UK Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

defenceman said:

Hi,

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9 submarines of which..
- 4 are SSBN, with 1 deployed at a time
- 5 attack submarines.

But what about the availability of those attack submarines?

Lord Coaker declined to give figures on operational availability, saying: “I will not go into the number of submarines that are operational for obvious reasons.”

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Lol, here is what DeepSeek V4 has to say…

The following table summarizes the reported status of each submarine as of early 2026:

Submarine	Status	Key Notes & Sources
HMS Anson	Operational / Deployed	The only Astute-class boat reportedly fit for sea. Deployed to Australia in January 2026 as part of the AUKUS agreement.
HMS Astute	Maintenance / Low Readiness	Awaiting a mid-life refit, leading to low availability.
HMS Ambush	Maintenance / Low Readiness	Has been inactive for an extended period (over 1,000 days not at sea as of late 2025). At a very low level of readiness.
HMS Artful	Maintenance / Could return soon	Under maintenance. There are unconfirmed reports it may return to sea in the near future, but timelines are unclear.
HMS Audacious	Maintenance / Low Readiness	Undergoing a maintenance period. Other boats are awaiting its completion.
HMS Agamemnon	Commissioned / Not Operational	Commissioned in late 2025/early 2026 but is not yet operational as it is still working through its test and trials program.
HMS Agincourt	Under Construction	The seventh and final Astute-class boat is still being built and is expected to enter service late in 2026.

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So that is 1 Astute available to put to see, however..

while the Royal Navy officially has five Astute-class submarines in service, only one of them, HMS Anson, was ready to deploy in early 2026. This critical boat is being sent on a long-term mission to Australia, leaving the UK's submarine fleet stretched to its limit. The other boats are unavailable due to a significant backlog in maintenance and ongoing trials

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So there are precisely ZERO submarines available to deploy to the Falklands.

@TheFuture_NoMore why do you classify this state of affairs as “very good condition”?

State of the RN is gash but right now ARA barely exists. There's no viable threat to the Falklands for a decade or so, even in Argentina starts rebuilding immediately. Also the Argentine economy is, after a brief respite, heading back into its usual dumpster fire.
China is missing a trick here, should be pitching a Yuan derivative for the submarine tender and 054A for the frigates. Of course Milie doesn't want to deal with "communist sh1theads". As for the Scorpene offer, if the UK objects to France then France could just mutter something about AUKUS...

Maikeru said:

State of the RN is gash but right now ARA barely exists. There's no viable threat to the Falklands for a decade or so, even in Argentina starts rebuilding immediately. Also the Argentine economy is, after a brief respite, heading back into its usual dumpster fire.
China is missing a trick here, should be pitching a Yuan derivative for the submarine tender and 054A for the frigates. Of course Milie doesn't want to deal with "communist sh1theads". As for the Scorpene offer, if the UK objects to France then France could just mutter something about AUKUS...

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I doubt that now France and UK would make each other any problems. If UK complains France would not sell any weapon to Argentina. After all France colaborated with UK during Falkland war when relations with US was warmer they are now

This is either about Brits seeing drones as the future or acceptance that they cannot run large(r) manned fleet. I think latter option is more likely.

^^^Changing to a homeland-defensive posture.

Type 32 frigate is still nowhere and apparently Uk MoD hasn’t ordered new Type 26 to replace those what are now going for Norway. As of now five Type-31 are on order and six(?) Type-26 frigates. River-class Batch 1 still aren’t being replaced by anything.

i’m convicted British MoD is doing this on purpose so they can justify building drones instead of proper warships.

Broccoli said:

Type 32 frigate is still nowhere and apparently Uk MoD hasn’t ordered new Type 26 to replace those what are now going for Norway. As of now five Type-31 are on order and six(?) Type-26 frigates. River-class Batch 1 still aren’t being replaced by anything.

i’m convicted British MoD is doing this on purpose so they can justify building drones instead of proper warships.

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I do wonder how much the fixation on uncrewed systems across the world is really about trying to get/maintain capabilities on the cheap to justify budget cuts rather than actual real world effectiveness. This has strong shades of the 1957 Sandy's review which said that missiles would replace manned combat aircraft so there was no need to invest in the latter. This was basically the death knell of the UK as an independent aerospace power.

Edit: This is an excellent book on UK postwar aircraft and industry:

As an Englishman it really makes me want to weep at the sheer utter shortsightedness and stupidity of the British political class. Take the world's 2nd most capable aerospace industry and reduce it to a pitiful rump in less than 30 years. Not that industry upper management was much better.

Crossposting

Typhoon fighter replacement faces years of delay

RAF could be waiting until 2040s for £12bn fleet of ‘next-generation’ Tempest jets

Britain’s state-of-the-art fighter jet to replace the Typhoon is set to be delayed by several years, The Telegraph can reveal.

Ministers have committed to creating a “next-generation” Royal Air Force by 2035 which includes a new jet called Tempest.

But the fleet of fighter jets is set to be delayed as the long-overdue defence investment plan (DIP) is expected to confirm that the funding for its project will only be released towards the mid-2030s.

The new jets are unlikely to enter service until the late 2030s or even into the 2040s. The original plan was for the upgraded Typhoons to enter service in 2035, with development set to begin in 2025.

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00CuriousObserver said:

Crossposting

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Isn't Tempest basically the predecessor (if not an alternate name) for GCAP?