Prince William cuts first steel for Type 26 frigate Royal Navy.

According to a press release published by BAE Systems on June 29, 2021, in a steel-cut ceremony at BAE Systems’ shipyard in Glasgow, His Royal Highness, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, set the plasma cutting machine to work on the first plate of steel for the third Type 26 frigate, HMS BELFAST.
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Future Type 26 frigate HMS Glasgow (Picture source: Twitter account of Cambridgeroyall)

Minister of State for Defence Baroness Goldie, together with employees and representatives from the Scottish Government, Royal Navy and the Ministry of Defence, joined the celebrations.

The event marks an important step in the programme to deliver the UK’s latest anti-submarine warfare capability to the Royal Navy, with all three of the first batch of City Class frigates now under construction. The UK-sourced steel plate will form part of a unit which will contain the machinery space for the gearbox and stabilisers of HMS BELFAST.

In recent weeks the first of class, HMS GLASGOW, was rolled out of the build hall into the open for the first time, while progress on HMS CARDIFF continues at pace, with more than 40% of the ship’s units in build at the Company’s Govan shipyard.

Led by electrical apprentice, Cara Shannon, and Type 26 Programme Director, David Shepherd, the Duke of Cambridge enjoyed a tour of HMS GLASGOW during his visit, meeting employees in the ship’s operations room and flight deck.

The Type 26 frigate is an advanced anti-submarine warship which will deliver critical protection of the Royal Navy’s Continuous At Sea Deterrent and Carrier Strike Group. Each Type 26 will be equipped with a range of world-class capabilities including the Sea Ceptor missile defence system, a 5-inch medium calibre gun, flexible mission bay, Artisan 997 Medium Range Radar and towed array sonar. The flight deck will be able to accommodate helicopters up to the size of a Chinook, while the mission bay can quickly adapt to house containers and deploy manned or unmanned vessels and vehicles.

Type 26 has been designed to reduce environmental impacts, with features including a hydrodynamically designed hull to optimise fuel efficiency and an advanced anti-fouling coating, which prevents marine growth and stops the transfer of invasive species on the hull. Each ship will also benefit from diesel engine emissions abatement, which reduces nitrogen oxide exhaust emissions and a waste water treatment system, which treats all ship effluent prior to discharge into the sea. Furthermore, it is envisaged that as new technologies become available, there will be potential opportunities for Type 26 to further mitigate its environmental impact.

Supporting more than 4,000 jobs across the UK, the Type 26 programme is making a significant contribution to the nation’s economic recovery by maintaining much-needed skills and capabilities. To date, more than £1bn has been invested across the programme’s supply chain, with more than 100 suppliers globally.

The Global Combat Ship supports a close partnership between the Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy and the Royal Australian Navy, supporting greater operational, training and intelligence ties. In total, the UK, Australian and Canadian Navies will operate 32 anti-submarine warfare frigates, all based on the Type 26 reference design.

Type 26 will be powered by a by Combined diesel-electric and gas (CODLAG) propulsion system including one Rolls-Royce MT30 gas turbine, four MTU Type 20V 4000 M53B high-speed diesel generators, and two electric motors. Type 26 will be able to reach a top speed of 26 knots (48 km/h) with a maximum cruising range of 7,000 nautical miles (13,000 km).

The armament of Type 26 will include 12-cell VLS for 48 Sea Ceptor anti-air missiles, 24-cell Mark 41 VLS for Tomahawk, VL-ASROC, CAMM or ESSM (quad packed), and anti-ship missiles, one 5-inch 62-caliber Mk 45 naval gun, two 30 mm DS30M Mk2 automatic cannons, two Phalanx CIWS (Close-In Weapon Systems), two miniguns and four general-purpose machine guns.