New Royal Navy Warship To Be Named HMS Belfast

[Dave Homewood]

New Royal Navy Warship To Be Named HMS Belfast



One of the Royal Navy's new warships will be called HMS Belfast.

The Defence Secretary made the announcement on a visit to Harland and Wolff shipyard in the city, where the Navy's last HMS Belfast was built prior to World War Two.

The ship will be one of eight new Type 26 frigates joining the Navy's fleet to protect the UK's nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers and is due to enter service in the mid 2020s.

The original HMS Belfast, which took part in the Arctic campaign and the Normandy landings, will now be renamed "HMS Belfast 1938" to avoid confusion.


The original HMS Belfast is now a floating museum permanently docked in London

One of the new "City Class" frigates has already been christened HMS Glasgow.

Sir Michael Fallon said:

"I'm hugely proud that the second name announced of our eight cutting-edge new Type 26 frigates will be HMS Belfast.

"She and her sister ships will form the backbone of our Navy well into the 2060s, keeping us safe by protecting the country's nuclear deterrent and new aircraft carriers.

"It's apt to name this ship at the famous site which built the very first HMS Belfast. Thanks to our ambitious new National Shipbuilding Strategy, this shipyard once again has the chance to be involved in building a British warship thanks to the competition to build a new class of light frigates for our growing Royal Navy."

Sir Michael Fallon at Harland & Wolff shipyard

Diane Lees, director general at Imperial War Museums, said: "IWM is delighted that the name HMS Belfast will return again to the Royal Navy's front line as a major warship.

"We welcome the opportunity this will bring for our internationally significant museum to have a close affiliation with the new Belfast, enabling a powerful link between the Royal Navy's past and present."


Concept image of the new Type 26 frigate

Admiral Sir Philip Jones, First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, said: "The City class theme has been chosen for the Type 26 frigates in order to reaffirm the bond between the Nation and its Navy.

"We want to honour some of the great centres of industry and commerce in all parts of the United Kingdom, and few cities have such a rich maritime heritage as Belfast."

www.forces.net/news/navy/new-royal-navy-warship-be-named-hms-belfast

[Mustang51]

Wonder if the new class of Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force, (to hell with it.....), Japanese Navy class will also include Yamato and Musashi

[exkiwiforces]

It was my understanding the Cruiser HMS Belfast was still a commission ship and it was on loan to the Imperial War Museum? I find it quite funny that the RN are using former Cruiser names for the new Type 26 Frigates and would that mean the new Type 31 GP Frigate which is really a Sloop/ Corvette in old money be named after Frigates then?

[nuuumannn]

Good to see the name Glasgow will be used again; a fine naval history attached to the Scottish city - the light cruiser Glasgow escaped destruction at the hands of von Spee's ships at Coronel, then saw action at the following battle of the Falklands where it helped to sink the cruiser Leipzig. Fast forward to 1982 and back at the Falkland Islands, the Type 42 destroyer Glasgow's helicopter severely damaged the sloop Alferez Sobral, but later Glasgow was struck by bombs dropped by A-4s, suffering damage, but remaining afloat.

Wonder if the new class of Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force, (to hell with it.....), Japanese Navy class will also include Yamato and Musashi

There's a class of submarine called the Soryu, two helicopter carriers called Hyuga and Ise and a class of destroyer named Kongo, so the Japanese are not averse to using old Imperial navy names. Among the population the battleships Yamato and Musashi are regarded with almost mythical reverence, so might be a push to see a new ship in their name - might happen though. Yamato is the ancient name for Japan, so with this new militaristic slant by Abe, maybe the next generation of big warships from the Rising Sun?

[kiwithrottlejockey]

That Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, isn't that where TEAL's Solent flying-boats were built?

[Bruce]

Nov 26, 2017 20:54:52 GMT 12 kiwithrottlejockey said:

That Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, isn't that where TEAL's Solent flying-boats were built?

Its a related company, but I think the flying boats were build by "Short Bros and Harland", Rochester, Kent. Harland and Wolff Belfast built Titanic.

[Bruce]

The Royal navy have a couple of vessels called HMS Forth and HMS Severn... I'm wondering what happened to HMS Fifth and HMS Sixth

[kiwithrottlejockey]

TEAL's Solent Mk.4 flying-boats were definitely constructed at Belfast and NOT at Rochester (where the Solent Mk.2 'boats were built).

As were a large number of Sunderland flying-boats during WWII (170 from memory without digging out a book to look it up).

Plus, the Sealands were also built at Belfast.

I was merely wondering if it was at the same site in Belfast where those warships are now being built.

[davidd]

From Putnam's "Shorts Aircraft since 1900" by C H Barnes, page 27/28.

"By 1936 it was evident that large-scale production of Sunderlands and other types for the RAF expansion programme could not be undertaken at Rochester in addition to the further civil aircraft already on order. Production of Scions was sub-contracted to Pobjoy Airmotors, in whom Shorts took up a substantial shareholding, and a survey in 1936 of possible sites for a new factor indicated Belfast as an excellent location. Here a new airfield was being made at Sydenham, adjacent to Harland & Wolff's shipyard and deep water dock, with unrestricted access to open water in the Lough. Following discussions with the Northern Ireland government, Belfast Harbour commissioners and the local authorities, the Air Ministry agreed to build and equip am aircraft factory on Queen's Island to be managed by a new company, Short and Harland Ltd, jointly owned by Short Brothers and Harland & Wolff. This factory began production in 1938 with 'learning' contracts for 50 Bristol Bombays, followed by 150 Handley Page Herefords."

However most wartime production centred on the Sunderland and the Stirling.

So Putnam books still have their uses in this age (although this may well be on the internet too somewhere).

David D