Type 26 frigate

The Type 26 frigate, also called the City-class frigate and marketed by BAE Systems as the Global Combat Ship, is a class of warships being built for the Royal Navy, with modified versions chosen by Australia, Canada and Norway. Its main task is anti-submarine warfare, with air defence and general purpose duties as secondary roles. The programme grew out of the Future Surface Combatant studies that began in 1998, and in 2010 BAE Systems Maritime Naval Ships received a design contract to work out the ship. The Royal Navy plans to use the class to partly replace its thirteen Type 23 frigates. Manufacture was contracted in 2017 and steel was cut for the lead ship, HMS Glasgow, that July, with the hulls assembled at the Govan and Scotstoun yards on the Clyde. The British ships use a combined diesel-electric or gas arrangement built around a Rolls-Royce MT30 gas turbine, with a design displacement of about 6,900 tonnes and a core crew of 157. Australia builds its version as the Hunter class and Canada plans its own River class.