Providing the latest snapshot of UK surface combatant availability, a senior UK defence official has revealed that just six Type 23 frigates are “at readiness” and available for operations, one of which is set to depart the UK later this month on a slimmed down carrier strike group deployment.
Stated in a 7 April parliamentary written response, UK Defence Procurement Minister Maria Eagle said that the Royal Navy currently has eight Type 23 frigates in its inventory, with six active as of 2 April.
A ratio of six active vessels from eight in the fleet is roughly typical, as vessels move in and out of maintenance.
In addition, Eagle said that the Royal Navy has three retired Type 23 frigates undergoing decommissioning.
“It has been 321 days since the decision to retire HMS Westminster and HMS Argyll, and 133 days for HMS Northumberland,” Eagle said.
Bizarrely, Eagle subsequently stated that the decision to retire the slew of much-need frigates was “part of the UK’s plan to modernise its surface fleet”.
Two replacement classes of warships – the Type 26 and Type 31 – are currently being built to gradually replace the ageing Type 23 frigates.
“All eight world-class Type 26 ships are scheduled to enter service commencing from 2029, with all five Type 31 ships expected to be operational by the early 2030s,” Eagle added.
It is likely that additional Type 23 frigates will inevitably leave service before the first of the Type 26 frigates are in service, with the prospect that any delays to the Type 31 entry into service could drop the UK surface combatant forces further still.
CSG 25 has half the escorts of CSG 21
It is also notable that the upcoming Carrier Strike Group 2025 deployment of HMS Prince of Wales into the Indo-Pacific region will only feature a single Type 23 frigates, compared to two of the class during the 2021 iteration.
During the previous 2021 carrier deployment, the Royal Navy had 12 Type 23 frigates in its fleet.
Although the exact vessel has not been official announced, the single Type 23 will certainly be an anti-submarine warfare variant, rather than a general-purpose type, featuring the advanced Sonar 2087 towed array, critical for detecting subsurface threats.
Similarly, CSG 25 features a single Type 45 destroyer, down from two of the Daring class that accompanied HMS Queen Elizabeth, the sister ship of HMS Prince of Wales, in 2021.
In place of UK escorts, CSG 25 will feature three warships from Canada, Norway, and Spain, as well as an additional logistics vessel. This is a slight increase from the two non-UK warships that participated in the 2021 carrier deployment.
With the likely CSG 25 deployment potentially taking up to six months, the UK Royal Navy will be down, in the near term, to five available Type 23 frigates, which will be a mixture of anti-submarine and general-purpose variants.
