Frigates: Antisubmarine Warfare
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to recommendation 38 of the Strategic Defence Review: Making Britain Safer: secure at home, strong abroad, published on 2 June 2025, if he will list the (a)Governments and (b) private financial institutions that his Department will engage with to deliver an integrated frigate force for anti-submarine warfare.
Answered by Luke Pollard
The Royal Navy’s primary relationship for anti-submarine warfare is with NATO and the NATO nations that the Navy routinely operates alongside. As the recent announcement by Norway to select the UK’s Type 26 frigate for their own fleet shows, the number of participants in the integrated frigate force continues to grow. To ensure the UK builds future-proof capabilities to counter the underwater threat to UK and NATO interests, the Royal Navy continues to develop the Atlantic Bastion programme.
To support this the Ministry of Defence are actively engaging with a variety of international and domestic stakeholders, across NATO, AUKUS and industry on this subject. However, the details of these engagements are commercially sensitive, and it is therefore inappropriate comment further at this time.
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