BAE Systems Working On Future Royal Navy Ships

The Royal Navy has one major program underway right now. This is the new aircraft carrier which hopefully will deliver the two largest carriers used by the service in its history. Now BAE Systems has announced that they are designing the new surface combatants that will support these ships as well as perform general duties. The company has just started on a preliminary design for the two destroyers. If all goes well a production contract will be awarded in about ten years. The RN hopefully will buy up to twenty of these ships.

The U.S. Navy’s DDG-1000 and Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) programs are their new warships but those programs have suffered from development and cost issues. Right now the DDG-1000 is on hold while the U.S. continues to build DDG-51 class ships. The LCS program was to have two different designs built by Northrop and General Dynamics but now a down select is planned for one ship only.

The British Government faces major budgetary pressures due to the world’s economic doldrums and social spending. This along with the cost of operations in Afghanistan may lead to limits on how many ships may be built in the future. The carrier program itself may be delayed if funding issues persist. Despite the need for new surface ships it is not necessarily the best time for programs like this.

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One Response to “BAE Systems Working On Future Royal Navy Ships”

  1. Sea Links « New Wars on November 27th, 2009 3:02 am

    [...] BAE systems to create plans for new Frigates. More. More. [...]

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