Future of the Royal Navy
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Future planning of the Royal Navy's capabilities is set through periodic Defence Reviews carried out by the UK Government.
In July 2024, the newly elected Labour Government launched a Strategic Defence Review, the results of which began to be released in the first half of 2025. The Secretary of State for Defence, John Healey, is overseeing the review. In November 2024, the government announced the first results of that review which involved the retirement of the Navy's Albion-class assault ships, one frigate as well as two Wave-class replenishment vessels from the Royal Fleet Auxiliary by March 2025. In June 2025, initial recommendations of the Strategic Defence Review were released, along with an announcement by the government that it would aim to incrementally increase the strength of the Royal Navy's fleet submarines to up to 12 boats starting in the latter 2030s.
The National Audit Office (NAO) has, for a considerable period of time, described the Ministry of Defence's equipment plan as "unaffordable". As late as January 2021 the NAO reported that the Royal Navy had the largest shortfall of the three services at £4.3 billion over the 2020 to 2030 period. To address some of these gaps, in November 2020, Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the first outcome of the defence review by pledging increased funding in the range of £16.5 billion over four years to stabilise the defence budget and to provide new funding for space, cyber and research activities. A plan to construct a new class of frigate, the Type 32 frigate, was also announced with five vessels envisaged and likely entering service starting in the early 2030s, though many other details about the program were undecided, even following publication of the March 2021 defence white paper. The previous government planned to increase the Royal Navy's fleet to 24 frigates and destroyers, perhaps achieving that objective by the mid-2030s.
In March 2023, a further £5 billion in funding was announced as part of a defence policy "refresh" exercise to "help replenish and bolster vital ammunition stocks, modernise the UK's nuclear enterprise and fund the next phase of the AUKUS submarine programme". However, in December 2023 the NAO again described the MoD's defence plan for 2023-2033 as "unaffordable" and some £16.9 billion over budget. Forecast costs for the Navy were reported to have risen by £16.4 billion (or 41%). Spending decisions were expected to be made during the next spending review in 2024, at which point more funding might be allocated or other decisions taken. In April 2024, Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged to increase defence spending to 2.5% of Gross domestic product (GDP) (or £81 billion) by 2030. The Labour Party pledged to raise defence spending to the same level, with the promise to reach 3% in the next Parliament. The same objective was maintained in the 2025 Strategic Defence Review, though the Government now pledged to reach the 2.5% goal by 2027 and to devote 3.5% of GDP to "traditional defence spending" by 2035.
As of September 2025, the following major vessels are under construction: the final submarine of seven Astute-class submarines; the first three of four Dreadnought-class ballistic missile submarines, the first five of eight Type 26 frigates; and three of the five Type 31 frigates. Additional replenishment vessels were on order for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.
In October 2025, the MOD projected a £2 billion overspend of its budget in the 2025/26 financial year. Two months later, the Royal Navy announced it will reduce overseas training in the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East, such as the recent Carrier Strike Group 25 to the Pacific Ocean in 2025.