Britain’s Royal Navy Soon Won’t Have Any Destroyers - Unaffordable Type 45 Class to be Retired for Cheaper and Lighter Frigates

While the surface combat ships of the British Royal Navy were once the heaviest and among most capable in the world, the service today faces the prospect of going without the few destroyers that remain in service and instead moving towards an fleet comprised entirely lighter and cheaper frigates. The service’s deterioration particularly since 1945 has affected all aspects of the British fleet from carriers, of which two programs and fourteen individual ships were cancelled, to the combat fleet. Just 19 escort ships are in service today of which approximately 70% are light and low endurance frigates, down from 60 escort ships in the waning years of the Cold War which included 13 destroyers and 47 frigates. The Royal Navy today fields just six destroyers of the Type 45 Class, 9,400 ton warships costing over $1 billion each which, given their size, have underwhelming firepower with just 48 launch cells for missiles. This compares poorly to the 96 on the American Arleigh Burke Class and 112 on the Chinese Type 055 Class destroyers. These ships are both considerably cheaper than the Type 45 Class and appear to be far more reliable. Type 45’s Rolls Royce Diesel engines reportedly ‘degrade catastrophically’ in hot climates such as those found in the Straits of Hormuz or the waters of Southeast Asia, while extreme maintenance requirements and poor reliability mean that only 2-3 warships are ever active at one time.

While maintenance issues are the primary reason why most of the British destroyer fleet remains inactive, the Royal Navy’s ability to afford the operational costs of a more active fleet also remain highly questionable. The warships’s munitions also face growing obsolescence, with a low engagement range against both enemy ships and aircraft which are increasingly considered insufficient in the face of advanced new missiles being integrated onto warships overseas. The Chinese YJ-18 and YJ-100 cruise missiles, and the Russian Zicron and navalised S-400, are prime examples. The low efficiency of British shipbuilding, particularly when compared to their American and Chinese counterparts, means that a next generation destroyer is likely to be unaffordable, particularly considering the country’s ongoing economic difficulties and cuts to its defence budget over recent years.

The replacement for the Type 45 destroyers, the Type 26 Class frigate, will displace an estimated 6,900 tons and deploy a meagre 24 vertical launch cells for missiles - 75% smaller than the Arleigh Burke Class destroyer’s arsenal. The warships’ range will also be considerably shorter, restricting British power projection capabilities to an unprecedented degree. The primary advantage of these ships, however, will be their lower cost and in particular their low operational costs and maintenance requirements. High levels of automation on the ships will reduce the need for a large crew, which will be particularly valuable with further contractions to the British Armed Forced expected. While the British destroyer fleet is already extremely small, with China having laid down ten in 2019 alone and South Korea and France each fielding twice and many, the complete elimination heavy high endurance surface combatants will seriously undermine London’s claim to be a leading military power - as well as its ability to meet its pledges to project power east of Suez to East Asia and the Persian Gulf.