Sailors join Navy’s first next-generation warship HMS Glasgow

Half a dozen sailors have joined HMS Glasgow – under construction in her namesake city – to begin turning a lifeless hull into a submarine hunter.

The ship is the first of eight Type 26 frigates which will safeguard both the nation’s nuclear deterrence and its aircraft carrier strike groups from interference from hostile submarines.

Glasgow is currently on the hard-standing at BAE Systems’ yard in Govan, where shipwrights, technicians and engineers are completing the hull and superstructure.

The frigate, whose sponsor is the Duchess of Cambridge – known as the Countess of Strathearn when visiting Scotland – is sufficiently complete for the Royal Navy to begin assigning sailors to her.

These sailors will produce the ship’s ‘operators’ manual’: determining how HMS Glasgow will be run, her routines, her systems and sensors to make her an effective fighting force when she enters service later this decade.

HMS Glasgow is the first of an initial batch of three ships all named after UK cities, followed by HMS Cardiff and Belfast.

Operating from Devonport Naval Base, the Type 26s will be equipped with bow and towed-array sonars, plus carry a Wildcat or Merlin helicopter, for submarine-hunting missions.

A 5in gun and vertical-launch missile silo, plus an adaptable mission bay will provide the offensive punch and capability of the frigates.