The Royal Navy’s second Type 31 frigate, HMS Active, has entered the water for the first time at Babcock’s Rosyth dockyard in Scotland.
The warship, which was rolled out of the build hall almost a month ago, has been floated off and is now sitting alongside the basin wall.
Soon she will replace first-in-class vessel HMS Venturer in dry dock, with the latter finishing her fitting-out process while afloat.
The HMS Active float-off marks the first time Babcock has been able to put a Type 31 ship into the water on site, rather than having to be towed up the firth of Forth to Leith.
The new, faster procedure was made possible following dredging work inside the Rosyth facility’s basin.
As per a company social media post: “For the first time on the Type 31 programme, we’ve completed the float-off operation entirely within our own facility – enabled by significant preparation work behind the scenes.
“Taking a ship of this scale safely into the water is a complex, carefully controlled engineering activity. Doing it all within our own site reflects how this programme is evolving — building capability, refining the approach and delivering with increasing confidence.
“As the second of class, HMS Active shows how that progress is taking shape in real terms — on the ground and in the water.”
It’s hoped that as the Type 31 programme progresses, future ships may not need a dry-dock phase at all, with final fitting-out work carried out entirely once afloat.
The floating-off procedure made use of the same Malin Augustea CD01 barge used to float off the new Type 26 frigates being built by BAE Systems on the Clyde in Glasgow.
- You can read more details on Babcock’s social media post