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Take a bow, HMS Venturer - first Type 31 frigate emerges from assembly hall
27 May 2025
The first of the Royal Navy’s new general-purpose warships was today revealed to the world.
After more than three years’ construction in a cavernous assembly hall in Rosyth, Fife, the 28-metre-tall doors were opened and HMS Venturer began to emerge.
The ship is the first of five Type 31 frigates being built for the Royal Navy, part of a £10bn investment in the Fleet of tomorrow to replace the existing Type 23 flotilla.
The construction of HMS Venturer – pronounced as in ‘ad-venturer’ not Ace Ventura – has largely been hidden from the public courtesy of the building erected to construct her and her four sisters in the Inspiration-class.
The team at Babcock have done as much as they can indoors, so today they began preparing the 5,700-tonne vessel for her debut in the water by moving her outside using specially-designed transport cradles.
It took nearly 12 hours to edge the 139m hull of the Inspiration-class vessel – all five ships are named after predecessors whose deeds resound down the decades – out of the hall and on to the neighbouring hardstanding.
Later this summer she will be lowered on a special barge and floated off into the dock at Rosyth to begin the installation and testing of systems, sensors and weapons.
After hundreds of thousands of hours put in by sailors and shipwrights, engineers, welders, electricians, naval architects and many more – 1,400 people on site, almost as many across the UK in support – Venturer’s Senior Naval Officer Commander Chris Cozens says emerging from the ship hall is a key moment in the life of his ship – and the wider Type 31 programme.
“The ship’s company have seen Venturer grow from the keel up inside the build hall, but this is the first time Babcock and the Royal Navy have been able to unveil this next-generation frigate to the public,” said Commander Chris Cozens, Venturer’s Senior Naval Officer.
“This moment is taking the ship another step closer to where it is needed, contributing the UK’s security and prosperity.”
The frigate’s Executive Warrant Officer Lee ‘Rattler’ Morgan hopes that the public – and his colleagues in the Navy will be impressed by their first sight of a Type 31 frigate.
The ships are 60 per cent larger than the frigates they replace, but with 60 per cent of the crew: around 120 compared with 180-200.
The ship’s company have seen Venturer grow from the keel up inside the build hall, but this is the first time Babcock and the Royal Navy have been able to unveil this next-generation frigate to the public
“As the first of the Royal Navy’s Inspiration-class frigates emerges into the limelight, the scale and opportunities provided by this ship are increasingly apparent,” Warrant Officer Morgan added.
“For the ship’s company, the growing maturity of the build grows our own understanding, and encourages us to exploit new and innovate ways to crew and operate the platform. We have a keen desire to make this a ship that sailors want to serve in.”
The space vacated by Venturer will be filled by HMS Formidable, the third ship in the programme; the aptly-named Venturer assembly hall is large enough to allow two Type 31s to be built side-by-side, with HMS Active already making good progress.
Hailing the roll out as a “proud moment” for everyone involved in the Type 31 project, Babcock CEO David Lockwood said: “It reflects the hard work, dedication and exceptional skills of our workforce here in Rosyth.
“We set our sights across generations and these frigates are built with flexibility and through-life support in mind and will provide a highly capable platform for our brave service personnel wherever they serve in the world, for decades to come.”
Pictures courtesy of Babcock International