UK’s Type 32 frigate programme confirmed alive but embryonic
The Type 31 frigate programme is well underway. But will the Type 32 programme follow it? (Image: Royal Navy/MoD/Crown copyright)
Significant questions remain over whether the still-invisible Type 32 programme can survive the UK government’s upcoming Budget and the Strategic Defence Review.
The UK’s frigate programme, often described as the “backbone of the nation’s naval defence”, advanced in early October 2024 with the beginning of steel cutting on the third Type 31 vessel, HMS Formidable. Two more Type 31 vessels have been scheduled to launch by 2027.
The fate of the next generation of Royal Navy frigates got an unexpected shot in the arm shortly afterwards, however, as Luke Pollard, parliamentary under-secretary at the UK Ministry of Defence, appeared to confirm in a written response to a parliamentary question that the Type 32 frigate programme was still on the books for future design
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