Second-hand parts for Navy’s new warships

platforms”. Equipment which will be taken from them to use on the new City Class vessels includes the Type 997 air defence radar and the Sea Ceptor missile system. There are also plans to remove the hull-mounted sonar from the Type 23 and move it to the new anti-submarine ships, which are expected to escort the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth when they are brought into service. Work began on the first of the three new warships earlier this month at the BAE Systems shipyard in Govan, Glasgow.

The huge order will safeguard 3,400 jobs at the plant on the River Clyde and across Britain.

Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon visited the yard and announced that the first vessel will be named HMS Glasgow.

Speaking to workers he said: “These frigates will be the backbone of the Royal Navy well into the 2050s when you consider there are a further five ships to follow the initial three, and that they will be part of a sophisticated future fleet including destroyers, dreadnoughts, submarines and the offshore patrol vessel.”

The Type 23 frigates have been in service since

1987 and while there were plans to replace all 13, only three Type 26s have been ordered.

The contract for the second batch of five ships is expected to be negotiated in the early

2020s, MoD officials said.