UK eyeing more deals for its new warships

The United Kingdom has followed up on its recent contract to build warships for Norway with possible deals to make vessels for Denmark and new NATO military alliance member Sweden.

The Financial Times newspaper said London is in advanced talks with Copenhagen and Stockholm to build the frigates at shipyards in Scotland, offering a huge boost to the Scottish economy and to the wider British defense industry.

The paper quoted unnamed sources familiar with the negotiations as saying a deal with Copenhagen was "very close, almost nailed on", and that discussions with Stockholm had been "very positive" but were more complicated because Sweden was also talking to France.

The paper said the UK is understood to want to deepen military alliances with Scandinavian countries, especially in the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic.

London is also thought to believe Europe can no longer rely on the United States to protect it in the way it once did, and that the continent needs to develop its own military solutions.

The FT said Denmark and Sweden are interested in Type 31 frigates built by Babcock International at shipyards in Rosyth, Scotland.

It said Denmark will likely order three of the ships later this month. Sweden is interested in four Type 31 frigates but is unlikely to make a decision until closer to the end of the year.

The Type 31 frigate is the UK's new all-purpose warship and is replacing its ageing predecessor, the Type 21 frigate.

Each Type 31 vessel costs around 250 million pounds ($335 million) to produce.

Denmark's Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told the Berlingske newspaper on Tuesday that in the long run, he wants Denmark to eventually be able to build warships domestically.

"This can be done in many different ways, but what is clear to me is that Denmark cannot do it alone," he said.

The UK's defense ministry said it is working with Babcock on the negotiations, and that "the Type 31 program continues to attract significant interest from potential international partners".

The possible deals follow Norway announcing on the weekend it is buying five submarine-hunter Type 26 frigates that BAE Systems will build in Glasgow, Scotland, securing work there for the next decade.

When the UK unveiled the 10-billion-pound deal with Norway, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said it was "testament to the thousands of people across the country who are not just delivering next-generation capabilities for our armed forces but also national security for the UK, our Norwegian partners, and NATO for years to come".

Luke Pollard, the UK's under-secretary of state for the armed forces, told the BBC the Norway deal amounts to a "huge vote of confidence in British workers and the British defense industry".

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