Steel has been cut on HMS Birmingham in BAE Systems’ shipyard in Glasgow.
The warship becomes the fourth of eight anti-submarine warships being constructed for the Royal Navy at the Govan shipyard.
The ceremony, attended by Minister for Defence Procurement, Alex Chalk KC, formally marks the start of the build of the second batch of Type 26 frigates.
It follows a £4.2 billion contract awarded to BAE Systems in November 2022.
READ MORE: Honour at last for Scots POW buried in unmarked grave nearly 40 years ago
The Ministry of Defence said the work on the eight warships in Govan will sustain some 1,700 jobs in Scotland, with a further 2,300 jobs across the wider UK supply chain.
Minister for Defence Procurement, Alex Chalk KC, said: “This is yet another significant milestone for the Type 26 programme, supporting thousands of jobs in Scotland and across the wider UK supply chain.
“Working closely with our industry partners, we are bringing in a cutting-edge class of warships for the Royal Navy, bolstering our maritime capabilities into the coming decades”.
The frigates will replace the bulk of the retiring Type 23 fleet with its primary role of anti-submarine warfare, protecting the UK’s Continuous At-Sea Deterrent and Maritime Strike Group. The first of the second batch of Type 26 ships, HMS Birmingham will be preceded by HMS Glasgow, HMS Cardiff and HMS Belfast.
At just under 150 metres long, almost the length of 3 Olympic swimming pools, and with a top speed of more than 26 knots and a range of more than 7,000 nautical miles, the vessels will also be capable of countering piracy and delivering humanitarian aid and disaster relief.
The Type 26 vessels will be armed with the Sea Ceptor missile defence system, able to destroy airborne and sea surface targets. They will also carry a five-inch medium calibre gun, a helicopter, Artisan 997 radar and sonar for navigation and tracking adversaries.
Construction of all of the city-class frigates is expected to be completed by the mid-2030s, with HMS Glasgow, the first in class, entering service by the end of 2028. Designed for a service life of at least 25 years, the Type 26 frigates will serve in the future Royal Navy surface fleet into the 2060s.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel