The British Royal Navy on Could 22 named the primary of its new Kind 26 Class frigates, HMS Glasgow, which is presently being fitted out and would be the first of eight such vessels to enter service. The frigate was laid down in June 2017, and launched one and a half years later in December 2022, with 4 extra ships of the category having begun development. The Kind 26 is the primary main program to develop a British floor combatant initiated in over 20 years, and can present a a lot wanted substitute to the more and more out of date Kind 23 Class ships, and sure a extra dependable counterpart to the troubled Kind 45 Class destroyers. The numerous shortcomings of the Kind 45, together with a really small arsenal of simply 48 vertical launch cells, notably poor reliability and availability charges, and a scarcity of versatility because of the limitations on the sorts of armaments it will possibly carry, has left a heavy burden on the Kind 026 Class. The ships every displace 7,700 tons, and profit from new ranges of automation permitting them to function with crews of simply 157 personnel. This system is especially necessary for the British Royal Navy due not solely to the appreciable limitations of the Kind 45, but in addition because of the important chance that the Kind 45 fleet might by the mid-2040s have been phased out of service with out substitute, leaving frigates because the heaviest class of floor combatants operated by the Untied Kingdom.
Kind 26 frigates are considerably extra versatile than the Kind 45, as whereas the older destroyers’ 48 vertical launch cells can carry solely surface-to-air missiles, and even with these lack an anti-ballistic missile functionality, the Kind 26 integrates 24 cells for Tomahawk cruise missiles and 12 cells for surface-to-air missiles. The dearth of multipurpose launch cells, nonetheless, leaves the Kind 26 significantly behind the innovative, with American AEGIS destroyers, and the destroyers constructed by China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, all capable of accommodate land assault cruise missiles, anti-ship cruise missiles, and a wide range of surface-to-air missiles. An extra main limitation of the Kind 26 is that it carries solely a single class of surface-to-air missile, the Sea Ceptor, which is a very small and quick ranged design, leaving the ships weak if not protected by different vessels to offer further layers of air defence. The small measurement of the Sea Ceptor, nonetheless, permits them to be quad packed into the ship’s 12 vertical launch cells, permitting for carriage of as much as 48 missiles. This mirrors the Chinese language method of integrating quad packed DK-10A quick vary surface-to-air missiles onto its trendy destroyers, though these are built-in alongside HHQ-9, HHQ-10, and HHQ-26 missiles to offer a really multi-layered air defence functionality.
Lots of the components which have lengthy hindered European floor combatants proceed to have an effect on the Kind 26, particularly its restricted versatility and low firepower for a ship of its measurement. At 7,700 tons, the frigates’ armaments are thought-about very gentle at simply 36 vertical launch cells. To put this in perspective, North Korea’s newly launched Choi Hyon Class destroyers, displacing simply 5,000 tons, combine 74 vertical launch cells, together with 20 a lot bigger cells for ballistic missiles, whereas carrying a way more various array of armaments. This quantities to greater than 3 times the variety of cells per ton of displacement, regardless of the Korean ships carrying heavier cells. Though the Choi Hyon Class is an excessive case of a ship with a very heavy armaments suite, the Kind 26 sits on the reverse finish of the spectrum. U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke Class destroyers displacing 9,700 tons, or simply 26 % bigger than the Kind 26, combine 96 vertical launch cells, or 267 % as many because the British vessels. Like their Chinese language and Korean counterparts, the American ships profit from integration of far more various arsenals, together with integration of a number of courses of surface-to-air missiles for a really multi-layered and far more formidable air defence functionality. In comparison with different trendy floor combatants, the Royal Navy’s Kind 26 Class thus stays extremely restricted in its capabilities.
