BAE Systems Teams Up With Local Shipbuilder For UK Type 31 Frigates Program

British firm BAE Systems has teamed up with Cammell Laird, the local shipbuilder, to provide warship design, engineering capability and combat systems in response to the UK Royal Navy's Type 31e frigate programme.

Under the teaming agreement, BAE Systems will partner with Cammell Laird, who would Prime, build and assemble the vessels. This enables BAE Systems to appropriately support the National Shipbuilding Strategy whilst ensuring the delivery of the five Offshore Patrol Vessels and the first three City class Type 26 frigates currently on contract, to time, budget and to the highest quality standards.

John Syvret CBE, Cammell Laird CEO, added: “Cammell Laird has very much welcomed the National Shipbuilding Strategy and the Type 31e competition. We will offer a UK warship design, a UK combat system, a UK build and a supply chain with high UK content. We will be working with BAE Systems and A&P to deliver certainty, speed and agility on this nationally important project. Cammell Laird is proud to be responding as a Prime Contractor for Type 31e”.

The British government announced plans to build a fleet of at least five light general purpose frigates in the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review, or SDSR, and has since been conducting early concept and other work on the Type 31. A ceiling price of no more than GBP250 million (USD337 million) has been set for each for the first batch of five frigates, intended to enter service from 2023 to replace the five general purpose-roled Type 23 frigates.

According to IHS Jane’s, the Type 31e will be tasked for routine security and presence missions such as the fleet ready escort role in home waters; standing tasks in the South Atlantic, the Caribbean, and the Gulf; and NATO commitments.