29/06/2026
Royal Navy downsizes its assault ship ambitions
The Defence Investment Plan (DIP) is expected to be published this week. In advance of publication, the MoD has already made some announcements about the shape of the future fleet. Here, we consider the issues surrounding the Commando Force.
In something of a surprise announcement, the RN now intends to acquire “amphibious transport ships” built and operated in cooperation with the Netherlands. A joint amphibious warship programme agreement, Project CATHERINA, was signed in 2023, then quietly dropped it in 2024 once the requirements of the two nations became too divergent, settling instead on retaining some common equipment and interoperability through the long-standing UK/NL Amphibious Force construct.
In 2024, the RN said it intended to build up to six of the ambitious Multi-Role Strike Ships (MRSS), meant to replace the LPDs, the Bay-class and RFA Argus, these would have been large vessels displacing between 25 – 40,000 tonnes. Some of the size was driven by operational analysis, which showed it was more efficient to provide the ships with high-end self-defence capability, including Mk 41 VLS cells, than build more escorts.
It is likely the MRSS solution was abandoned as unaffordable, and a considerably smaller, cheaper ship closer to the Dutch Amphibious Transport Ship (ATS) concept will be the substitute. It should be noted that the RN has been offered at least two alternatives to the LPD/MRSS concept. These include the Multi Role Vessel to operate as a Littoral Strike Ship and the Light Amphibious Warship being adopted by the USMC to supplement conventional platforms.
The Royal Netherlands Navy ATS programme has been underway since 2024, a class of six ships meant to replace both the two Rotterdam-class landing platform docks (LPD) and the four Holland-class offshore patrol vessels (OPV). The programme is optimistically costed at the equivalent of around £2Bn for the Dutch designs. ATS is intended for light, dispersed and covert raiding, landing small marine detachments from a long way offshore with unmanned systems carrying much of the supporting load.
Each ship is planned with a crew of only 60 to 70, a small well deck for landing craft, side hoists, and modular mission bays. Aircraft capacity would be two medium-sized helicopters, but with provision for operating multiple uncrewed air systems. There are a range of sizes and configurations under consideration, including ‘flat tops’ with a full-length flight deck or a more conventional LPD from the Damen Enforcer series. Damen was named as the intended builder for the Dutch vessels, though whether the hulls are constructed in the Netherlands or elsewhere in Europe has not been settled. The first is due in service in 2032, one following each year to 2038, with the elderly HNLMS Rotterdam needing a life extension to 2028 and beyond to cover the gap.
ATS capability is more in line with a Bay-class auxiliary, although assuming warship survivability standards and better command facilities. A cheaper ship modelled on the Dutch ATS may allow for a larger number of ships that can be dispersed and do not concentrate too much value in a single target, and the underlying doctrine sits close to the RN’s own Future Commando Force and littoral strike thinking. If requirements are better dovetailed, then the Anglo-Dutch starts to make sense again, although inevitably some of the capability of the more ambitious MRSS will be sacrificed.
The ‘combined fleet’ concept should be treated with caution as the UK needs to retain operational independence and must not allow government spin to count foreign vessels as part of its order of battle. The RN made no mention of restarting cooperation with the Dutch on procuring ships at an official presentation on the future of the Commando Force in May, but at least it looks as though the Royal Marines will be getting ocean-going vessels from which to deploy. There have been doubts that there was funding for any ships, which would have made a mockery of amphibious capability.
Over £500M has been initially allocated in the DIP for the Commando Force, with even greater focus on operations in the High North. The Commando Insertion Craft (CIC) programme is confirmed and will likely run jointly with Norway. The CIC is pitched without much subtlety as potentially being “used to seize further Russian shadow fleet tankers and other maritime security operations”. This is really a job for frigates, and the craft are primarily intended to move raiding teams over long distances at speed and to replace the ageing landing craft the Commandos have relied on for years. Boarding and detaining suspect vessels has become a live task at present, but littoral strike is the core role of the Commando Force.
A further sum approaching £100M is set aside for what the MoD labels ‘transformative technologies’, among them uncrewed vessels, next-generation communications, networked targeting and strike drones. This reflects the shift towards smaller, dispersed teams that find and strike targets at range rather than massing as a conventional infantry formation.
Acquisition of some of this kit has already been previously announced, but it has the political attraction of sounding modern and being affordable. There has been some recent improvement, but RN has a patchy record of turning promising uncrewed demonstrations into fielded equipment, and the time between a press release and a working system has often been measured in years.
The DIP will doubtless illuminate further the compromises that the RN is being forced to accept to fit the inadequate budget. The timescale, funding profile and construction of the Anglo-Dutch assault ship project will also need to be determined.
Source:Navy Lookout
