UK commits to two new survey ships, the first to be procured this year
Echo-class multi-role survey vessel HMS Enterprise. (Photo: UK MoD/ Crown Copyright)
Galvanised by the recent damage to the Nordstream pipelines, the UK is procuring new ships for keeping tabs on critical undersea infrastructure.
Speaking at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace announced the UK MoD would procure two Multi Role Survey ships for seabed warfare.
Wallace said the first of the two ships would be purchased before the end of this year, fitted out in the UK and then enter service before the end of 2023.
The compressed timeline makes it almost certain the ship, first announced as the Multi-Role Ocean Surveillance Ship (MROSS) requirement in 2021, will be a commercial vessel.
Wallace added that a second ship would be built in the UK but offered no timeline
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