UK Navy to buy six vessels as it enters ‘golden age’ of shipbuilding – By Linus Höller (Defense News) / May 14, 2024
BERLIN — The British Royal Navy plans to buy up to six new multirole support ships and give its future frigates the ability to attack land-based targets, the defense secretary announced Tuesday.
The offensive capability comes as the military learns lessons from recent operations in the Red and Black seas, Grant Shapps noted, with the former involving a fight against Yemen-based Houthi militants and the latter related to the nearby war in Ukraine. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.
In full, the service is seeking 28 new ships to turn the tide on a shrinking fleet, Shapps said at the Sea Power conference in London. The 2017 National Shipbuilding Strategy first formalized the goal, which the government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson refreshed in 2022.
Under the strategy, the U.K. seeks to become “the world’s most competitive maritime nation by 2050,” Sarah Kenny, then-chair of the industry association Maritime UK, said at the time.
