Royal Navy: Cost of maintaining Type 23 frigates revealed as work continues on new Type 31 replacements

James Cartlidge, Minister of State for the Ministry of Defence (MoD), said hundreds of millions of pounds will be spent on the upkeep of the Type 23 frigates. The Duke class vessels are due to be replaced by more advanced Type 31 counterparts.

Work on the first two of these vessels, HMS Venturer and HMS Active, are taking place at the Babcock shipyard in Rosyth, Scotland. In a written question submitted to parliament, Labour MP for North Durham Kevan Jones, asked what the budget is for the Life Extension programme for the Type 23 frigates.

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Mr Cartlidge, Conservative MP for South Suffolk, said: “The Type 23 frigates are not the subject of a formal life extension programme.

The ships undergo a planned series of Upkeep periods in order to maintain their condition and introduce capability updates.

SEE ALSO: HMS Montrose decommissioned

"The current allocated funding to deliver all Type 23 frigate class upkeeps to their out of service date is £676.7 million over 10 years, this includes the costs allocated in financial year 2023-24.”

Some of the vessels in the type 23 class have already been decommissioned.

A ceremony was held at Portsmouth Naval Base to honour HMS Montrose in April after over 30 years of service – involved in several high profile drugs busts and anti-piracy operations across the globe.

HMS Venturer, the first of the five new Type 31 frigates, has recently had her bulbous bow put in place.