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The United Kingdom has secured a £10 billion agreement to supply the Norwegian navy with at least five new warships.
According to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the deal to provide Type 26 frigates will be the UK’s “biggest ever warship export deal by value.” Norway has characterized the agreement as its largest “defence capability investment” to date.
The government anticipates that the deal will sustain 4,000 UK jobs “well into the 2030s,” including over 2,000 at BAE Systems’ Glasgow shipyards, where the frigates will be constructed.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer stated that the agreement would “drive growth and protect national security for working people.”
He further commented, “This success is testament to the thousands of people across the country who are not just delivering this next generation capabilities for our Armed Forces but also national security for the UK, our Norwegian partners and Nato for years to come.”
The MoD also expects the deal to support more than 400 British businesses, including 103 in Scotland.
Speaking to the BBC, Defence Minister Luke Pollard hailed it as the “biggest British warship deal in history” and “a huge vote of confidence in British workers and the British defence industry.”
However, the move has faced criticism from some quarters in Norway, including Tor Ivar Strømmen, a naval captain at the Norwegian Naval Academy, who suggested that French and German frigates were superior to their British counterparts.
“The British Navy builds vessels for one role,” he told Norwegian outlet NRK. “It simply has old-fashioned and quite limited air defence.”
The agreement marks a significant win for the British government and defence industry, prevailing over competition from France, Germany, and the United States, all of which were considered by Norway.
The deal will establish a combined UK-Norwegian fleet of 13 anti-submarine frigates – eight British and five Norwegian vessels – intended to operate jointly in northern Europe, thereby significantly bolstering NATO’s northern flank.
The warships will be constructed at the BAE Systems yard in the Govan area of Glasgow, where frigates for the Royal Navy are currently under construction.
Scottish Secretary Ian Murray asserted that the UK’s selection “demonstrates the tremendous success of our shipbuilding industry and showcases the world-class skills and expertise of our workforce on the Clyde.”
Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, who informed Sir Keir of the decision to select the UK during a phone call on Saturday night, stated that the partnership “represents a historic strengthening of the defence cooperation between our two countries.”
Støre indicated that the government considered two key questions in its decision-making process: “Who is our most strategic partner? And who has delivered the best frigates?… The answer to both is the United Kingdom.”
The Type 26 frigates procured by the Royal Norwegian Navy will closely mirror those used by their British counterparts, adhering to the same technical specifications.
These frigates are specifically designed to detect, track, and destroy enemy submarines, with deliveries expected to commence in 2030.
UK Defence Secretary John Healey stated that the UK would “train, operate, deter, and – if necessary – fight together” under the auspices of the defence agreement.
“Our navies will work as one, leading the way in Nato, with this deal putting more world-class warships in the North Atlantic to hunt Russian submarines, protect our critical infrastructure, and keep both our nations secure,” he added.
Referring to this year’s strategic defence review, Pollard noted that Russia had been identified “as the principal threat to not just the UK’s security but NATO’s security.”
“A key threat of that is Russian submarines in the North Atlantic,” he told the BBC. “These new Type 26 frigates are world-class submarine hunters.”
Eight Type 26 frigates are currently being built at BAE Systems’ Glasgow shipyards for the Royal Navy, to replace its ageing Type 23 frigates – whose service life has already had to be extended.
The impact of the Norway deal on the delivery timeline for the new vessels to the Royal Navy remains unclear.
A UK defence source indicated that the plan remains to deliver all 8 Type 26 frigates to the Royal Navy within the next decade. Norway has expressed its desire to receive its first Type 26 by 2029.
British officials have told the BBC that the sequencing of delivery for both Norway and the UK remains to be determined.
Two of the warships, HMS Glasgow and HMS Cardiff, have been constructed and are currently being fitted out at a second BAE shipyard, Scotstoun. They are scheduled to enter service in 2028.
Another three, HMS Belfast, HMS Birmingham and HMS Sheffield, are currently under construction.
BAE has also licensed the Type 26 design to Canada and is building the warships in Australia under contract.
As part of a £300m modernization at BAE Systems, a new shipbuilding hall – dubbed the “frigate factory” – was opened earlier this year.
The Janet Harvey Hall, named after a pioneering female electrician, is large enough for two frigates to be built simultaneously.
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