The Type 31 frigate also known as the General Purpose Frigate (GPFF), is a planned class of frigate of the Royal Navy that will enter service in the 2020s alongside the more high-end Type 26 frigates. It is intended that the Type 31 frigate will replace some of the Type 23 frigates.
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Global Combat Ship
The origins of the Type 31 frigate are found in the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review. The review authorised a replacement programme, known as the Global Combat Ship (GCS), to replace the Royal Navy's fleet of thirteen Type 23 frigates. Earlier in the year, BAE Systems was awarded a four-year, £127 million contract by the Ministry of Defence to design the new class. It was planned that two variants of the class would be built: five general purpose frigates and eight anti-submarine warfare frigates. There was to be little difference between the two variants, except for the Sonar 2087. Initial expectations were that all thirteen of the Global Combat Ships would be built starting in 2016, and gradually replace the Type 23 frigates like for like out to the mid-2030s. This planning assumption would not last, and during the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review, the then Prime minister David Cameron announced that only eight of the anti-submarine warfare Global Combat Ships would be ordered.
General Purpose Frigate
Although the 2015 defence review resulted in a cut in the planned number of Global Combat Ships to eight, it also announced that the five remaining Type 23 frigates would be replaced by a new programme; the General Purpose Frigate (GPFF). The new class is intended to be a lighter, flexible and more affordable general purpose frigate. According to the 2015 defence review, and then Prime Minister David Cameron, the lower cost of these frigates could lead to the Royal Navy acquiring more than five of them, thus increasing its overall numbers of frigates and destroyers. During a defence and security lecture in July 2016, GPFF was referred to as the Type 31 frigate by the First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Philip Jones. Admiral Jones further stated that Type 31 frigates could permanently operate East of Suez; from the Persian Gulf region to the Far East. During the same month, BAE Systems revealed two general purpose frigate designs, namely the Avenger-class (based on the "Amazonas-class/River-class Batch 2 offshore patrol vessel") and the Cutlass-class (described as a "significantly stretched and enhanced derivation of the Al Shamikh-class corvette design"). An August news article in the The Sunday Times stated that Babcock International and BMT also submitted one design each.
Characteristics
During a July 2016 Defence Select Committee hearing, First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Philip Jones described the GPFF as "to be a much less high-end ship. It is still a complex warship, and it is still able to protect and defend and to exert influence around the world, but it is deliberately shaped with lessons from wider industry and off-the-shelf technology to make it... more appealing to operate at a slightly lower end of Royal Navy operations." IHS Janes described it as a "credible frigate" that will cover "maritime security, maritime counter-terrorism and counter-piracy operations, escort duties, and naval fire support... [sitting] between the high-end capability delivered by the Type 26 and Type 45, and the constabulary-oriented outputs to be delivered by the five planned River-class Batch 2 OPVs."