True cost of new frigates will be far higher

Madam, – While the decision to proceed with the UK Type 31 Frigate programme is to be welcomed, the way in which the Ministry of Defence is understating the cost of the selected Type 31 Frigate design needs to be challenged.

At approaching twice the displacement of the other unsuccessful (rival) Type 31 proposals, and with a length and armament approaching that of a Type 26 Frigate, the selected Type 31 Frigate design is a distortion and corruption of the smaller, affordable warship that Type 31 was meant to be.

There is no way that this over-size Type 31 frigate design, with this level of capability, can be built and delivered from UK yards for anything close to the official budget of £250 million average per hull which is just one fifth of the cost of a Type 26 Frigate.

It is thoroughly disingenuous of the Royal Navy to claim that it can.

Instead, in all likelihood, the final bill for these ships will treble to around £750m per hull; something that will dash any hope of re-growing the size of the fleet.

It is at best naïve, and at worst dishonest, to claim that a bigger ship needn’t cost more; the cost escalation that goes with increased ship size has been amply demonstrated on recent UK naval programmes.

Comparing the Type 31 design proposal against the £150m cost per hull of the simple, effectively unarmed, Batch 2 “River” class Patrol Ships currently being delivered, it is implausible that, for just £100m more per hull, a fully armed front-line ship of three times the displacement will be delivered.

This is particularly the case once the decision to split build between geographically separate yards is factored in.

The Type 31 programme was meant to be about the Royal Navy turning over a new leaf, doing things more affordably and within budget, curtailing its penchant for unaffordable ships.

Instead, before the ink is even dry on the contract, it has reverted to form, understating cost to gain programme approval, with the apparent intent of squirrelling away the cost growth until much later in the programme and everyone will react with feigned surprise when the true cost emerges. Dr Mark CampbellRoddis.

1 Pont Crescent, Dunblane.