Breaking news
UK Unveils Ambitious New National Shipbuilding Strategy with Type 31 Frigates.
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The Type 31 will allow the Type 26 Frigates (seen here) and Type 45 Destroyers to focus on maritime task groups.
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Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon explained the 1st batch will consist of 5 vessel for in service by 2023. The Type 31 will allow the Type 26 Frigates and Type 45 Destroyers to focus on maritime task groups. All shipyard across the UK will be able to bid for the Type 31 program.
The Strategy sets out the government’s commitment to work with industry to reinvigorate and maximise export success. The Type 31e will be designed to meet the needs of the Royal Navy and with the export market in mind from the beginning. This could see industry’s customer become not only the Royal Navy but for the navies of Britain’s allies and partners. The MOD is committed to new ships for the Royal Navy through its rising budget and £178bn equipment plan. In July, at BAE’s Govan shipyard, the Defence Secretary cut steel for the first of eight Type 26 frigates, HMS Glasgow. The £3.7 billion contract for the first three, the largest for naval ships this decade, will secure hundreds of high skilled jobs on the Clyde until 2035 and hundreds more in the supply chain across the UK. |
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One of the likely Type 31 design proposal: Project Spartan by Steller Systems.
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The option to build the Type 31e frigates in blocks reflects how the biggest ship ever built for the Royal Navy, the 65,000-tonne HMS Queen Elizabeth, was constructed. The aircraft carrier was built in blocks by over 10,000 people in six main British cities. She was then assembled in Rosyth, before commencing sea trials in June and arriving in her home port of Portsmouth last month.
Her sister ship HMS Prince of Wales, built in the same way, is also now structurally complete and will be officially named in a ceremony on 8 September. This method has also been tried and tested on the UK’s new polar research ship, RRS Sir David Attenborough, with shipyards across the country collaborating in the block build. Type 31 Designs unveiled at DSEI 2017 Several of the Type 31 designs are likely to be unveiled in the form of scale models next week during the DSEI 2017 defense show. Likely contenders for the Type 31 design include BAE Systems, Babcock, BMT and Steller Systems. Make sure to check back with us next week for an overiew of these designs. |
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