Royal Navy: Mysterious new Type 32 warship project stalls with designs being reviewed by officials

Updates on the project to build Type 32 vessels continue to remain few and far between. Officials from the ongoing Strategic Defence Review, called by the government to analyse the priorities for the UK’s national security and the resources all three armed forces need, are now looking over the programme.

As previously reported in The News, Luke Pollard, armed forces minister, confirmed the scheme is still ongoing and has not been cancelled. Conservative politician David Reed, MP for Exmouth and Exeter East, asked the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in parliamentary written questions about the timeline of when the Type 32 warships will be built and what stages of the concept phase have been completed.

Minister of defence procurement, Maria Eagle, responded: “The Type 32 frigate programme is in the concept phrase and has not yet reached the level of maturity to allow publication of a specific timetable for design and procurement. This is consistent with a programme of this size and complexity at this early stage in its development.

“All future designs of the Royal Navy will be part of the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) so would be inappropriate to provide further detail until SDR decisions have been made.”

The frigate programme was originally announced in November 2020 under then prime minister Boris Johnson. This was part of a £16.2bn financial deal which announced the construction of Type 26 and Type 31 frigates to bolster the Royal Navy fleet. The exact role and make-up of the Type 32 vessels is yet to be officially announced.

Other shipbuilding programmes are progressing at a steady rate. Type 31 Inspiration-class vessels, which will have a general purpose role and be asked to carry out a range of operations, are all scheduled to be into service by the early 2030s. The Type 26 City-class frigates, that will mainly focus on hunting submarines, are forecast to achieve operational capability in 2028 - entering service between 2028 and 2035.