Britain will soon have a fleet of advance new warship staring 2020.
Features indicates that it will be one of the most potent surface combatants in the
world.
The Type 26 frigate also known as the City-class is the new class of frigate being built for
the United Kingdom's Royal Navy.
It will be a multi-mission warship designed to support anti-submarine warfare, air defense,
and general purpose operations.
In this video Defense Updates analyses the capabilities of the Type 26 frigate of the
United Kingdom.
Let's get started.
Type 26 is being built by the UK Ministry of Defense through a program named as Global
Combat Ship.
The Global Combat Ship was initiated under the original Future Surface Combatant (FSC)
program intended to replace the Royal Navy's Type 22 and Type 23 frigates.
Type 26 is designed to be modular and flexible so that it can take on a wide range of operations
that not only includes typical missions like surface warfare, minesweeping but also operations
like counter-piracy and disaster relief.
The modularity & flexibility comes to a great extent due to the presence of a large mission
bay.
BAE stated the following about the mission bay,
“A key feature is the flexible mission space, which can accommodate up to four 12 meter
sea boats, a range of manned and unmanned air, surface or underwater vehicles or up
to 11 20ft containers or ‘capability modules’, and the most advanced sensors available to
the fleet.”
Royal Navy plans to have 8 of these warships.
Work is currently in progress for 3 of these.
First of the new frigates is named as HMS Glasgow.
The Type 26 class has a Length of 149.9 meters and a displacement 6,900 tonnes
It will be able to house 157 crew on board
The warships of this class will have a top speed of 26+ knots.
Powered by an electric drive propulsion system, these will have a range in excess of 7,000
nautical miles.
The warships will have two main sensors, Artisan 3D radar and Sonar 2087
Artisan 3D is medium-range air and surface surveillance 3D radar developed and built
by BAE Systems.
It has a range of 200 m - 200 km or 110 nmi and is capable of tracking more than 900 targets
at once as per reports.
Sonar 2087 is a Low-Frequency Active Sonar and consists of both active and passive sonar
arrays.
Its manufacturer, Thales describes the sonar as "a towed-array that enables Type 23 frigates
to hunt the latest submarines at considerable distances and locate them beyond the range
at which submarines can launch an attack”.
Type 26 will be integrated with multiple weapons system.
Type 26 is expected to be armed with BAE’s 5″/54 caliber Mark 45 main gun.
It will also be armed with two Phalanx CIWS (Close In Weapons System) , two 30 mm DS30M
Mark 2 guns as well as a standard complement of miniguns and general-purpose guns.
The Type 26 will have Sea Ceptor silo’s on the bow and at the funnel of the vessel.
Sea Ceptor will act as the main air defense system for the warship.
The system is capable of intercepting threats up to a range of 25 km.
It can handle targets traveling at speeds of more than 2,000 miles an hour or around
Mach 2.6.
Type 26 is designed to carry the MK 41 Vertical Launch System.
These are positioned behind the Sea Ceptor silo’s.
The MK 41 VLS is capable of launching anti-air, anti-submarine, land attack missiles.
It will house Tomahawk cruise missiles, ASROC anti-sub munitions and potentially the next
generation of anti-ship missile, LRASM or Long Range Anti-Ship Missile
Nadia Savage, director of the Type 26 program at BAE Systems, said:
“As momentum builds and GLASGOW, the first of three contracted next generation City Class
Type 26 Global Combat Ships, takes shape at our facilities in Glasgow, we are delighted
to place this contract with Lockheed Martin.
The Vertical Launching System contributes to our overall combat management system and
will further enhance platform flexibility and capability, which are core to the design
of the Type 26.”
The warship of Type 26 class will also have accommodation for two helicopters Wildcat
and AgustaWestland Merlin Wildcat can be armed with 4 anti-ship missiles
or 2 anti-submarine torpedoes.
AgustaWestland Merlin can be armed with 4 anti-submarine torpedoes.