All 8 Royal Navy Type 26 frigates named as HMS Edinburgh is announced

The names of all eight Type 26 frigates to be built for the Royal Navy have been revealed as the UK defense secretary announced HMS Edinburgh as the final name in the class.

HMS Edinburgh will be the seventh Type 26 frigate and the seventh Royal Navy ship to bear the name.

The last HMS Edinburgh was a Type 42 destroyer which entered service in 1985. She was also the last T42 to decommission, in 2013 after 28 years of service.

Edinburgh is joining the previously-named Glasgow, Cardiff, Belfast, Birmingham, Sheffield, Newcastle and London. The frigates are referred to as City-class, in confirmation of the historic bond between the Royal Navy’s fighting ships and the major cities as centers of commerce and industry.

City-class ships will replace the equivalent number of submarine-hunting Type 23 frigates currently in service. They are 60ft longer and 2,000 tonnes heavier than their predecessors, equipped with bow and towed array sonar, Sea Ceptor air defense missiles and a 5in main gun.

The ships are also equipped with a mission bay for plug-in containers carrying equipment for specific tasks, such as disaster relief, and a flight deck big enough to take a Chinook – though the Fleet Air Arm’s Merlin and Wildcat helicopters will be more common.