Norway’s £10B UK frigate deal could delay Royal Navy ships

Norway has ordered British-made Type 26 frigates in a contract valued at roughly £10 billion to the UK economy, but this may delay the introduction of the Royal Navy’s own desperately needed ships.

The agreement announced yesterday will see at least five of the submarine-hunting warships built at BAE Systems’ Glasgow shipyards for the Norwegian Navy, or Sjøforsvaret, in addition to the eight that are already planned for the Royal Navy.

Britain’s government is naturally trumpeting this as a major success, claiming it will support at least 2,000 jobs in Scotland until the late 2030s with a further 2,000 roles elsewhere in the UK, although it is likely these are jobs that existed anyway thanks to the Type 26 program.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Støre said: “Norway and the United Kingdom are close allies, with common interests and strong bilateral ties. I am confident that the strategic partnership with the UK for purchasing, developing and operating frigates is the right decision. This partnership enables Norway to reach the strategic objectives our Parliament set out in the current Long-Term Plan on Defence.”

It also comes ahead of an anticipated UK-Norway defense agreement to strengthen security in the North Atlantic, with the main perceived threat being that of Russian submarines – exactly what the Type 26 (or City class) has been designed to counter.

However, the problem now is how to fit these additional ships into the existing construction pipeline. It is understood that Norway expects their first vessel to be delivered by 2029, which means that at least one of those currently being built for the Royal Navy will have to be diverted to the new customer.

BAE Systems is fitting out the first two vessels, HMS Glasgow and HMS Cardiff, at its Scotstoun shipyard on the Clyde, while HMS Belfast and HMS Birmingham remain under construction. Steel cutting for the fifth ship, HMS Sheffield, began late last year.

HMS Glasgow should begin sea trials by year-end yet won’t enter service until 2027. The delays are costly: the first ship was supposed to be ready in 2023, meaning the worn-out Type 23 frigates it’s replacing have already started retiring after more than 20 years of service. The Royal Navy now has just six Type 23s available for active duty, leaving a dangerous capability gap.

If Type 26 frigates are now going to be picked from the production line for delivery to Norway, it could further hobble the Royal Navy’s chances of replacing its aging Type 23 ships before they all hit end of life.

(Some of the Type 23 units are being replaced by a separate program, the Type 31 frigate, but that’s another story…)

BAE Systems completed a new shipbuilding hall in Glasgow last year that has space to work on two Type 26s simultaneously. The build schedule is being sped up, so the time from first steel to float-off is shortened.

The Type 26 beat competition from the French FDI frigate design, Germany’s F126/F127, and the American Constellation-class frigate to win the contract with the Norwegian Navy.

While there’s some talk that Norway rejected the US option over Washington’s “kill switch” capability – which could remotely disable advanced tech like F-35 fighters – the reality is perhaps simpler. The US Constellation-class program is plagued by delays from constant Navy design changes, while the proven Type 26 better matches Norway’s anti-submarine warfare requirements.

Norway joins Canada and Australia, which have already chosen the Type 26 design as the basis for their future River-class destroyers and Hunter-class frigates, respectively, but are building these locally using their own shipyards. ®

READ MORE HERE