HMS Cardiff floated on a barge down the River Clyde to Glenmallan<br /><br />New Navy frigate makes first journey on giant barge<br /><br />The Royal Navy's newest Type 26 frigate is making its first journey down the River Clyde, carried by a giant barge.<br /><br />HMS Cardiff is the second of eight anti-submarine warfare ships being constructed at the BAE Systems Govan shipyard in Glasgow.<br /><br />The semi-submersible barge will carry the 150m (492ft)-long ship to a deep water site in the west of Scotland where in the coming days it will be gently lowered into the water for the first time.<br /><br />The £1.2bn warship will then be towed back upriver to BAE's Scotstoun site where "fitting out" work will continue to prepare the ship for delivery.<br />The journey was made at low tide so the ship could pass safely beneath the Erskine Bridge<br /><br />David Shepherd, Type 26 programme director at BAE Systems, said it was a proud moment for thousands of people who had been involved in the ship's construction.<br /><br />"The Type 26 has awesome and world-leading capability and we’re looking forward to installing HMS Cardiff’s complex systems and bringing her to life," he said.<br /><br />BAE Systems abandoned traditional "dynamic" slipway launches on the Clyde 14 years ago in favour of the "float off" method.<br /><br />The technique is more controlled and allows the vessel to be launched in a more complete state.<br /><br />The first of the "City Class" Type 26 frigates, HMS Glasgow, was launched this way in late 2022.<br /><br />Both HMS Glasgow and HMS Cardiff were built in sections with the forward and aft ends then joined together on the hardstanding beside the river.<br /><br />Future vessels will be assembled within a huge new shipbuilding hall - dubbed a "frigate factory" - which is being built at the Govan shipyard.<br /><br />The Janet Harvey building - named after a pioneering female apprentice who started work at the site during World War Two - is large enough to accommodate two Type 26 frigates side-by-side.<br /><br />A new generation of Clyde shipbuilders are also being trained at a £12m shipbuilding academy that recently opened at Scotstoun.<br /><br />Early steel fabrication work has started on the next ships, HMS Belfast and HMS Birmingham, at the Govan site.<br /><br />The eight Type 26 frigates are expected to enter service between 2028 and the mid-2030s. Their role will include protecting the aircraft carriers and Trident submarines.<br /><br />The 137m (9,449ft) barge carrying HMS Glasgow is jointly owned by Scottish marine engineering firm Malin and Italy's Augustea and is one of the largest in Europe.<br /><br />
