Type 26 construction reduced clean-sheet procurement uncertainty

Was the Type 26 too untested and expensive to be a safe frigate choice?

Operational experience was still pending, but ships under construction supplied firmer cost and design evidence and offered benefits from shared Anglophone adoption.

By 2020 the Type 26 had yet to prove itself in service. Construction was already advanced enough to make its design and likely costs much more concrete than those of a paper proposal. That distinction reduced some procurement risk even before the first ship commissioned. Several Anglophone navies adopting related designs could also bring advantages. These points were a contemporary assessment of programmes still under development.