"Compounding issues" shackling HMS Daring to Portsmouth as Royal Navy ship out of service for 3000 days
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A Royal Navy destroyer beset by “compounding issues” has not been operational for 3000 days.
Type 45 destroyer HMS Daring has spent several years alongside HMNB Portsmouth - unavailable for deployments and other tasks. A combination of upgrade packages and repairs have kept her on the side-lines.
Britsky, a naval shipping movements expert who regularly posts Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary statistics on X, said HMS Daring’s lack of activity shows the general state of the force and the “severe issues it faces”. Asking to remain under the alias, they told The News: “It’s not just one issue for HMS Daring, it’s its many compounding issues over years and years.
“A shortage of personnel is making it hard to crew ships, there’s a lack of support infrastructure such as docks delaying work, and an insufficient stock of parts meaning ships can't be kept operational and others are robbed for parts.”
What has been happening with HMS Daring?
The Type 45 destroyer, laid down in March 2003 and launched in February 2006, has spent more time in maintenance and refit than it has been at sea. A greater number of days have been spent modifying and altering the warship than it took to construct her.
Much of this has been caused by the implementation of the Power Improvement Project (PIP), an upgrade package aimed at modernising the destroyers. These improvements focus on fixing the Daring-class propulsion systems. A design flaw in the Rolls-Royce WR-21 gas turbine intercooler unit has been causing power issues on all six vessels.
Improvements involve the installation of brand new engines. HMS Dauntless, HMS Daring, and HMS Dragon, have been fitted with the modifications. It’s hoped the Daring-class ships will all be fully upgraded by 2028.
HMS Daring was originally removed from service in April 2017 pending a refit. The Covid-19 pandemic caused various delays and she was taken to the Cammell Laird shipyard in Merseyside, not only to fix the propulsion problems but to also modernise her. This was completed in late 2022 and she returned to Portsmouth in early 2023. She remains in the final phase of trials and ongoing regeneration work - unavailable for operations. It’s hoped this will be completed by late 2026.
Britsky said the Type 45 destroyers will be good ships once they have been fully upgraded, with the PIP enhancements being a permanent cure to outstanding issues. “One benefit of HMS Daring being so fresh is it will help keep the Type 45s running in what will no doubt be a delay in building replacements,” they added.
“Ultimately with only six ships, we are always handicapped, with realistically only one or two being operational at a time. The decision not to build 12 is a disaster. We are in for more bad years as no doubt the Type 26 and Type 31 ships will face increasing delays in delivery, all the while the Type 23s keep bowing out due to simply falling apart and being sustained so far past their design life.”
Craig Langford, reporter at the UK Defence Journal, verified the shipping movement data. He said: “We’ve checked the figures against our own monitoring of ship movements and other indicators, and they line up. They look accurate, give or take a day.”
A Royal Navy spokesperson said: “We do not comment on the material state of our ships, but the Royal Navy continues to fulfil all of its operational commitments.”
The Strategic Defence Review, published in June, stated the Type 45 destroyers will soon be used alongside autonomous systems. It said: “This should include exploring possible development from a Type 45 destroyer to a minimally crewed or autonomous air dominance system that could integrate directed energy weapons and enable better connectivity to other assets within the UK’s Integrated Air and Missile Defence system.”