Work is due to begin on the second Type 26 frigate at the BAE Systems shipyard in Glasgow, according to a report in
The Scotsman.
The first piece of steel for HMS Cardiff will be cut at a ceremony later this month.
Meanwhile, the construction of HMS Glasgow — the first of the Type 26 frigates — is already well under way at the historic Govan yard on the Clyde, with 25 of its 57 component parts assembled.
After the ship is floated out in around two years’ time, it will be finished at the BAE facility downstream at Scotstoun.
HMS Glasgow is due to be handed over to the Royal Navy by the mid-2020s, by which time the wider Type 26 project will be well advanced.
With a contract to build three Type 26s in Glasgow already in place, talks have now begun between the company and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on a deal to construct another five; that would guarantee shipbuilding work on the Clyde well into the 2030s.
Nadia Savage, director of the Type 26 programme, said: “We will enter into the negotiation phase in the next 18 to 20 months.”
As a sign of its confidence that the deal for the second batch will be signed, BAE bosses point to the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), in which the UK Government committed to delivering eight advanced anti-submarine warfare ships for the Navy.
Modified versions of the Type 26 for the Australian and Canadian navies will be constructed overseas, but they will draw on the expertise of BAE and its suppliers in the UK. In all, 32 vessels will be built around the world.
The construction of HMS Belfast, the third Type 26, will begin in the early 2020s.