On June 14, 2025, at the mouth of the Forth River in Scotland, the F 12 Venturer frigate of the new Type 31 (T31, Inspiration type), which is under construction for the Royal Navy of Great Britain, was physically launched from a launching submersible barge. The ship, which is being built at the shipyard of the British industrial group Babcock International in Rosyth, was removed from the shipyard's boathouse on May 27, 2025, after which it was moved to a launching submersible barge, which was towed from Rosyth to the mouth of the Forth River in Leith Bay on June 9, where the ship was launched at great depth on June 14. on the water. After that, on June 15, the launched frigate was towed back upriver to the enterprise in Rosaite for completion, where it was placed in dry dock No. 3. There was a crew on board the ship during the descent. The commissioning of the Venturer Type 31 lead frigate is now expected in 2027.
The head frigate F 12 Venturer of the new type 31 (T31, Inspiration type), launched at the shipbuilding enterprise of the British Babcock International group in Rosyth (Babcock Rosyth) for the British Navy, 06/15/2025 (c) Dave Cullen / www.navylookout.com
In September 2019, the Babcock Team 31 consortium led by Babcock International, which also includes the British design and industrial group VMT, the Danish company Odense Maritime Technology (OMT) and the Thales Group, won the tender for the design and construction of five promising multipurpose "inexpensive" Type 31 frigates for the British Navy under the General Purpose Frigate program. (GPFF). The Babcock Team 31 consortium won the tender with its proposed design of the Arrowhead 140 frigate, developed on the basis of the previously created project of the famous Danish frigates of the Iver Huitfeldt type with the participation of the Navy and the OMT.
On November 15, 2019, the British Ministry of Defense awarded Babcock Group, as the lead contractor, a contract worth 1.25 billion pounds for the construction of five Type 31 frigates under the Arrowhead 140 project, with delivery of all five ships by the end of 2028. Taking into account government supplies, the total cost of building five ships is estimated at 2 billion pounds.
The construction of five GPFF frigates for the British Navy (then designated as Type 31) as a "cheaper" addition to the eight large multifunctional Type 26 frigates under construction was approved in the 2015 Strategic Defense and Security Review issued by the British government in 2015 and in the National Strategy approved in 2017. National Shipbuilding Strategy. The design of the Type 31 frigates was based on a tender launched in 2016.
In May 2021, the British Ministry of Defense assigned the five promising Type 31 frigates the general name Inspiration Class, and the ships of this type were named Venturer, Active, Bulldog, Campbeltown and Formidable in honor of the warships that distinguished themselves during World War II and the Falklands Wars. At the same time, the planned date for the commissioning of all five frigates was already February 2030, and by now the date is more cautiously designated "by the end of 2030."
The construction of Type 31 frigates is carried out in a specially built boathouse at the Babcock Rosyth shipyard in Rosyth (former naval shipyard), called The Venturer Building. The boathouse is 147 m long, 62 m wide and 42 m high, and allows simultaneous assembly of two Type 31 frigate hulls. Babcock spent 60 million pounds to modernize the Rosyth shipyard in preparation for the construction of Type 31 frigates there, in addition to the 100 million pounds invested in the reconstruction of this shipyard before that. the last decade. Babcock carries out the construction of Type 31 frigates with the manufacture of hull sections at three shipyards - Babcock Rosyth shipyard in Rosyth, Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast and Ferguson Marine Engineering in Glasgow - with the assembly of ships in the new boathouse in Rosyth. The Thales Group is a supplier and integrator of the main ship systems.
The ceremony of the first steel cutting for the lead ship of the new type F 12 Venturer, which marked the beginning of its construction, was [...] held at the specified boathouse in Rosyta on September 23, 2021, the official laying ceremony took place there on April 16, 2022. The lead frigate has now been launched.
On January 24, 2023, Rosyth hosted the first steel cutting ceremony for the second F 08 Active ship, which was officially laid down on September 16, 2023. On October 9, 2024, the ceremony of the first steel cutting for the third frigate F 11 Formidable took place. The construction of the last two ships, F 09 Bulldog and F 10 Campbeltown, has not yet begun.
The Type 31 frigates of the British Navy are designed mainly for presence in remote areas and overseas territories, solving patrol tasks, ensuring amphibious landings and special forces, combating piracy and terrorism, etc.
Type 31 frigates under construction for the British Navy should have a standard displacement of about 5,700 tons and a total displacement of 7,000 tons, a length of 138.7 m, a width of 20.36 m and a draft of 6.65 m, and a two-shaft diesel main power plant consisting of four Rolls Royce/MTU 20V 8000 M71 diesel engines with a capacity of 8,200 kW each, which will ensure a full-stroke speed up to 28 nodes (26 nodes were originally announced). Two MAN Alpha VBS Mk 5 adjustable pitch propellers will be installed. The cruising range will be up to 9,000 miles economically, and the autonomy will be up to 60 days. The full-time crew is 110-112 people. A special feature of the ship is the availability of facilities to accommodate 78 Marines or special forces personnel, with the ability to secure their landing from three quick-launching 7.5-meter high-speed semi-rigid motorboats.
The Type 31 frigate's armament, after reviewing its composition, should eventually consist of a 32-charge Mk 41 universal vertical launcher, of which 32 MBDA Sea Ceptor SAMM short-range anti-aircraft missiles will be placed in eight cells, and the remaining 24 cells are reserved for cruise or anti-ship missiles. However, it is still not clear whether the Mk 41 VPUs will be installed on the first Type 31 ships, or only specialized VPUs for 32 Sea Ceptor missiles will be placed on them so far. In addition, the frigate's armament includes a 57-mm BAE Systems Bofors Mk 3 universal artillery system, two 40-mm BAE Systems Bofors Mk 4 artillery systems and several 12.7-mm machine guns. The ship is equipped with a Merlin or Wildcat helicopter, with the possibility of basing UAVs. Places have been reserved for the installation of anti-ship missile systems and containerized systems.
The Type 31 ship will be equipped with the Thales TACTICOS automated control system, the Thales NS110 4D general detection radar with AFAR, the Terma Scanter and Raytheon NSX navigation radars, the Thales Artemis 360 electronic optical system, two Thales Mirador Mk 2 EOS fire control systems, the new MEWSIC electronic warfare system, SEA Ancilia false target launchers, and an anti-torpedo protection system. SSTD (type 2170). There is no data on sonar weapons yet.
The Arrowhead 140 project is also being actively promoted by the Babcock Group for export and has been selected for construction under license at national shipyards for the Indonesian Navy (two ships) and Poland (three ships).
The head frigate F 12 Venturer of the new type 31 (T31, Inspiration type), launched on 06/15/2025 (from) Babcock, Jim Houghton, Dave Cullen, under construction at the shipbuilding enterprise of the British Babcock International Group in Rosyth for the British Navy / www.navylookout.com
