COLUMN | Are we seeing a resurgent UK Royal Navy? [Naval Gazing]

Decades of cutbacks, driven both by economic stringency and by the desire by successive UK governments to be seen to be benefitting from the post Cold War “peace dividend”, have resulted in serious erosion of the UK Royal Navy’s (RN) combat capabilities across the board. This erosion includes mounting shortfalls in numbers of both front line warships and their support vessels and the inadequate crewing of ships.

The RN’s greatly reduced flotilla of escorts, currently made up of nine Type 23 frigates (the survivors of 16 such vessels built from 1992 onwards), and six Type 45 air defence destroyers (from a planned order for 12) is plagued with mechanical problems, partly as a result of being a dwindling force that is worked very hard and frequently on prolonged long-range front line combat deployments.

According to a recent estimate, the RN currently has a total of seven frigates and destroyers that are fully worked up and available for operations. London, however, continues to task, and often at short notice, these RN escorts with intensive long-range operations.

New warship programmes

Very late in the day, radical action to improve this fraught situation is underway. A programme to build eight 7,000-tonne Type 26 frigates with a prime anti-submarine role is underway at BAE Systems’ shipyards in Scotland. Also in Scotland, Babcock is constructing five 6,000-tonne Type 31 general purpose frigates.

Armament of the Type 26 includes Sea Ceptor air defence missiles, a 120mm gun, two radar-controlled 30mm cannon and a Wildcat or Merlin helicopter equipped for anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare. The ships will have a comprehensive outfit of advanced radars and sonars and will operate uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs).

The Type 31, with a main armament of a single BAE/Bofors rapid-fire 57mm gun and two 40mm cannon from the same same manufacturer, will be the first “gunship” capable of broadside fire to enter RN service in many years. It will also be fitted with Sea Ceptor and carry a Wildcat helicopter.

Both classes of frigate will rely upon gas turbine/electric propulsion intended to deliver quiet running and a top speed of around 30 knots. The first of the new frigates is due in service around 2030. It is anticipated that the Type 31s will spend a lot of time in support of British interests in distant waters.

On the horizon is the Type 32 frigate. Few details of this projected new warship are yet available, but according to some RN sources, its roles will include extensive operations in support of UAVs and uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) and uncrewed undersea vehicles (UUV). The ships will themselves house a number of such craft in dedicated “mission bays.”

Uncrewed vehicles to the fore

Personnel shortages are a major driver of the RN’s push towards large-scale, uncrewed vessel surveillance, intelligence gathering and combat operations, and the RN has already trialled the Mojave combat UAV. The service also continues to test a number of UUVs as well as the Peregrine small frigate-borne UAV and is working with BAE Systems on developing new-design UAVs and UUVs.

Leonardo in UK is also developing a new uncrewed naval helicopter, named Proteus, which is intended for deployment from frigates and destroyers.

Analysts believe that one of the RN’s two aircraft carriers is likely to be converted to become a primary operator of UAVs. In this context, it is very likely that the order for F-35B Lightning II fighter-bombers will be cut back from the current projected total of 135, and UAVs are very much cheaper to acquire than crewed warplanes.

UK this year commissioned a “breakthrough” vessel in the form of RFA Proteus, a unique seabed operations ship tasked with the protection of undersea cables. Recent reports indicate that the ship is spending a lot of time in Irish waters, dealing with incursions by Russian vessels attempting to interfere with transatlantic cables. Ireland is both a defenceless nation and a major point of landing for such cables.

The outlook for the RN’s escort force and its future uncrewed vehicle inventory seems to be relatively bright, but much less clear is the future of the RN’s large ship flotilla.

Future of large RN warships and support vessels uncertain

The landing ships Albion and Bulwark are both laid up for want of crews, and will probably not sea active service again. There are plans to replace the RN’s existing amphibious warfare vessels and large replenishment at-sea ships, as well as the aviation support/primary casualty receiving ship Argus, with specialised variants of a baseline design of a large, armed helicopter- and UAV-equipped vessel.

The intent was to contract Northern Ireland’s Harland and Wolff and Spain’s Navantia to form a joint team to build the ships, but financial and political complications are currently thwarting this project.

Availability of funding will be of crucial importance to the RN’s plans, particularly with the UK’s umpteenth defence review being well underway, along with the attendant inter-service competition for the allocation of scarce resources. Add the constantly evolving international security situation to the mix, and the future shape of the RN remains uncertain.