are onboard, from seamen to aircraft engineers, dentists to force protection. The oldest crew member is 58 and the youngest 17 although the average age is in the early...

The Navy's delayed new aircraft carrier is facing a morale crisis, it has been claimed, as sailors 'abandon ship' because they are bored. In the last few weeks, around 21 sailors have quit aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth - the largest and most powerful warship ever built for the Royal Navy - amid claims morale has dropped "to an all-time low". A "continuous line" of personnel are reportedly resigning from the £3.1 billion ship - which has not yet begun sea trials originally planned for the spring - because of "dull" conditions onboard. Around 21 sailors are reported to have...

ROYAL Navy flagship HMS Ocean could soon be sailing under a different flag – as part of the Brazilian fleet. Defence chiefs have confirmed the 28,000-ton helicopter carrier is for up for sale and that they are in talks with foreign governments. Brazil’s naval chiefs are keen to buy the vessel, which has seen active service in the Iraq War and an SAS rescue operation in Sierra Leone. Its sale will leave the Royal Navy without a carrier of any kind until 2023, when HMS Queen Elizabeth becomes operational. Brazilian officials say they believe the asking price – a closely-guarded...

Russia has developed an “unstoppable” hypersonic missile capable of destroying the Royal Navy’s most sophisticated warships, the Sunday People can reveal. Kremlin military chiefs claim they have built an anti-ship cruise missile capable of travelling at between five and six times the speed of sound - 3,800 mph to 4,600mph. Now experts fear the missile, called the Zircon, could sink the Royal Navy ’s two new £6bn state-of-the air aircraft carriers in a single strike. The missile flies more than twice the speed of a sniper’s bullet and is almost impossible to stop. The cruise missile is powered by a...

WARSHIPS MISFIRE New fleet of £8bn Royal Navy warships to be fitted with launchers that CANNOT fire British missiles A FLEET of new Royal Navy warships costing £8billion is being fitted with missile launchers that cannot fire British missiles, it emerged yesterday. The Type 26 Global Combat frigates have been designed with an American missile system for which the navy has no ammo. Critics say it will cost a fortune to buy new Tomahawk missiles which can be used with the MK-41 silos – and cast doubt on whether it will happen at all. The Ministry of Defence’s £178billion ten-year...