Royal Navy: Mysterious new Type 32 warship still in development amid rumours project had been cancelled
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Work to develop a new Type of Royal Navy warship is still ongoing amid rumours of the project being cancelled.
MP Luke Pollard, the Labour Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Defence (MoD), confirmed that the project to create the Type 32 warship is still taking place. The frigate programme was 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. The exact role and make-up of the vessels is yet to be officially announced. Then defence secretary Ben Wallace said in 2021: “The Type 32 we hope will come further along from the Type 31. The Type 31 is only five ships. The Type 32 will hopefully follow a similar track.”
Graeme Downie, Labour MP for Dunfermline and Dollar, put the Type 32 programme back in the spotlight by submitting a parliamentary written question. Mr Pollard responded: “The Type 32 frigate programme remains in the concept phase and has not yet reached the level of maturity to allow publication of a specific design and procurement timetable.”
Previous minister of state for defence James Cartlidge, Conservative, said the Type 32s were still too early in development to set a date for when they’ll be in service. The first vessels are expected to join the fleet in the 2030s. The UK Defence Journal reports that at the time of Mr Cartlidge’s question, the project had only received around £4m in concept funding. They said speculation had began to creep in over its possible cancellation.
In a recent interview with Mr Pollard regarding ship classes, he told the defence publication: “This is a serious review that recognises not only that the world is a more difficult place, and that there are new and evolving threats to the United Kingdom and our allies, but that after many years, especially with lots of gifting to our friends in Ukraine, which was exactly the right thing to do, the UK armed forces have far too many capability gaps.” The politician added that frigates such as the Type 26 and 31 will be the “backbone of the Royal Navy”.