Norway will buy at least five of the new class of British anti-submarine warships — a purchase that officials say will boost NATO security in the North Atlantic and Arctic.
Oslo said the estimated $13.5 billion deal announced at the end of August 2025 is the single biggest military acquisition in its history. NATO members are boosting their defense spending as Russia’s war on Ukraine increasingly threatens European security.
BAE Systems is building the advanced warships — known as Type 26 frigates — at its shipyard in Glasgow, Scotland, according to the BBC. The Royal Navy plans to buy eight of the vessels, which are scheduled to enter service from 2028 to 2035, according to the military news website Breaking Defense. The first ships for Norway are expected to be delivered in 2030, the Norwegian government said. Australia and Canada have also selected the frigate, according to defense news website The Aviationist.
The United Kingdom said the sale to Norway will deepen the strategic relationship between the two countries and eventually result in their combined 13 new frigates reinforcing NATO’s northern flank.
John Healey, the British defense secretary, said the Norwegian and U.K. navies will “work as one … to hunt Russian submarines, protect our critical infrastructure and keep both our nations secure,” according to a government statement.
Russia keeps some of its most lethal nuclear-armed submarines not far from the Norwegian border in the Arctic, according to The New York Times newspaper. Norway, which shares land and maritime borders with Russia, currently has four Spanish-built Fridtjof Nansen-class frigates in service.
“The major threat for us, the one threat we deal with every day, is Russia,” Tor Ivar Strommen, a Norwegian naval commander and lecturer at the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy, told The Times. “We are dependent on having cutting-edge technology so that we are not doomed to lose.”
The Type 26 frigates sold to Norway will be equipped with anti-submarine helicopters and will be identical to those planned for the British Navy to benefit from combined training, maintenance and repairs, according to Breaking Defense.
“We have strong shared interests in the North Atlantic. Our armed forces already cooperate very closely, and this new frigate partnership will enable us to operate in a more seamless, integrated manner in our joint areas of interest,” Tore Sandvik, the Norwegian defense minister, said in a government statement.