HMS Richmond to be decommissioned this year – Royal Navy down to six frigates
It was confirmed yesterday at a
farewell Parade in her affiliated town of Richmond in Yorkshire, that the frigate is to be retired following 31-years of service.
HMS Richmond was the last warship built by the great Swan Hunter shipyard on the Tyne and commissioned in 1995. The penultimate ships built by the yard were HMS Westminster and HMS Northumberland (commissioned 1994), both already withdrawn due to their poor material state.
Having sailed on 2 lengthy global deployments as well as serving in the Red Sea since her £56M LIFEX refit was completed in March 2020, it had become increasingly obvious that Richmond was unlikely to serve for much longer.
Despite her age, the RN has continued to invest in HMS Richmond right up to the end of her life. She was the first of four frigates to receive new engines in the form of the Power Generation Machinery Upgrade (PGMU). At the time, it was optimistically expected that this and the life extension work would see the ship serve until the early 2030s.
The PGMU turned out to be far more complex to implement than expected, but proved to be a success in service. However, the frigates’ hulls, originally designed to last about 18 years, have become unrepairable after the rigours of 30 years of operations.
In March 2025, she became the
third RN vessel to receive the Naval Strike Missile outfit, equipping her with a modern anti-ship punch. She was also the first Type 23 to receive the integrated
Link 16 Crypto Modernised communications system, enhancing her tactical data sharing with allied units and acting as a testbed for wider fleet upgrades under the Maritime Multi-Link programme.
Richmond served as the primary ASW combatant within the UK Carrier Strike Group deployment during 2025. In September, she conducted a transit of the
Taiwan Strait, a routine right-of-navigation passage that drew monitoring responses from Chinese forces. The ship also participated in a wide range of multinational activities, including exercises and port visits in the Asia-Pacific and Mediterranean.
Coming soon after the
decommissioning of HMS Lancaster, the RN will have just six Type 23 frigates left of what was once a class of 16 ships. No new frigates will become operational before late 2028, and it not yet been confirmed, but frigate numbers may even decline to five this year.
HMS Iron Duke is undergoing a planned maintenance period in Devonport due to end in March, but some sources suggest she will not return to sea due to personnel shortages; instead, her crew will transfer to HMS Kent and bring her out of refit.
Despite the decision to retire Richmond having obviously been made some time before,
Ministers saidin a statement to Parliament in January,
“The Royal Navy will have seven frigates in service”.
It is unclear when this year HMS Richmond will formally decommission, but it is believed she will conduct a well-deserved farewell tour of the UK as one of her final acts.