HMS Glasgow: Russia will 'stay away' from Royal Navy's new Type 26 frigates, warns defence secretary

CONSTRUCTION progress on a new Royal Navy frigate has been hailed as a ‘remarkable achievement’ by the defence secretary.
David George
By David George
Published 25th Nov 2022, 15:40 GMT
Updated 25th Nov 2022, 15:40 GMT
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Ben Wallace MP has visited Glasgow in Scotland to see the progress being made on the new Type 26 frigate, HMS Glasgow. The warship, is structurally complete and it has been slowly rolled from the shipyard’s hard standing on to a barge for transport to Clyde.

The 149-metre warship will be taken to deeper water where the barge will be submerged, allowing HMS Glasgow to float for the first time. It is expected to enter service with the Royal Navy around the middle of the decade as its systems and weapons are still to be installed.

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Mr Wallace, who visited the shipyard on Friday, said: ‘I think it’s a remarkable achievement by the workforce here, who’ve built basically the world’s leading anti-submarine warfare ship.

Defence secretary Ben Wallace during a visit to BAE Govan shipyard in Glasgow, to see the builds of the first three Type 26 Frigates, including HMS Glasgow. Picture: Jane Barlow/PA WireDefence secretary Ben Wallace during a visit to BAE Govan shipyard in Glasgow, to see the builds of the first three Type 26 Frigates, including HMS Glasgow. Picture: Jane Barlow/PA Wire
Defence secretary Ben Wallace during a visit to BAE Govan shipyard in Glasgow, to see the builds of the first three Type 26 Frigates, including HMS Glasgow. Picture: Jane Barlow/PA Wire

‘The one thing [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is going to have left after his illegal invasion is a navy and an air force.

‘He uses his submarines, and they are good submarines, very well to intimidate. We’ve seen worries about critical national infrastructure, gas pipelines, internet cables. We need ships that are going to hunt those submarines or deter them, and that’s the role the ships are going to take.’

Russian submarines will ‘stay away’ if they know a Type 26 frigate is in the water, he added.

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HMS Glasgow currently has a displacement of 6,000 tonnes and will later be equipped with sonar, radar and weapons systems installed. The second and third ships in the class, HMS Cardiff and HMS Belfast, are still under construction in Govan.

Nadia Savage, business operations director at the BAE Systems shipyard, said the journey on to the Clyde was the culmination of thousands of people’s work across the UK.

She said: ‘Today’s operation has been about getting her off the hard standing where she’s been under construction in a really safe and controlled manoeuvre and traversing her on to the barge ready for that first maiden voyage.’

Moving the ship on to the barge is a ‘big milestone for the programme’, she added.

Related topics:Royal NavyRussiaGlasgowClydeScotland