The future HMS CARDIFF, second of 8 Type 26 frigates, is about to be lowered into the water for the first time, having left the Govan shipyard aboard the submersible barge MALIN AUGUSTEA to head towards deep waters at Glen Mallan.

After being floated, the ship will head back along the Clyde to enter dry dock at the Scotstoun shipyard for the fitting out phase. The first ship of the class, the future HMS GLASGOW, is also in a dry dock at Scotstoun continuing its fitting out phase. It has switched docks in the last few days, as planned, to make room for her sister. She has been visibly fitted with multiple key systems, with work ongoing on her Vertical Launch silos, both the MK41 (24 cells) and CAMM/SEA CEPTOR cells (24 on the bow and 24 astern of the funnel mast).The ship has also been fitted with her MK45 Mod 4 127 mm gun.

HMS CARDIFF is the second and last Type 26 to be assembled on the open air hardstand in Govan. Work is ongoing to outfit a new shipbuilding hall in Govan which will enable simultaneous assembly of 2 Type 26 side by side. The new hall is part of a wider £300 million programme of improvements to the Govan shipyard, and will finally enable construction to happen away from the disruptions caused by the Scottish weather. The hall is being erected upon what was a wet basin, which has been filled over and consolidated. The hall will require 6,000 tonnes of steel and 20,000 cubic meters of concrete overall and includes prefabricated offices and workshops on either side. In these days it is having its gantry cranes installed: it will have 2 100-tons cranes as well as 2 smaller 20-tons ones.

Earlier this month, BAE Systems named the new Hall after Janet Harvey, a real pioneer who, at 18 years old in 1940, was one of the very first women to enter the very male-dominated shipbuilding industry. At the age of 96, Janet Harvey was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Engineering from Glasgow Caledonian University in recognition of her outstanding contribution to Glasgow’s shipyards during the war. She died last November, poignantly on the 11th day, Armistice Day, at the age of 101.

The construction of the new hall was funded as part of the contract award for the 5 batch 2 Type 26 frigates, but will now benefit the assembly also of the 3rd and last of the Batch 1 ships, the future HMS BELFAST. Blocks for Ship 3 are in build in the steel fabrication sheds and they will soon start to be driven into the new hall as the roof is completed. Work to fill up the wet basin started in February 2023 and the concrete piling was eventually finished by march this year. Progress since then has been rapid: steel frames erection began in April and in May the first trusses were lifted up to form the roof.

First steel cut for CARDIFF was on 14 August 2019.

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