Type 31e Frigate acquisition process has been suspended as no bidder can meet £250 million per ship.

The UK defence ministry’s project of acquiring “low-cost” Type 31 frigates has been brought to a halt due to what the Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) office described as a lack of “compliant bids”.

In an official statement British MoD said “There have been no changes in our plans to procure a first batch of five new Type 31e frigates to grow our Royal Navy. We still want the first ship delivered by 2023 and are confident that industry will meet the challenge of providing them for the price tag we’ve set. This is an early contract in a wider procurement process, and we will incorporate the lessons learned and begin again as soon as possible so the programme can continue at pace.”

Announcing the Type 31 program in 2017, the MoD set a price cap of £250M per ship for the first batch of five frigates. The first ships were set to be in service by 2023 but this delivery time frame is likely to change following the latest announcement.

The two known contenders for the Type 31 construction were the Cammell Laird and BAE Systems team with a design proposal known as Leander, while a Babcock-led team pitched the Arrowhead 140 design which was based on the Iver Huitfeldt-class frigates OMT designed for the Royal Danish Navy.