UK to replace fleet of destroyers with 'budget warships'

The UK will replace a fleet of big, expensive destroyers with smaller, budget warships under an investment plan that seeks to rearm the military for less cash than officers say they need.

The move - described by one source as a "pragmatic solution" to funding constraints - will form part of the long-delayed defence investment plan, which the government is finally expected to unveil on Tuesday.

However, it will leave the Royal Navy without a like-for-like successor for its Type 45 destroyer. The £1bn warship is currently the only piece of British kit that can intercept ballistic missiles.

Dan Jarvis, the defence secretary, is thought to have secured up to £1.5bn in additional money for the armed forces on top of some £13.5bn already fought for by John Healey, his predecessor.

Yet the amount remains far short of the tens of billions of pounds of extra funding that military insiders say would be required to fix the UK's hollowed-out defences in time for a potential war with Russia by 2030 - a timeline that Sir Keir Starmer has used.

Mr Healey quit earlier this month in protest at a failure by the outgoing prime minister to invest faster, and while his successor has spent the past two-and-a-half weeks tweaking the investment plan, the revised document is still set to leave the military wanting.

Rather than wallow in despair, though, the army, navy and air force appear to be attempting to make the best of a less-than-optimum outcome.

They need to do all they can, regardless of political priorities, to embrace new technologies and regrow credible fighting power at a time of mounting threats.

"This seems to be the most pragmatic solution," the defence source said, referring to the announcement by the Ministry of Defence that the navy's six Type 45 destroyers will eventually be replaced by what the department is calling a "common combat vessel".

There is not yet a contract for this ship - the model does not even have a name - but it will be a crewed frigate, which is smaller than a destroyer, and could well be an iteration of the new Type 31 variant that is already being built.

The "common combat vessel" will be focused on defending against incoming missiles and drones, which is a core task of a destroyer, rather than anti-submarine warfare, which is a key role of an ordinary frigate.

The proposed new warship is also expected to operate alongside a suite of uncrewed air, sea and sub-surface drones, including missile barges to provide a layered air defence.

It means, in theory, this "hybrid" capability - which is apparently due to enter into service from the early 2030s, though these sorts of procurements have a sorry history of running late - should be able to perform the same air defence role as a Type 45, but at half the price, according to the defence source.

As well as being good for keeping down cost, deploying budget warships also makes them more expendable in a fight.

At present, the navy runs the risk of only having ships - such as its destroyers and its two £3bn aircraft carriers - that are deemed too expensive to deploy in hostile waters.

"Our Royal Navy is a formidable force, operating to protect our nation and our allies in the Atlantic and beyond," Mr Jarvis said in a statement.

"These common combat vessels will provide our dedicated sailors with hybrid ships that are designed and built for the increasing threats we face."

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The announcement spells the end of naval aspirations to acquire a next-generation destroyer, called the Type 83, which would have been even more costly than the Type 45.

Tom Sharpe, a former naval commander, warned that there was a risk in betting on technology that was not yet proven to compensate for warships that the navy could no longer afford.

"It does feel a bit defeatist," he said.

The Royal Navy - once the most powerful naval force on the planet - has struggled in recent decades as a failure to invest earlier in a replacement fleet of frigates has left its remaining six or seven Type 23 vessels limping on or out of service.

The Type 45 destroyers are newer, but they have suffered from engine woes that mean at any one time half, if not more, of the fleet is alongside in maintenance.

Under the investment plan, the navy ultimately aims to acquire a total of 13 anti-submarine warfare frigates, a mix of Type 26 and Type 31 models.

A prospective Type 32 variant is now thought to be dead.

In addition, it is expected to receive at least six of these new air defence "common combat vessels" to replace the destroyers, along with a range of different types of much cheaper uncrewed platforms.

Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the previous chief of the defence staff, was scathing about how the armed forces had been allowed to whither under successive governments.

In a sign of this decline, the UK is second from the bottom of a table that ranks which country is meeting its NATO commitments, propped up by Iceland, which does not have a military.

"Hardly 'leading in Europe'," Sir Tony wrote in an article for The Times. "More 'NATO 31st' than 'NATO First'. Awkward."

The former military chief was referring to the mantra of "NATO first" that runs through a sweeping review of defence that was published under the Starmer government in June 2025, underlining the priority Britain places on being a leading member of the alliance.

That review set out plans to transform, regrow and modernise the military over the next decade. It should have been followed by the investment plan last autumn.

However, the Strategic Defence Review was never properly funded, and the ambition that it envisaged was always unaffordable, meaning the Ministry of Defence would need to impose swingeing cuts at a time when the rest of Europe was regrowing their militaries at pace. The mismatch triggered months of wrangling, which delayed the release of the investment plan.

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