Why Polish Support to Type 31 Construction is Excellent News for The Royal Navy

The Daily Telegraph is reporting that Poland will construct parts of the new Type 31 frigate HMS ACTIVE. The vessel, laid down in January 2023 will be constructed with some parts of the ship built by Polish yards. The reason for this is to help Poland gain experience in construction of the Type 31 ahead of their own vessels entering service in due course. Is this good news or a cause for concern?

Building ships is an emotive issue in the UK where there is, in some quarters, a strong desire to ensure that ships are built in their entirety in by British shipbuilders and not abroad. This desire to have a ‘built in Britain’ stamp sits uneasily with the same desire that the UK should be a shipbuilding exporter and provide vessels to foreign nations – why should other nations buy British but it is not acceptable for the British to work with global partners? This is an uneasy tension at the heart of the shipbuilding debate. It has been thrust into the public consciousness with the news that the new RFA stores vessels will also comprise elements built in part in Spanish yards, coming on the back of the wholesale construction of the RFA TIDE class in Korea.

It is understandable that people want to see ships built in their home nation, more than any other military asset a warship embodies national pride and style and speaks to the capability of the nation that built it. To own and deploy a fleet of nationally designed and built warships is rightly a source of pride to many people. But in an era of globalisation is it a credible aspiration to have or something that matters less?

The challenges the UK faces is in ensuring that there is sufficient capacity in UK yards to build ships, but also that this is sustainable. There is little point creating a large shipbuilding industry if it is to collapse without follow on orders or face painful downsizing. The Canadian experience of constructing the CITY class frigates in the 1980s only for the enterprise to vanish speaks to that. There is a fine balance to be struck between sustainable industry and vainglorious projects that cost more and deliver less. In the case of the UK the balance needs to be keeping the Type 31 affordable and in ensuring that it enters service against some very pressing timelines to replace the now positively ancient Type 23 fleet (assuming these remaining ships aren’t scrapped or placed in deep reserve in the forthcoming round of Defence Cuts in June as some rumours indicate). Getting this sorted requires accepting trade offs and compromises to ensure that delivery is met on time and to budget.

At the same time the UK wants to try to develop the Type 31 as a credible export frigate that can help compete against similar offers from other nations. To date it has been the most successful export frigate design the UK has offered since the Leander class, with the Indonesian and Polish navies both ordering vessels based on the design (5 hulls in total) and more may well follow. By offering shipbuilding opportunities to nations that buy into the design this not only derisks the project as their industry gets used to it ahead of time, but also makes it cheaper for everybody – building 3 or 4 sets of equipment in bulk will always be cheaper than building one set for order at three different times. The benefits here are twofold – firstly it keeps the costs down for the UK hull and helps ensure delivery on time. Secondly it sends a positive message of cooperation to partner nations that the UK is willing to work in a truly collaborative style – moving the story from one of ‘buying a British design’ to one of ‘buying a British design and building parts of British warships’ – that is a very powerful offer to make to nations deciding whether they want to buy British or French designs.

The days when the UK could market hull designs and get export orders without a huge amount of interest being paid to offsets have gone forever. Industry needs to show that it is both willing to work in partnership with other nations and also that it enjoys strong government support for its bid. Allowing foreign yards to build parts of the Royal Navy fleet is about the strongest possible sign of support, and may be influential in tipping the decision over the line to approval. Investment in warship building is a complex game of considering capabilities and benefits – nations buying from other nations will be looking for the best possible overall deal, not just the cheapest. The UK approach will be seen as far more collaborative than many other nations.

Also, its not as if the UK hasn’t got form for relying on Polish or other foreign built vessels to carry out government work. Right now the Scottish government uses a patrol ship built in Poland as part of its fishery protection agency and other government vessels such as the SD Victoria (a key Special Forces support vessel) were built abroad too. The fact is that our allies have long been the source of vessels that the UK has used to good effect. There is no reason for concern or alarm about the news that Poland is helping build parts of HMS ACTIVE, if anything we should welcome it as a renewed symbol of the deep defence relationship between the two nations – particularly as Poland emerges as a leading European military power – it may well herald future cooperation across a range of areas that will be hugely beneficial to UK industry as a whole.

Right now there is still a very healthy pipeline of construction work underway for the Royal Navy and wider government that needs to be factored in when looking at the state of UK shipbuilding. Right now there are no less than 6 frigates (4 x Type 26, 2 x Type 31) physically under construction in the UK and due to enter service in the next few years. A further 7 (4 x Type 26 and 3 x Type 31) are on order and due to enter construction soon. With three giant RFA support ships due to begin construction shortly, each of which will be some of the largest military vessels ever built or operated by the UK (at 216m and roughly 40,000 tonnes displacement they are far bigger than most aircraft carriers the UK has ever built). This is in addition to plans for the Type 32 frigate and a steady flow of new support vessels to take on the work carried out by the MCMV force as it transitions to uncrewed operations in the coming years. Meanwhile there are two SSNs and three SSBNs under physical construction with a further SSBN and plans for a new class of SSN under way too.

The big challenge the UK faces is arguably one of sheer capacity trying to find the space in shipyards across the UK as well as the associated supply chain to try to complete all of this work on time. Trying to get enough skilled workers will be a challenge and pressure on the supply chain to deliver will be intense. It makes a lot of sense to consider looking for foreign support to help deliver parts of the vessels to fuse them together into British warships if that is what is needed to ensure the Royal Navy is properly supported.

While it is understandable that some people may feel that somehow the UK is failing because it isn’t building 100% of a ship at home this sort of attitude is, frankly, a bit silly. There is no such thing as a truly home grown warship anymore – take a look at the supply chain required to bring together the technology to build and operate a modern warship and you quickly realise that firms from across the planet are responsible for providing parts that feed into other parts that in  turn become a device or machine onboard. It is impossible for any nation to have a truly indigenous warship simply because everyone is reliant on the global supply chain to provide the parts they need. As the Russians are finding out to their cost, being cut off from global supply chains can have a damaging impact on your supposedly indigenous defence industry.

What really matters is that the UK has the ideal combination of an ability to indigenously design a warship that meets British needs, build it at home and make use of a supply chain that allows access to the most advanced systems and sensors to support the ship and then operate it successfully as well as market it for export. Very few nations can do this, yet the UK is able to do so and support a large and vibrant package of military shipbuilding. This is an incredibly exciting time for British shipbuilders and the future is very bright.