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FEBRUARY 16, 2024

INSIGHTS

End in sight for the Royal Navy’s Type 23 frigate LIFEX programme

Here we provide an update on the complex support programme that is being undertaken to keep the Type 23 frigates in service.

The programme of life extension refits to upgrade and repair the ageing Type 23 frigates to serve beyond their 30th birthdays is almost complete. The last ship to undergo this process, HMS Sutherland is still in the Frigate Support Centre (FSC) shed at Devonport but will undock in late February and should be ready to be handed back to the RN in June.

Each frigate undergoing life extension (LIFEX) refit has a hull survey and repairs, the Sea Wolf missile system replaced with Sea Ceptor, new Artisan radar (if not already fitted) and a wide range of other upgrades and refurbishments. While delivering an important capability boost, the work has mostly taken longer than expected and the work on each vessel has often been a unique project. As each ship was stripped down and surveyed, different levels of hull corrosion, structural problems and equipment deterioration were revealed. This partly explains why the time taken for each ship has varied significantly between vessels.

Frigate*	PGMU status	LIFEX refit start	LIFEX refit end	LIFEX duration (months)	First post-LIFEX refit start
HMS Westminster	N	Oct 2014	Mar 2017	30	To be decommissioned
HMS Argyll	N	May 2015	Apr 2017	24	May 2022
HMS Montrose	N	Mar 2014	July 2015	17	Decommissioned
HMS Northumberland	Future?	May 2016	Apr 2018	23	Due Mar 2024
HMS Kent	Future?	Oct 2016	Oct 2018	25	Due June 2024
HMS Lancaster	N	May 2017	Mar 2020	36
HMS Richmond	Y	Sept 2017	Mar 2020	30
HMS Portland	Future?	Apr 2018	May 2021	37	First to have new S2150 Bow Mounted Sonar
HMS Somerset	Future?	Oct 2018	May 2022	43	Post-refit issues delayed return to service until late 2023
HMS Iron Duke	N	May 2019	Jun 2023	49
HMS St Albans	Y	Mid 2019	Mar 2024	58
HMS Sutherland	Y	Dec 2020	Jun 2024	42

(HMS Monmouth decommissioned in 2021 without undergoing life extension.)

The original cost estimate for each LIFEX project was around £35M (excluding the engine upgrades) but this has been exceeded in most cases. HMS Iron Duke was the most extreme example, She did not receive new engines and required 2,000 steel inserts to make her seaworthy in a package that eventually cost £103M. The official figure for HMS Somerset was £60.7M, although she continued to suffer from defects well after the refit was complete. The cost of the LIFEX for every ship has not been released into the public domain, with the MoD citing “commercial sensitivity”.

The impacts of the pandemic clearly did not help but progress was slower than expected. Against expectation, the trend has been that LIFEX projects are taking longer for the later ships. Babcock says they have never delivered a ship late back to the customer and work with the RN to coordinate handover to dovetail with the build-up of the ship’s company (Something the RN is increasingly finding harder to manage). Despite being the youngest of the frigates, HMS St Albans has endured the longest time in LIFEX. The work involved 1.2 million man-hours including some 350 structural enhancements, PGMU and the complete removal of her two electric propulsion motors for a major overhaul. Her ship staff moved onboard in November 2023 but she is not expected to be ready for sea until March.

PGMU ambition scaled back

Originally it was intended that 11 of the 13 ships would receive the Power Generation Machinery Upgrade (PGMU) but only HMS Richmond, St Albans and Sutherland will benefit from this. Essentially the upgrade involves replacing the four diesel generator sets with modern equivalents to provide much greater fuel efficiency and performance, especially in hotter climates. (More technical details here). It is unclear if some of the other frigates that have previously completed LIFEX will return to have PGMU at a later date.

(Left) Before and (right) after PGMU. The only external difference that indicates HMS Richmond has had new engines – re-shaped FAMR diesel generator uptake shroud on the after side of the mainmast. The shroud covers the hot exhaust pipes and the new shape is designed to direct the hot gas flow away from the mast to prevent it heating up. Many anti-ship missiles utilise infra-red heat-seeking guidance and modern warships are designed to reduce their heat signature as much as possible. (Photo: RFA Nostalgia)

The PGMU project presented considerable engineering challenges and attendant costs that were somewhat underestimated at the start. New equipment had to fit within the existing structural and compartment constraints and integrate with the ship’s legacy services and systems. The first frigate to have the PGMU, HMS Richmond went back to sea in March 2020. Her refit employed 350 Babcock staff working a total of 1 million man-hours. 8 km of new cable and 600m of new pipework and were installed. The new diesel-generator sets have to be placed into the Forward Auxiliary Machinery Room (FAMR) below decks. The Upper Auxiliary Machinery Room (UAMR) is on the main deck level and is more easily accessible via deckhead soft patches but was also completely stripped and much equipment re-sited. Richmond has now sailed for thousands of miles and the upgrade has proven to be a success.

HMS Argyll in the basin outside the Frigate Support Centre, Feb 2024 (Photo: Tom Leach).

Back for more

Following the end of the LIFEX project, ships are now returning for their next upkeep period. HMS Argyll was dry-docked in the Summer of 2022 and is part-way through the project. She was undocked in January but soon after the Daily Telegraph reported HMS Argyll would not be returned to service, essentially due to a lack of sailors with crewing Type 31 and Type 26 being prioritised. However, Babcock say the upkeep is continuing and she is now undergoing ‘post dock-dependent work’. The MoD refuses to confirm that HMS Westminster will be scrapped or comment on plans for HMS Argyll.

Having been run extremely hard since completing LIFEX in 2018, HMS Northumberland will go into the FSC dry dock for a badly needed upkeep period in March. HMS Kent will begin similar maintenance package in June. Under Lloyds certification rules now applied to most RN vessels, ships must be dry docked at least every six years and Babcock will be kept busy with a rolling programme of Type 23 frigate maintenance into the 2030s.

An interesting comparison – the Chilean Navy’s three ex-RN Type 23 frigates have undergone similar upgrades with the addition of Sea Ceptor missiles, Hensoldt TRS-40 AESA 4D Radar and a new Lockheed Martin CMS 330 combat management system. (CNS Almirante Condell, ex-HMS Marlborough, July 2022. Photo: US Navy)