The Type 26 will operate as a multi-mission warship and is due to come into service after 2020.
It will be used by the Royal Navy in combat and counter-piracy operations, and to support humanitarian and disaster relief work around the world.
The Ministry of Defence would not put a cost of the programme yesterday, but previous reports have indicated that they could reach between £250 million and £350m per ship.
A joint team of around 250 engineers from BAE Systems and the MoD have been working on the project in recent years.
The impact on employment is not clear, but the UK government said yesterday that the creation of the vessel will sustain “thousands of jobs” in the shipbuilding industry.
The last of the UK’s Daring-class Type 45 destroyers, HMS Duncan, was launched at BAE Systems’ Govan shipyard in October 2010.
It has previously been suggested that countries such as Turkey, Australia, India, Malaysia, New Zealand and Canada could be interested in taking the ship for export.
The MoD has been working with BAE Systems for the past two years to determine the ship’s basic capabilities and baseline design.
The ships are among several projects, including the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers which are being built on the Clyde, which the UK government says will see “UK shipbuilding” provide world class equipment for the Royal Navy.