Arrowhead 140: Babcock prepares a pitch to the US Navy for its new frigate, possibly with HII

Britain’s Babcock is getting ready to propose to the US Navy the Arrowhead 140, the design on which the Royal Navy’s Type 31 frigates are being built, for its new frigate. Washington is looking abroad for a proven escort ship that can be built quickly, while the Telegraph and Navy Lookout reported that first meetings with Pentagon officials have already taken place and a formal expression of interest is expected within October.

“Of course we are interested. We have a world-class frigate and close ties with the US and American industry. It would be madness not to respond,” Sir Nick Hine, head of Babcock’s naval division and a former Second Sea Lord of the Royal Navy, told the Telegraph on Sunday, October 25.

On Monday, October 26 the British naval site Navy Lookout wrote that the proposal is expected to be submitted jointly with Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), the largest US warship builder, and may include a transfer of intellectual property so that the ships are built by American workers. Babcock has no shipyard in the US, while Rosyth in Scotland is for now fully committed to the Royal Navy’s ships. The likeliest arrangement is a design licence and technology transfer to a US shipyard, with the British company as design authority and provider of engineering support.

What the US Navy wants

The US Navy is asking for a general-purpose frigate, small or medium in size, able to escort convoys or act independently, with anti-submarine and anti-ship capabilities. A mature design that can be produced quickly and in large numbers has priority. The door was opened by an August 13 presidential memorandum, which through a national security exemption allows the examination of designs from allied countries and, in limited cases, construction abroad. Up to two ships may be built abroad, and only by suppliers investing in American shipbuilding, while the rest will come from American yards. The Navy’s evaluation is expected by November 12.

Competition is strong. Candidates mentioned include an upgraded Japanese Mogami, the South Korean Chungnam and the Turkish İstanbul class. HII is in a special position: Ingalls Shipbuilding is already the lead yard for FF(X), the US Navy’s patrol frigate derived from the Coast Guard’s Legend-class cutters, and the company also works with HD Hyundai, which is among the main designers of the Chungnam. Navy Lookout estimates that the Type 31’s size allows a wider choice of weapons and sensors and better seakeeping than the Japanese and Korean proposals. An obstacle may be moves in the House of Representatives to bar funding for warships built outside the US.

The Arrowhead 140 has already been exported to Indonesia and Poland, with Babcock as design provider and technology partner, while the same model is offered to Chile, for construction at the state shipyard ASMAR.

Babcock’s links with US submarine building

Babcock’s ties with American shipbuilding are already substantial. Since 2014 its facilities at Rosyth and Bristol have been making missile tube assemblies for General Dynamics Electric Boat, for the Common Missile Compartment of the Dreadnought and Columbia submarines. In December 2025, as Babcock announced, HII awarded it the first external Virginia-class contract of the Newport News yard, covering the construction at Rosyth of composite assemblies for the Block VI submarines. The two companies have also developed the ARMOR Force concept, in which a Type 31 acts as command ship for a network of large uncrewed surface vessels from HII’s ROMULUS family.