[Stoat]

Telegraph Money The big ship Navy is back

The big ship Navy is back
(Filed: 29/01/2006)
 

This week's launch of HMS Daring marks a new era in British warship construction. But will it last? Sylvia Pfeifer reports

Two workers in navy-blue overalls stand 15 ft above the ground in a cherry picker, busy smoothing out rough patches on the steel bow of a giant warship. On the decks above them, dozens of others crawl over the ship. Outside by the entrance to the cavernous hall, an electronic clock counts down next to the words "Days to launch"

.

In three days' time, weather permitting, the workers will launch the 153m ship into the Clyde. The official launch - which will be attended by 11,000 guests, including the Countess of Wessex - will mark a major milestone in the £6bn programme to supply the Royal Navy with its first new class of warship for several years.

HMS Daring is the first of the new Type 45 destroyers and the largest vessel launched from BAE Systems' Scotstoun yard in Glasgow. But the launch is much more than just another photo opportunity for royal watchers.

In the yard's centenary year, and just over 200 years since the Battle of Trafalgar, Britain's shipbuilding industry is enjoying a revival, buoyed by the largest work programme in a generation. With the Royal Navy's two new aircraft carriers and the Astute submarines, the 7,350 tonne Type 45 destroyers will form the backbone of the Royal Navy's air defence for the first half of this century. The final piece of the jigsaw is Mars (short for Military Afloat Reach and Sustainability), a £2bn-plus supply ship programme which is just at its formative stage. "It's the return of the big ship Navy," says one industry executive.

Vic Emery, the managing director of BAE's naval shipbuilding division, says talk of a revival is "true to some extent".

The company recruited 300 people last year to cope with the increased workload; it plans to hire the same number this year and a further 250 in 2007. Investment has also kept pace with the orders; since 2001 BAE has committed £55m in capital expenditure to bring the Clyde yards up to speed for the warship programme. Emery proudly points out that the company has taken on 280 apprentices in the past three years as well as 50 graduates.

Ross McLure, the module hall manager at Scotstoun who started in the industry as an apprentice plater in 1976, says that much of the uncertainty that plagued the work force during the 1980s and 1990s, when redundancies took place nearly every two to three years, has gone.

"It's only in the past three to four years … that you can say there is continuity," he says on a walk around the ship. "We've never been able to look ahead for eight years even."

Having witnessed three "first of class" launches during the past three decades, McLure is adamant that the Type 45 is in a class of its own. In a new style of partnership with other contractors, the bow of the ship was built by VT Group, the support services and shipbuilding company, at its yard in Portsmouth and shipped to the Clyde where it was put together with the other blocks built at Scotstoun. The second and third ships in the six-ship order are already being built at BAE's Govan yard on the other side of the river.

Apart from its impressive length, the ship boasts a radar mast that is as high as the Twin Towers of the old Wembley Stadium, a flight deck large enough for 20 London buses and a fitness centre for its mixed crew of 190. It is the first time a ship has been designed from the start to have women on board.

It is the first front-line warship to use all-electric propulsion and, when ready to go into service in 2009, will be equipped with the latest in warfare technology. Apart from a design that incorporates stealth technology, the Type 45 will have an anti-aircraft missile system, PAAMs, which is capable of taking out supersonic aircraft. Connecting it all, are 400 miles of cabling and 19,000 pipes.

Nevertheless, despite such superlatives and the industry's healthy signs, there are concerns that the renaissance could fizzle out. The original requirement from the Government for 12 Type 45s has already been scaled back to eight and the overall budget has been cut by £145m following a decision to reduce the capabilities of the ships.

Much depends on whether the Government confirms an order for the final two vessels. According to Emery, unless BAE and its partners get approval to build two more Type 45s, it could lead to a gap in workload until the next big project starts in earnest, that to build the aircraft carriers.

Emery says: "What we need to secure in terms of continuity of work are two more Type 45s. The ministry have said they will buy up to eight but the budget is creaking. That would secure that there would be no gap at all."

Paul Lester, the chief executive of VT Group, is equally blunt. "Type 45 is the first in a series of projects that will sustain the industry for a period of some 15 years and gives us the opportunity to plan the long-term future. The programme has allowed us to recruit and train new skilled personnel in preparation for further projects, notably the future aircraft carriers. However, it is vitally important that ships seven and eight are ordered so that we do not suffer any break in production through to the aircraft carriers and therefore avoid the risk of losing those skills," he says.

Emery says he expects to hear more from the MoD by the summer, and declares himself "optimistic". "I believe it's really an affordability issue. There is no doubt the end-user wants eight."

Above all, what executives are striving for is a long-term strategy for an industry that has been dominated by peaks and troughs. A new maritime strategy, unveiled by Lord Drayson, the defence procurement minister, in December, has gone some way towards assuaging concerns.

At the heart of the review is a move to build a strategic partnership between industry and government to help safeguard future warship building capability. The alliance building the naval carriers is also expected to form the blueprint for a wider grouping of naval shipbuilding firms that could lead to the formation of a new national champion in warship construction, dubbed "ShipCo".

Emery says "the initial flush of the review is positive", pointing out that he has been calling for a more of a partnership with the Ministry of Defence for three years. Nevertheless, as always, "the devil is in the detail".

"We need to understand what the intention is. We want a single entity. Anything other than that … and you don't get the economic benefits," he says.

But any thoughts about the best way to ensure the industry's long-term future will be no doubt be at the back of his mind on Wednesday when the HMS Daring takes to the water for the first time. "I can't wait," says Emery. "To get the first one in the water is a great event. I will be elated."

BAESYSTEMS.com

Programmes

Naval Ships - Type 45 Destroyer

Introduction   Type 45   Smart   Evolution   News   Partners   Procurement   Downloads   Contact

Click here to view an animated film of Type 45 Destroyer development, assembly, trials and deployment.

 

 

World's Most Advanced Warship

World's Most Advanced Warship
 

The world’s most advanced warship, HMS Daring, will be launched from BAE Systems’ Scotstoun yard on February 1st. A website dedicated to the launch has been set up.

Designed for a wide audience from school children to journalists, type45.com features information about the class of ships, downloadable images and, as the countdown goes on, interviews with the people who designed and built the ship and the people who will be using her.

Speaking as the website was launched, BAE Systems Naval Ships Head of Communications Charles Thompson said: “The launch of HMS Daring will confirm that the Clyde remains the natural home of warship building in the UK. This is an important event not only for Glasgow but also for the Royal Navy. This website will ensure that everyone can follow the build up to the launch whilst learning about the capability Daring will deliver to the British fleet for decades to come.”

http://www.baesystems.com and http://www.type45.com

[Banjoguy]

Yeah, but what about Exocet?

[jecIIny]

The Royal Navy may not be as big as it once was when guarding the Empire. But its still the only navy in the world that I respect as being professionally the equal of ours.

[PittsburghAfterDark]

I'd be very curious to know the capabilities of this ship vs. the long talked about American DD(X).

[HiTech RedNeck]

SO what happens when some barbarian shoots Greek fire on their deck.

[real saxophonist]

Two things I found amusing:

It will be launched 'weather permitting',

and 'It is the first time a ship has been designed from the start to have women on board.'

8~)

[Stoat]

"She is armed with 48 Aster missiles with 40lb warheads — each can stop even the fastest enemy jet 60 miles away. "

Launch of an Aster 30 missile from the French Navy trails ship Ile d'Oléron

Aster 15 - Aster 30

 

Aster 15
Aster 30

Eurosam is a Franco-Italian joint venture created by the French companies Aerospatiale and Thompson-CSF and the Italian firm Alenia/Finmeccanica in order to develop the anti-missile programme FSAF (Future Surface-to-Air Family), which is organised around the Franco-Italian missile Aster. This family has a naval component, the PAAMS (Horizon program) and a mobile land component to be mounted on vehicles which is currently under development.

  The two versions of the missile differ only in the size of their first booster stage and, consequently, their range: from 1.7 to 30 km in the case of the Aster 15, and from three to 80 km in the case of the Aster 30. When it enters service, the Aster will be the Western World's first surface-to-air missile with active guidance. The Aster is capable of load limits of 60 G in its terminal phase thanks to its aerodynamic pilot, in addition to which there are impulses from lateral jets at the center of gravity, making last-minute corrections of trajectory possible at the moment of interception. That capability makes the Aster unique in the world.

In December 1997 Aerospatiale announced two significant firing tests of Aster 15 and Aster 30 missiles. In the first test an Aster 15 successfully intercepted a sea-skimming target in a very high electronic countermeasures environment. The Aster scored what the French immediately called a "Hit-to-Kiss". Aster's impact point was under a meter from its target's center of gravity. On 11 December 1997, an Aster 30 ground launched missile underwent s its first validation firing against a real target. The intercept occurred at a distance of 16.2 nm. (30 km) from the launch point at an altitude of 36,000 ft (11,000 meters). The C22 target was flying at Mach 0.84 (900 km/h) and the Aster 30 intercepting the target head-on and from above at Mach 2.68. The recorded miss-distance was less than 4 meters.

Aster is capable of evolving in the direction of an antiballistic role in the future. The missile would be able to deal with ballistic missiles with a range of 1,000 km as they reenter the atmosphere. The homing head would have to be made more powerful or its algorithms speeded up, considering the approach speeds involved. The field of the proximity fuze would have to be reduced from 60^o to 30^o to increase its sensitivity, and fragmentation of the explosive charge would have to be adjusted to produce larger fragments.

The Principal Anti-Air Missile System (PAAMS) is a new surface-to-air missile system, developed essentially to provide medium-range air defence and anti-missile protection for high-value units, such as aircraft carriers or merchant tankers, in the vicinity of the escort. The Horizon air defence frigate project involves France, Italy and the United Kingdom. The program covers the ship and secondary weapon systems, and PAAMS. the PAAMS has not suffered from London's recent decision to withdraw from the Horizon frigates program. The Horizon International Joint Venture Co., the prime contractor designated for the program, is owned by the French firm Direction des Constructions Navales (DCN) International, the British firm GEC-Maritime Ltd., and the Italian company Orrizonte SpA. The operational specifications for the frigate were set out in the "Trilateral Staff Requirements" document signed in 1992. However, the partners encountered major difficulties in their efforts to reach agreement on the operational capabilities of the missile system.

[ken5050]

bookmark for later read

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Even the cabin boys are new and improved.

[BigCinBigD]

may God bless her and all who sail upon her.

[agere_contra]

Terrific ship, and PAAMS is a good system.

I wish - however - that we had fitted it with multiple purpose launch tubes, not these admittedly superb but single role missiles.

Historical note: Exocet was defeated during the Falklands war by going bow-on to the threat, as the crew of HMS Gloucester can testify.

[globalheater]

the ship sucks - it has no sails.

[TruthFactor]

God Bless the Brit's. Our nation's heritage comes from good stock.

[montomike]

Nice target!

A bubblehead's perspective!

[wildcatf4f3]

Allelectric propulsion---please tell me its not Lucas Prince of Darkness.

[Wonder Warthog]

Excuse me, but since when is a "destroyer" considered a "big ship". I thought they were the SMALLEST class of oceanic war vessels, with cruisers, battleships, and aircraft carriers being larger.

[GreenLanternCorps]

This thread deserves a White Ensign!

[countorlock]

Bunking for male couples?

[Wolfstar]

Good morning, snugs and Ivan. I thought you might be interested in this thread about the Royal Navy.

[moose2004]

I respect and admire the British Navy, but I don't believe for a minute that this is the deadliest ship ever built. I'm sure the folks at Groton, Ct and Newport News, Va will agree with me.

[R. Scott]

Definitely blurring the line between the Destroyer and the Cruiser.