By Timothy Choi
The Royal Navy has announced that it is proceeding with the remaining five ships of their Type 26 frigates and has awarded a £4.2 billion contract with BAE Systems for the ships' construction. The five ships will be named Birmingham, Sheffield, Newcastle, Edinburgh and London.
Of particular interest to Canadian observers is the following passage from the Royal Navy press release:
Due to lessons in building the first batch of new frigates, plus improved assembly facilities – including a new undercover construction hall – the final five Type 26s will be built for around two-thirds the cost of the initial trio, and they will be built and delivered to the Fleet more quickly.
Note the lower cost of follow-on ships, consistent with the expectations of economies-of-scale.
At £840 million ($1.3bn CAD) per hull, this would seem to be heartening news for Canadians - at the very least, it suggests that there's nothing fundamentally strange or excessive regarding the Type 26's basic hull. Given the high levels of similarities between the UK Type 26 and the CSC, the new contract figure makes for a good starting point for estimating how much more the CSC will cost to incorporate the more advanced air-defence and Aegis components. However, it should be noted this £840 m figure is for the construction itself (since it's an actual contract with the shipbuilder) and does not include the multitudes of ancillary costs associated with the program writ large (project management, staff, ammunition, spare parts, shipyard modernization, etc.), which are generally included in the estimated acquisition costs for the CSC.
One thought on “UK orders second batch of five Type 26 frigates for £4.2bn”
The news is welcome in the UK although Scottish nationalists including the first minister are downplaying this. It should be worth noting that there are significant differences in the ships between Canada and the UK namely as mentioned the Aegis components, and also the way costs are calculated and presented no doubt.
Moreover the acquisition of the T26 is a good replacement for the Halifax-class but I would question the mixed fleet option, and indeed could Canada do more with another type of ship. While visiting this site I noted some advocated the purchasing of the Mistral class LPH. Overall I believe this would be a waste of resources that could be used in another direction.
If we look at the Danish Absalon class here you have a very capable multi-mission ship that’s of similar proportions to the Harry De Wolf class. The Absalons are very capable in ASW and capable in anti-air and anti-surface roles while retaining some amphibious and logistical capabilities, while undertaking similar tasking to a frigate.
Canada could build these ships in Canada. What’s more it would enhance the RCN capabilities and in some sense could reduce the number of required frigates.
Ultimately the news regarding the T26 is indeed welcome and hopefully the lessons learned in the UK can be in some part applied to the Canadian program.