"5 Out of 6 Ain't Bad" - Why Type 45 Availability Isn't a Cause for Worry

Does the Royal Navy have enough ships to meet the tasks placed on it?  This was a question asked yesterday following suggestions that there was only one operational Type 45 destroyer, and all the rest were “out of action”. Is this criticism accurate, or is there more to this than meets the eye?

Warship availability is perennially tricky subject to discuss. There is perhaps a not unreasonable expectation in the eyes of the public that having spent a lot of money on ships, that these ships are in turn ready for action when required, and not be ‘loafing’ in port or ‘broken’.

The Type 45 force in particular has been the subject of a lot of attention, particularly over power plant issues. There is a perception that somehow the UK does not have working ships, or enough of them.

Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright

The challenge is that ships need maintenance, they need repairs, and they work to a complex and carefully planned programme of activity to ensure constant availability. In simple terms, all navies plan their ships to be available for deployment, in some form of maintenance or in deep refit.

Maintenance and refit are two quite different concepts and often confused. Right now, there are two Type 45s in refit, which means that the ship is essentially out of commission, in dockyard hands and with all manner of parts removed and being replaced, upgraded, or improved. These refits can take a long time – many months, if not years, and often result in the ships company being disbanded, and a small token crew assigned to nurse the ship through refit and back to service.

Refits are a major piece of work, and every ship will need to undergo one at regular intervals to stay relevant and capable for their intended roles. They are also not cheap, MOD refit contracts regularly run to the hundreds of millions of pounds, which gives an indication of the scale of work required. Right now there appear to be two Type 45 in deep refit, albeit at different stages in the cycle, and this would feel entirely normal numbers for a class of six ships.

Maintenance, by contrast, is much more about the planned (or occasionally unplanned) period alongside to make sure things are working as intended. As equipment gets used, it will often need planned maintenance to replace worn parts, or ensure it is serviced – think of maintenance as the equivalent of taking your car to the garage for a regular service.

Given how complex warships are, and how much equipment is fitted to them that requires attention, its not a surprise that ships do need to programme in regular maintenance periods to ensure it can work as planned when required. To that end ships usually spend periods of time in port on a reasonably regular basis to make sure things can work as required.

It isn’t unusual for Royal Navy vessels to do maintenance periods abroad – in fact its extremely common. Most deploying ships will spend time away doing the routine maintenance, defect rectification and repairs that build up over a sustained period away from home.

Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright

Right now, of the four Type 45s in planned maintenance, it appears that one is in for long term deep refit (DAUNTLESS) to undergo the power upgrade. Two more are in planned deeper maintenance and refit periods (DARING and DUNCAN), but it’s unclear when these are due to finish, and one (DRAGON) is in short term alongside operational maintenance period, prior to deploying.

What this means is that DRAGON is available for operations at relatively short notice, as she is about to deploy, while two others are deployed, albeit with one undergoing unscheduled maintenance in Italy.

 It would perhaps be more accurate to say that of the six strong Type 45 fleet, three are operationally worked up or deployed, one more appears to be regenerating and two are in longer term deep refit.

This suddenly presents a rather different picture – of the six ships, 50% are either on, or about to deploy operationally. A fourth will, judging by her twitter feed, be in a state to commence work up and sea training shortly to deploy again in due course. That is nowhere near as bad as you may imagine.

In historical terms this is about where the Type 45 force has always been – three hulls worked up and on or preparing to go on deployment, and a further three in different states of repair or maintenance.

For a relatively small force, and one that is worked hard this represents a genuinely good news story. It shows that the Royal Navy can keep on supporting and globally deploying these ships on a sustained basis and keeping the ships and crews available when they are needed. This isn’t as easy as it sounds and is a real testament to the work of both the RN, the Civil Service and UK defence industry to bring this all together.

The question will doubtless be asked ‘why can’t we get four or five to sea’ – which is an entirely reasonable question. The answer is you possibly could, but that to do so would wreak havoc with refit programmes and operational cycles. What is more important – is it a short-term surge, or a longer-term ability to keep a smaller number available consistently?

Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright

Arguably the ability to keep doing things on a long-term basis is more important – particularly for ships as vital as the Type 45s. If you mess around too much with their programmes, or disrupt maintenance routines, it can have a knock-on impact, for example possibly making it harder to put together ships for a Carrier Strike Group.

Finally, it’s important to understand that no navy keeps its ships at sea 100% of the time – every navy will find that the majority of its ships are not actually deployed. This may sound an odd thing to say, but by the time you focus on ships programmes, activities, and their deployment cycles, having a ship operationally deployed and available takes a lot of ship hulls to be able to do.

The argument that the UK needs a bigger navy is also well understood – there is no debating that fact, and its recognised by the MOD. That’s why the Royal Navy is in the middle of one of the most ambitious and impressive shipbuilding programmes on the planet intended to grow the fleet.

Over the next 10-15 years the escort force will grow in number, with the Type 26,31 and 32 escorts all entering service, and the force should rise from 19 to 24 hulls. That is a 25% increase in the escort fleet, and when coupled with the fact that the Type 45s will be getting significantly more firepower, heralds a positive future in which the Royal Navy has more ships and weapons at sea than it has for many years.

In this case, we have fallen into the curiously British trap of beating ourselves up for the heinous crime of doing a good job. With a force of six destroyers, the UK is managing to consistently keep roughly 50% of them available and ready for operations and do so on a global basis. Most other navies would dream of that kind of sustained operational availability for their ships, let alone be able to deploy them and support them globally.

The short-term availability of the Type 45 is not something to worry about, and the medium-term outlook for the Royal Navy is extremely bright too. There is much to be positive about here.