Royal Navy’s Type 26 frigates hit milestone at BAE Systems shipyard

HMS Glasgow, the first of the Royal Navy’s next generation frigate fleet, is more than halfway through its construction at BAE Systems' shipyard.

The ship is being built in numerous sections (or ‘units’), each one constructed in the company’s fabrication facility at Govan shipyard on the River Clyde in Glasgow.

The fore and aft sections of the 8,000-tonne warship are being built separately; the aft is currently hidden behind lots of tarpaulin. Each unit is being constructed in BAE’s fabrication facility at Govan shipyard.

Well over 1,500 people are involved in the Type 26 programme – not just at BAE on the Clyde but nationwide – with an estimated 3,400 jobs created or supported when construction is in full swing.

Once complete, the units will be wheeled to the ship block and outfit hall where they are joined together and pipes and cabling linked up.

Just over half of HMS Glasgow is now complete or under construction, out of eight planned vessels in the class.

Once the fore and aft sections are complete they will be joined on the hard in front of the block hall, before the bridge/main mast are craned into place.

Related: BAE Systems starts production of second Type 26 Frigate

The completed ship will then be launched by being lowered into the Clyde via a barge, then towed downstream to BAE’s yard at Scotstoun to complete fitting out.

The Type 26 Frigates replace the anti-submarine Type 23s which will begin retiring from service later this decade after more than 30 years on patrol, while still to come are five Type 31 general duty frigates which have yet to be ordered/named and will replace their five Type 26 counterparts like for like.

BAE Systems www.baesystems.com