Babcock Pitches Hybrid Navy to Chile with Arrowhead 140
Chile · Defense
Key Facts
- —What happened Babcock’s marine chief said in August 2026 he would travel to Chile to pitch a hybrid-navy concept.
- —What is on offer A crewed Arrowhead 140 frigate commanding uncrewed vessels that carry swappable, container-sized mission modules.
- —The catch No Chilean frigate tender, shortlist, budget line or decision date has been published, and no price has been quoted.
- —What Chile must replace Eight frigates of four classes from three countries, averaging thirty to thirty-five years old, according to defensa.com.
- —What a ship might cost The Navy’s then commander-in-chief said in January 2025 a locally built frigate would cost about US$400 million.
- —Who else wants the work South Korea’s Hanwha Ocean has shown a rival frigate in Santiago, and HD Hyundai speaks in Chile in December 2026.
A British defence group wants Chile to buy a task group rather than a single warship. Chile has published no frigate tender.
The Babcock Hybrid Navy Chile pitch began with a remark made in Denmark. Sir Nick Hine, chief executive for marine at Babcock, said he would travel to Chile the following week.
Babcock International Group is a British defence contractor. It builds and supports Royal Navy warships at Rosyth, in Scotland.
Hine spoke in mid-August 2026 at DALO Industry Days, a defence fair in Denmark. The Spanish outlet defensa.com reported the remarks on 17 September 2026.
He wanted a conversation in Chile about copying a hybrid-navy plan Babcock is pushing in Europe.
What Babcock calls ARMOR Force
The Babcock Hybrid Navy Chile offer has a name: ARMOR Force, for Autonomous and Remote, Maritime Operational Response Force. The idea is simpler than the acronym.
A navy buys a group of ships, not a single warship. One crewed frigate commands, and uncrewed vessels take the risk.
“You’re not buying a frigate now, you’re buying a task force,” Hine told the trade site Naval News in July 2026. He named Chile alongside Singapore and Malaysia.
The crewed ship is the Arrowhead 140, which Babcock calls the common combat vessel. Beside it, Hine described an Arrowhead 60, a 60-metre uncrewed craft.
That craft would carry four 40-foot shipping containers holding swappable mission kit, he said. Air defence, counter-drone work, strike and submarine hunting would each be a container.
The selling point is interchangeability: a module built in Chile would fit a British or Danish hull of the same family.
The frigate at the centre of it
The Arrowhead 140 is the export name for the design behind Britain’s Type 31 frigates. Its hull descends from the Danish Iver Huitfeldt class, designed by Odense Maritime Technology.
The ship is 138.7 metres long and displaces about 5,700 tonnes. defensa.com gives a baseline crew of about 100, with berths for up to 160.
The armament offered includes Sea Ceptor missiles, Bofors guns and a Wildcat helicopter.
Britain has five on order and Poland three, built locally as the Miecznik class. Indonesia now holds four licences.
It took two in 2021 and two more on 21 January 2026, under a partnership with Britain. Its first hull, built with the state yard PT PAL, launched in December 2025.
Britain’s 2019 contract for five ships was worth about £1.25 billion (about US$1.67 billion). That is roughly £250 million (about US$334 million) a ship.
Sterling conversions here use the European Central Bank rate of 18 September 2026, US$1.3344 to the pound.
The programme ran late and dearer, and Babcock took a £140 million (about US$187 million) charge in May 2026.
Navy Lookout, a British naval site, now puts the average near £400 million (about US$534 million). It lists Chile, Denmark and New Zealand as live export targets.
The fleet Chile would be replacing
Chile’s main surface force, the Escuadra Nacional, is eight frigates of four classes from three countries. Their average age is thirty to thirty-five years, according to defensa.com.
Three are ex-British Type 23s, rebuilt at ASMAR between 2018 and 2022. Two came from Australia, two from the Netherlands and one more from Britain.
Chile does not plan simply to buy abroad. A national shipbuilding policy requires surface warships to be built at home, mainly at ASMAR Talcahuano.
Then-President Gabriel Boric launched that policy in January 2025. Since 2019 the Navy and ASMAR have studied a national frigate of 132 metres.
A class of eight would replace the whole squadron from 2030. The hulls will wear out first, so defensa.com expects an interim second-hand purchase.
The money, and the queue in front of it
Admiral Juan Andrés De la Maza, then the Navy’s commander-in-chief, gave a benchmark in January 2025. He put a nationally built frigate at about US$400 million a ship.
Chile’s 2026 budget law assigns US$2,397 million to the armed forces, of which the Navy receives US$572 million. Neither figure covers warship purchases.
Those come from a separate multi-year fund under Law 21,174, fed by an annual contribution. Congress approves that contribution in the budget law.
From 11 March 2026 the incoming finance minister, Jorge Quiroz, ordered every ministry, Defence included, to cut 3% from its budget. He set that as the first step of a US$6 billion fiscal adjustment.
A submarine replacement competes for the same pot. The Navy submitted high-level requirements to the Defence Ministry in 2025.
defensa.com put each new boat at US$700 million to US$900 million in December 2025. Its February 2025 analysis had put two boats at US$500 million to US$900 million in total.
President José Antonio Kast took office on 11 March 2026. On 13 July 2026 he reviewed capability priorities with his defence minister, Fernando Barros Tocornal.
No frigate decision was announced. Barros had seen an Arrowhead 140 model at the FIDAE show in April 2026.
Who else is chasing the work
The Babcock Hybrid Navy Chile offer is not the only one circulating. South Korea’s Hanwha Ocean showed a rival 4,500-tonne design in Santiago in 2025.
The Ocean 4500 can launch air, surface and underwater drones. Hanwha is also offering Chile a submarine.
HD Hyundai, another Korean group, shares an Exponaval panel with Babcock in Santiago in December 2026. defensa.com expected Navantia, France and Germany to promote frigates too.
Four years on the same doorstep
Babcock has worked Chile since 2022, showing the Arrowhead 140 at Exponaval in Valparaíso. In February 2026 it flew the Chilean flag at the rollout of HMS Active.
What is new is the packaging and the rank of the salesman. No frigate tender has been published.
The Babcock Hybrid Navy Chile proposal reaches a navy whose ships are ageing faster than its money is arriving.
More: Chile coverage, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Babcock and what is it selling Chile?
Babcock International Group is a British engineering and defence contractor that builds and supports Royal Navy warships at Rosyth in Scotland. In Chile it is promoting the Arrowhead 140 frigate, the export version of Britain’s Type 31 design. Its marine chief executive, Sir Nick Hine, has wrapped that ship inside a wider concept called ARMOR Force, in which a crewed frigate commands a group of uncrewed vessels.
What does the hybrid navy concept actually mean?
It means buying a task group rather than a single warship. One crewed Arrowhead 140 works as a command ship. Around it would operate uncrewed vessels, including a 60-metre craft that Hine described as carrying four 40-foot shipping containers. Each container is a mission module: air defence, counter-drone work, strike or submarine hunting. Swapping the container changes the job without rebuilding the ship.
Why does Chile need new frigates?
Its main surface force is eight frigates of four different classes bought from three countries, averaging thirty to thirty-five years old. A national shipbuilding policy launched in January 2025 requires future surface warships to be built in Chile, mainly at the state yard ASMAR in Talcahuano. Studies since 2019 point to a locally built Fragata Nacional of 132 metres, under which a class of eight would replace the squadron from 2030.
How close is Chile to a decision?
No frigate tender, shortlist, budget line or decision date has been published, and no price has been quoted for an Arrowhead 140 for Chile. Warship purchases sit outside the ordinary defence budget, in a multi-year fund under Law 21,174 whose annual contribution Congress approves in the budget law. Money is tighter than it was: from 11 March 2026 the incoming finance minister, Jorge Quiroz, ordered every ministry to cut 3% as the first step of a US$6 billion adjustment. A submarine replacement is competing for the same money, which defensa.com put at US$700 million to US$900 million per boat in December 2025 and at US$500 million to US$900 million for two boats in February 2025.
Sources: defensa.com on the hybrid-navy offer and the ARMOR Force concept, Naval News on the interview with Babcock’s marine chief, Poder Naval on the Arrowhead 140 proposal to Chile, Navy Lookout on Type 31 costs and export prospects, Naval Today on the British programme charge, defensa.com on the Chilean squadron and the Fragata Nacional, infodefensa on the Navy’s own cost benchmark, infodefensa on the 2026 defence budget, infodefensa on Hanwha Ocean’s rival design, defensa.com on the president’s defence meeting, defensa.com on the minister at the British pavilion, defensa.com on local build and the national shipbuilding policy
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