The frigates, worth a reported 400 million pounds ($623.5 million), will be towed into the Atlantic next year to be used for Royal Navy missile and torpedo training.

"These two ships were surplus to requirements, they are out of date warships," a Ministry of Defense spokeswoman said. "The Navy considers it part of vital weapon assessment."

The Cold War-era ships, built in the 1980s to counter the threat posed by Soviet submarines, will be stripped and emptied of fuel before being fired upon.

The Defense Ministry refused to confirm a report in Thursday's mass-circulation Sun newspaper that the warships are Boxer, which entered service in 1983, and Brave, launched two years later.

The paper said the ships cost 400 million pounds to build and were mothballed in 1997 in Portsmouth, southern England -- a move condemned by one Navy commentator quoted in the Sun.

"It was scandalous these frigates were discarded halfway through their useful life," Mike Critchley, editor of Warship World magazine, was quoted as saying by the paper.

But the Defense Ministry said the warships had been superseded by "more relevant" destroyers and Type-23 frigates.