"Deep maintenance" continues on Royal Navy ship HMS Kent with number of in-service frigates shrinking to seven
.jpg?width=96&crop=1:1,smart)
Engineering work is continuing on a Portsmouth-based Royal Navy ship to bring her back to the operational fleet - as the number of in-service frigates slowly shrinks.
HMS Kent, a Type 23 warship, remains on the side-lines after being put into an upgrade programme in the summer of 2024. She remains under the stewardship of defence giant Babcock International, with the ship currently dry-docked at the firm’s facility in Devonport, Plymouth.
Labour’s defence peer in the House of Lords, Lord Vernon Coaker, confirmed that HMS Kent remains in “planned deep maintenance”. Responding to a parliamentary written question by Baroness Goldie, who asked how many frigates the Royal Navy plan to have in service on New Years Day 2026, Lord Coaker confirmed that just seven frigates will be at the force’s disposal.
What upgrades are being made to HMS Kent?
The Duke-class vessel is undergoing a life-extension programme, after first being commissioned into the fleet in June 2000. Babcock International said the programme will see “her structure and systems brought up to the latest standard to ensure she is able to continue to fulfil the operational duties required of her”.
In its set of financial accounts for 2024, the company added that capability updates and sustained support will be “significant”. The Royal Navy analysis website Navy Lookout reported in November 2025 that HMS Kent is going through the Power Generation Machinery Upgrade (PGMU) programme to replace her original diesel generators.
While some Type 23 frigates are being upgraded, others such as HMS Lancaster have been cast aside due to age and other factors. The biggest challenge facing the force is current warships being decommissioned while replacements are still being built.
Intense engineering work to built new ships is progressing. General Purpose Type 31 frigates, which will be based in Portsmouth, are expected to be rolled out from the late 2020s and into the 2030s. The National Infrastructure & Service Transformation Authority Annual Report 2024-2025 stated the programme could face major delays and miss its cost targets, but Babcock said it remains confident that the programme will be delivered “within a decade of the programme award”.
The first ship, HMS Venturer, is undergoing her final fit out after being at sea in 2025. BAE Systems is producing submarine-hunting Type 26 frigates, which are scheduled to be commissioned into the fleet from the late 2020s. The first of this variant, HMS Glasgow, had her engines fired up in December 2025.