Navy to build drone-equipped warships instead of replacing ageing destroyers

Plans to replace ageing warships will be scrapped in favour of building at least six new modern “hybrid” vessels equipped to deploy drones in the UK’s upcoming defence strategy.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the new vessels would be more suited to the “pace and nature of modern warfare”, and a better investment than a “small number of large expensive ships”.

Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis said the new equipment would be “designed and built for the increasing threats we face”.

Outgoing Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has committed to publishing the long-delayed defence investment plan (DIP) before the Nato summit in Turkey on 7 July after months of talks over how to fund it.

The MoD had been exploring options to replace the Type 45, the Navy’s fleet of destroyers, with the Type 83, a concept vessel which was at an early design phase.

Instead, investment will now go towards six new Common Combat Vessels, which the department said would be capable of “coordinating uncrewed systems in the air, on the surface and under the sea to deliver more resilient air defence”.

It said the change in approach would extend “the Navy’s reach, resilience and firepower without a proportional increase in crew or cost”.

The government did not specify how much funding had been set aside in the DIP for development of the new vessels, which are expected to be delivered in the 2030s.

It said they would be part of operations “to counter Russian activity in the North Atlantic and High North, protect critical underwater infrastructure, and enhance Nato deterrence”.

The release of the plans follows the interception of a Russian “shadow fleet” oil tanker in the English Channel on 14 June.

Starmer said of that operation at the time that it “reminds those fuelling [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s war in Ukraine that we will not let them hide.”

Along with support vessels, the department said the naval programme would be “a once in a generation investment in new maritime capability”, and provide work for British shipyards.

Fraught budget negotiations between the MoD, Treasury and departments across government told to make cuts to pay for the DIP have led to the resignations of John Healey as defence secretary and Al Carns as armed forces minister in recent weeks.

Both said the Treasury had not committed enough extra funding to address capability gaps in the British military, or keep up with the pace of change in modern warfare.

Healey said Starmer had been “unable”, and the Treasury “unwilling”, to commit the resources needed to defend the country at “this time of rising threats”.

Carns said the draft DIP plan was “neither transformative enough nor sufficiently funded”.

Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge has said the plans are “too little too late”.