At Least Someone is Getting a New Frigate

We tainted them a bit with the marketing gimmick for the name ... but otherwise, it's a frigate.

The design of the Royal Navy's latest warship has been revealed by the Ministry of Defence.

The announcement on the Type 26 Global Combat Ship has been described by officials as a "significant milestone" in a programme which will support "thousands of UK shipbuilding jobs".
...
The ship will be 148 metres long with a displacement of 5,400 tonnes.
Continue reading the main story
...
Vertical missile silos for a range of weapons, such as cruise missiles, will be housed on board along with a medium calibre gun.

The hangar on board will house a Merlin or Wildcat helicopter and there will be extra space for unmanned drones, underwater vehicles or other specialist equipment.
...
"It is designed to be adaptable and easily upgraded, reacting to threats as they change."The Type 26 will replace the 13 Type 23 frigates but the MoD is not giving a precise commitment on numbers until they know the unit cost .

The First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, says the ship will be used "across the full spectrum of warfare".

He added: "The T26 GCS will be a multi-mission warship designed for joint and multinational operations... including complex combat operations, maritime security operations such as counter piracy, as well as humanitarian and disaster relief work around the world."

Hopefully the RN will do this right ... but looks like a good bit of kit.

Displacement: 5,400 tonnes, standard
Length: 148 m (489 ft 6 in)
Beam: 19 m (62 ft 1 in)
Speed: 28+ knots
Range: 11,265 km (7,000 miles) at 15 knots (28 km/h)
Endurance: 60 days
Troops: 36 embarked troops
Complement: 130
Sensors and processing systems:
- Artisan 3D search radar
- Sonar 2087 (towed array sonar)

Armament:

Anti-air missiles;
- Sea Ceptor air-defence missile system. A 16 cell VLS with provision for up to 64 Sea Ceptor missiles (range 1-25 km)[3]

Anti-ship & land-attack missiles;
- A 24 cell "Main Strike" VLS is positioned behind the Sea Captor air-defence VLS with provision for anti-ship & land-attack missiles. (possibly CVS401 Perseus missiles)

Anti-submarine torpedoes;
- A torpedo launching system. (armed with Stingray torpedoes)

Guns;
1× 127mm Medium calibre gun, or, 1× BAE 4.5 inch Mk8 gun
2× Phalanx CIWS
2× 30mm DS30M automated guns
2× Miniguns
4× General-purpose machine guns

Aircraft carried: 1×Lynx Wildcat, armed with;

- anti ship missiles (possibly Sea Skua), or
- anti submarine torpedoes

or 1×Westland Merlin, armed with;

- 4× anti submarine torpedoes

After our LCS fail the test of war, maybe for old times sake we can get a few of these on a new lend-lease program ....