The Type 26 programme remains focused on delivering a combined fleet of at least 13 frigates to hunt for Russian submarines in the North Atlantic, the biggest British warship deal in history and centrepiece of the Lunna House Agreement.

That includes eight Type 26 ASW frigates for the Royal Navy, and at least five for Norway. The first ships are expected to be received by the Royal Navy in the late 2020s with deliveries continuing in the 2030s.

Royal Navy force structure and procurement plans are kept under continuous review.

The number of Royal Navy frigates ordered in each period is as follows:

• (a) 1980–1997: 24
• (b) 1997–2010: None
• (c) 2010–2024: 13 (A number of these slots have been ceded as part of the Norwegian deal. The delta is yet to be made up through additional orders, and this will be a consideration of the Defence Investment Plan).
• (d) Since 5 July 2024: None.

Seventeen other major warships were ordered in the period since 1980, including three assault ships, six Type 45 Destroyers; six River Class Offshore Patrol Vessels; and two Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers. This number does not include ships converted from commercial service, coastal patrol and training vessels, survey vessels, mine countermeasures vessels, submarines or Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels.

The ships will be built in Indonesia using British shipbuilding expertise, which will support up to 1,000 jobs in the UK. Most jobs are expected to be secured at Babcock's Rosyth shipyard, with further roles at the company's Bristol site and Devonport dockyard. A construction timetable has yet to be announced.

The Government continues to review trends in allied demand for specialised anti‑submarine warfare capabilities as part of its assessment of the evolving and growing undersea threat.

Within the Atlantic Bastion concept, Royal Navy general‑purpose frigates will continue to play an important role in providing maritime presence, patrol, escort and reassurance tasks, while also acting as flexible platforms able to integrate with uncrewed systems. The exact pace and scale of capability enhancements delivered through Atlantic Bastion will be determined through the Defence Investment Plan.

The Secretary of State for Defence and First Sea Lord have engaged with counterparts and senior officials from Canada, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands on the Atlantic Bastion concept through a range of bilateral and multilateral forums, including NATO Defence Ministerial meetings and North Atlantic-focused working groups. The UK will continue to work closely with these Allies to ensure the North Atlantic remains secure and resilient.

Indeed, the Secretary of State has been in Norway in the past few days. The Secretary of State engages routinely with his Norwegian counterpart as part of the evolving UK-Norway strategic defence partnership.

The Royal Navy will have seven frigates in service, of which one (HMS KENT) is currently undergoing planned deep maintenance. The new Type 26 and Type 31 frigates are in build in Scotland currently.

Following the decommissioning of HMS Lancaster, the Royal Navy will have seven frigates in service, one frigate (HMS KENT) is currently undergoing planned deep maintenance. New Type 26 and Type 31 frigates are in build in Scotland currently.

As of December 2025, the Royal Navy has five of eight Type 26 City-class frigates and three of five Type 31 Inspiration-class frigates under construction at BAES and Babcock shipyards. The first Type 26, HMS Glasgow, is expected to enter service in the late 2020s, while the first Type 31, HMS Venturer, is planned to enter service by the end of the decade.

The Royal Navy constantly reviews maintenance and refit requirements across the fleet to achieve maximum availability of its platforms for operational tasking.

No Type 45 refit programmes have been cancelled or deferred on the grounds of cost since July 2024.

In November 2024, the Secretary of State for Defence announced that the Type 23 frigate HMS Northumberland was to be retired due to the structural damage discovered during refit which rendered the vessel uneconomical to repair.

Future capability plans for the Royal Navy are being considered as part of the Defence Investment Plan. However, the first of the Type 26 and Type 31 frigates are scheduled to be ready for operations by the end of the decade, with further uncrewed and autonomous systems scheduled to be introduced over the next five years. By 2030, AUKUS partners will establish a rotational SSN presence in Australia, embed advanced technologies through Pillar II, and build industrial and workforce capacity.

The Royal Navy has made significant early progress in delivering an integrated frigate force comprising crewed, uncrewed, and autonomous platforms, in line with Recommendation 38 of SDR 25. This initiative is central to our future Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) capability and is being pursued through a new, dynamic partnership with industry.

The Type-26 Frigate remains the cornerstone of the RN’s crewed anti-submarine warfare capability plan and will be at the heart of the future fleet. The Atlantic Bastion programme operates with T26 at its centre and will secure the North Atlantic against subsurface threats for the UK and NATO. We have initiated trials of several uncrewed surface and sub-surface systems with the intent that uncrewed systems will integrate with Type 26 and other fleet assets.

The Royal Navy’s primary relationship for anti-submarine warfare is with NATO and the NATO nations that the Navy routinely operates alongside. As the recent announcement by Norway to select the UK’s Type 26 frigate for their own fleet shows, the number of participants in the integrated frigate force continues to grow. To ensure the UK builds future-proof capabilities to counter the underwater threat to UK and NATO interests, the Royal Navy continues to develop the Atlantic Bastion programme.

To support this the Ministry of Defence are actively engaging with a variety of international and domestic stakeholders, across NATO, AUKUS and industry on this subject. However, the details of these engagements are commercially sensitive, and it is therefore inappropriate comment further at this time.

The Royal Navy operates eight Type 23 Frigates, and as of 2 April 2025, six Type 23 frigates are at readiness and available for operations. Each ship follows a normal operating cycle, going through different readiness levels based on their schedules and maintenance.

In addition to the eight operational Type 23 frigates, the Royal Navy has three that are in the process of being decommissioned. It has been 321 days since the decision to retire HMS Westminster and HMS Argyll, and 133 days for HMS Northumberland.

The retirement announcements are part of the UK’s plan to modernise its surface fleet. The Royal Navy will replace the Type 23 Frigates with new Type 26 and Type 31 Frigates. All eightType 26 ships are scheduled to enter service between 2028 and 2035, with all five Type 31 ships expected to be operational by the early 2030s.

The Type 45 is already in service with no new vessels to be built.

The Type 26 is forecast to achieve Initial Operating Capability in 2028 with ships expected to enter service between 2028 and 2035.

HMS Venturer will be the first in Class of the Type 31 and is scheduled to be In Service and ready for operations by the end of the decade. All five Type 31 ships are planned to be in service by the early 2030s.

The Type 32 frigate programme remains in the concept phrase and has not yet reached the level of maturity to allow publication of a specific timetable for design and procurement.

As a new government we inherited a situation in which the Royal Navy has nine Type 23 frigates in service, six of which are currently available. The normal operating cycle of every ship involves them entering different readiness levels depending on their programmes, periods of refit and departmental planning requirements. The Royal Navy will be transitioning from Type 23 Frigates to two new classes, Type 26 and Type 31, over the next decade.

On current plans, the last Type 23 frigate will transition out of service in 2035.

To avoid compromising operational security, the Ministry of Defence does not routinely disclose individual out of service dates or specific in-service dates for warships to avoid revealing elements of the Fleet's long-term schedule.