The Defence Investment Plan (DIP), published on 30 June, commits £298 billion over the next four years, including £15 billion of additional investment on top of last year's spending review, most of which is extra day-to-day spending on training and improving the availability of ships and aircraft. For the naval sector, the plan confirms a move to a hybrid fleet: at least six Common Combat Vessels (CCVs) will replace the current Type 45 destroyers, with delivery expected from the early 2030s, operating alongside eight Type 26 and five Type 31 frigates and a range of uncrewed surface and underwater platforms. The government says defence spending rises to 2.7% of GDP by 2029, and that it maintains its ambition to reach NATO's 3.5% target by 2035.

The centrepiece for surface ship design is a change of direction away from the planned Type 83 destroyer and towards the CCV concept. Described by the MoD as the Navy's first hybrid warship, the new class will coordinate uncrewed systems in the air, on the surface and under the sea. Rather than concentrating capability in a small number of large, expensive platforms, the CCV is conceived as a control hub, extending reach and firepower without a proportional rise in crew or cost. Funding now allows the National Armaments Director Group to begin design work.

In service, CCVs will operate alongside the Type 26 and Type 31 frigates and four uncrewed classes: Type 91 missile platforms, Type 92 underwater sensing platforms, Type 93 Extra-Large Uncrewed Underwater Vehicles and Type 94 uncrewed sensor platforms. For design teams, that means five new classes, four of them uncrewed and all at an early stage of development, moving toward service within a matter of years. The government has said it expects to bring its first large autonomous surface and sub-surface platforms into service by the end of 2030.

The Defence Nuclear Enterprise remains the single largest claim on the budget, with £63.6 billion allocated between 2026 and 2030, around £47 billion of it for submarines including maintenance and infrastructure. That is up to a quarter of the MoD's total budget over the period. Construction continues on the four Dreadnought-class boats, and the plan confirms an intention to build up to 12 SSN-AUKUS attack submarines, with steel due to be cut on the first hull next year, ahead of completion of the final Astute-class boat, HMS Achilles.

The plan also revives the Anglo-Dutch amphibious partnership, building on Project Catherina, which the UK set aside in 2024. This has moved quickly since the DIP was published: on 7 July, the two governments signed a £2.4 billion agreement to build eight amphibious transport ships, four for each navy, in UK shipyards. The ships will be based on a Dutch design widely expected to draw on Damen's Enforcer family, although the final design has not been confirmed.

Project Royal Oak will direct £26 billion over the next decade into the three main fleet bases, Portsmouth, Faslane and Devonport, described by the MoD as the biggest naval base upgrade in over 45 years. Faslane, formally HMNB Clyde, takes the largest share at £15.1 billion, against £7.1 billion for Devonport and £3.9 billion for Portsmouth. The Faslane investment supports submarine refit and maintenance capacity for the Astute fleet, Dreadnought and, eventually, SSN-AUKUS.

These programmes land on a shipbuilding base that is already working, or preparing to work, at Babcock in Rosyth, BAE Systems in Barrow and Govan, Balaena Birkenhead (formerly Cammell Laird) and Navantia UK's Harland & Wolff in Belfast. Across defence as a whole, the plan says investment may support nearly 60,000 additional direct and indirect jobs in the UK by 2029/30, and it includes a £182 million skills package over five years to strengthen pipelines into engineering and advanced manufacturing.

The practical challenge ahead sits in capacity and timescale. Delivering five new vessel classes alongside the existing frigate and submarine programmes, within the timeframes set out in the DIP, is likely to call for modular, digital-first design approaches, early systems integration between hull, sensors and uncrewed assets, and coordinated working across several yards simultaneously.