List of active Royal Navy ships

The Royal Navy is the principal naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Its assets include both commissioned warships and non-commissioned vessels. As of July 2026, there are 60 commissioned and active ships, including auxiliary ships, in the Royal Navy. However, increasingly many of the Royal Navy's ships are old and some have proven to be minimally seaworthy. According to the Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty, the Royal Navy has effectively run out of ships. According to Gwyn Jenkins, the First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff, the Royal Navy will not be ready for an armed conflict until 2030. As of June 2026, the Royal Navy's entire fleet submarine (attack submarine) fleet is reportedly undeployable at sea due to several factors including maintenance works.

Of the commissioned vessels, thirteen are major surface combatants (two aircraft carriers, six guided missile destroyers and five frigates) and ten are nuclear-powered submarines (four ballistic missile submarines and six fleet submarines). In addition the Navy possesses seven mine countermeasures vessels, twenty-six patrol vessels, two survey vessels, one icebreaker and one historic warship, .

The total displacement of the Royal Navy's commissioned and active ships is approximately 391,000 tonnes.

The Royal Navy also includes several smaller non-commissioned assets. The naval training vessels and Hindostan can be found based at the Royal Navy stone frigates and the Britannia Royal Naval College, respectively. Non-commissioned Sea-class workboats, procured under Project Vahana, are operated by the Royal Navy in various support, survey and training roles, replacing previous P1000 Class Picket Boat vessels. This class of vessel also incorporates an autonomous minehunting variant (known as the Arcims-class), while another autonomous vessel, Madfox, is employed in varied roles including as a testbed for autonomous combat operations. Madfox and other experimental vessels, including XV Patrick Blackett and autonomous Rigid Inflatable Boats (RIBs) (such as those based on the Pacific 24 boat or Rattler USVs - several of which have been acquired since 2025), are operated by the Fleet Experimentation Squadron within the Disruptive Capabilities and Technologies Office. As of 2025, XV Excalibur, an Extra-Large Uncrewed Underwater Vehicle (XLUUV), was also operated by the Squadron while other autonomous surface vessels, for minehunting and other roles, were in service and in the process of procurement from Thales Group and Kraken Technologies.

Besides the Royal Navy, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) and the Royal Marines operate their own flotillas of vessels which complement the assets of the Royal Navy. These vessels are not included in this list or the above figures. Nevertheless, combined, the Royal Navy and RFA have 69 vessels with a total displacement of about 635,000 tonnes, with the principal landing craft of the Royal Marines having an additional combined displacement of about 2,200 tonnes.

As a supporting contingent of His Majesty's Naval Service, the civilian Marine Services operate nearly 100 auxiliary ships (including coastal logistics, tugs and research vessels) in support of Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary operations.

In the United Kingdom, the Royal Navy operates three main bases where commissioned ships are based: HMNB Portsmouth, HMNB Devonport and HMNB Clyde. A number of commissioned vessels, belonging to the University Royal Naval Units (URNU), are stationed at various other locations around the United Kingdom.

The Royal Navy's principal overseas base is in Bahrain. However, as of early 2026 there were no crewed vessels permanently based there.

Two fast patrol boats normally form part of the Gibraltar Squadron and are permanently based there. Some River-class offshore patrol vessels are also forward-deployed: including in the Falkland Islands, in the Indo-Pacific region and, somewhat more intermittently, in the Caribbean or out of Gibraltar. Additionally, the United Kingdom maintains a Joint Logistics Support Base in Duqm, Oman.

All ships and submarines currently in commission with the Royal Navy were built in the United Kingdom, with the exceptions of icebreaker which was built in Norway, the survey vessel which was substantially built in Ireland, and the specialist mine countermeasures vessel , a former vessel of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary originally built in Romania. All commissioned vessels of the Royal Navy bear the ship prefix "HMS", for His Majesty's Ship or His Majesty's Submarine.

Ceremonial/Historic ship +Flagship of the First Sea LordClassic first-rate (1)ClassShipNo.CommissionedDisplacement TypeHomeportNote Ship of the line — 1778 3,556 tonnes First-rate ship of the line Portsmouth

Submarine service +Submarine serviceStrategic (4)ClassBoatPennant No.CommissionedDisplacement TypeHomeportNote S28 1993 15,900 tonnes Ballistic missile submarine Clyde S29 1995 S30 1996 S31 1999 Fleet (6)ClassBoatPennant No.CommissionedDisplacement TypeHomeportNote S119 2010 7,400 tonnes Fleet submarine Clyde S120 2013 S121 2016 S122 2021 S123 2022 S124 2025

Surface fleet +Surface fleetAircraft carriers (2)ClassShipNo.CommissionedDisplacement TypeHomeportNote R08 2017 80,600 tonnes Aircraft carrier Portsmouth R09 2019 Destroyers (6)ClassShipNo.CommissionedDisplacement TypeHomeportNote Type 45 / Daring class D32 2009 8,500 tonnes Anti-air guided-missile destroyerPortsmouth D33 2010 D34 2011 D35 2012 D36 2013 D37 2013 Frigates (5)ClassShipNo.CommissionedDisplacement TypeHomeportNote Type 23 / Duke class F82 1996 4,900 tonnesFrigateDevonport F81 1997 F78 2000 F79 2001 F83 2002 Offshore patrol (8)ClassShipNo.CommissionedDisplacement TypeHomeportNote P281 2003 1,700 tonnes Offshore patrol vessel Portsmouth P282 2003 and 2021 P283 2003 P222 2018 2,000 tonnes P223 2019 P224 2020 P233 2020 P234 2021 Mine countermeasures (7)ClassShipNo.CommissionedDisplacement TypeHomeportNote M30 1981 750 tonnes Minehunter Portsmouth M31 1982 M33 1983 M34 1984 M39 1985 M109 2000 600 tonnes Clyde - M01 2025 6,000 tonnes Specialist mine hunting ship Portsmouth Coastal & fast patrol (18)ClassShipNo.CommissionedDisplacement TypeHomeportNote Archer class P264 1985 54 tonnes Patrol boat, University Royal Naval Units Edinburgh P270 1986 Liverpool P272 1988 Portsmouth P273 1988 Glasgow P279 1988 Portsmouth P280 1988 Portsmouth P291 1988 Portsmouth P292 1988 Liverpool P293 1988 Portsmouth P294 1988 Ipswich P163 1988 Cardiff P165 1985 Gateshead P164 1986 Hull P167 1988 Portsmouth P274 1998 Patrol boatClyde P275 1998 Cutlass class P295 2022 35 tonnes Gibraltar P296

Auxiliary vessels See also: Ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and vessels operated by Serco Marine Services +RN auxiliary shipsSurvey (3)ClassShipNo.CommissionedDisplacement TypeHomeportNote — H131 1997 13,500 tonnes Ocean survey Devonport — A173 2011 5,000 tonnes Icebreaker & survey Sea class 18 m variant H130 2018 37 tonnes Survey motor launch Non-commissioned vessels (56)ClassShipNo.In serviceDisplacement TypeHomeportNote — XV Excalibur N/A 2025 19 tonnes Extra-Large Uncrewed Underwater Vehicle (XLUUV) Devonport — XV Patrick Blackett X01 2022 270 tonnes Experimental vessel Portsmouth — XV Madfox N/A 2021 c. 10 tonnes Autonomous surface vessel Portsmouth Brecon M29 1979 750 tonnesStatic Training Ship HMS Raleigh Hindostan (ex-Cromer) M103 1992600 tonnesBritannia Royal Naval College Sea class34 vessels: * 8 x 15 m Officer Training Units; * 6 x 15 m Diver Training/Support Boats; * 4 x 15 m Survey/hydrographic Modules; * 3 x 13.8 m Passenger Transfer Boats (PTBs); * 10 x 11 m Standard Workboats; * 3 x 11 m Small Survey Modules — 2018 to 2024 15 to 23 tonnes Workboats — ALN-139 classSea Harrier Buccaneer Sea Vixen Swordfish — 2017 c. 15 - 20 tonnes — Arcims classRNMB Hussar—2021 to 2023< 10 tonnes (six units); c.10+ tonnes (Hebe) Autonomous minehunting/sweepingClydeRNMB HazardRNMB Hellcat RNMB Halcyon RNMB Harrier RNMB HydraRNMB Hebe Thales Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs)RNMB Apollo (pre-production unit)N/A 2021 < 10 tonnes N/A RNMB Abdiel (pre-production unit)2022 RNMB Ariadne (1st production USV)2025/26 RNMB Adventure (2nd production USV) 3rd production USV 4th production USV K-3 Scout USVsc. 20 Units — 2026 c. 2.5 tonnesAutonomous USV; modular payload—

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List of active Royal Navy ships

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