Carriers to boost UK shipbuilders

The UK shipbuilding industry, or what remains of it, is heavily dependant on defence contracts for its survival. The forthcoming future aircraft carrier (CVF) programme will be crucial in this respect and essential to ensuring the long-term survival of the industry. The projected contract will involve the construction of two 55,000t displacement warships due to enter service in 2012 and 2015 and will replace the Royal Navy?s current fleet of three 20,000t displacement Invincible class carriers. The programme forms a significant part of the UK government?s 1998 strategic defence review and will provide a major boost to the UK?s shipbuilding and marine equipment industry to the tune of approximately £2.9 billion ($4.5 billion) for the initial acquisition (this includes the cost of the aircraft) and an estimated through-life cost of £7 billion.

Designing and developing major naval vessels has, with a few exceptions, always been an in-house activity for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) but, with increasing pressure on containing costs and delivering value for money, many services are being outsourced to private industry. The main beneficiary of this commercial approach will be one of the two teams competing for the prime contractorship to design and build the future carriers. The teams are led, respectively, by UK-based BAE Systems and the UK division of France-based Thales Naval. Both will complete the second stage of the competitive process by November 20 this year under a 12 month £25 million contract.

The MoD will then have until February 1, 2003 to select the prime contractor for the programme.

Although the vessels will not be nuclear powered, a range of propulsion options is under consideration including the integrated full electric propulsion (IFEP) concept where a common power system is used for both propulsion and ship?s services. In practical terms this means the efficient operation through the use of the minimum number of prime movers necessary to meet the required load, all running near their optimum efficiency, selected from a relatively large number of smaller units.

It is likely that the CVFs will be powered by Rolls Royce?s WR-21 gas turbines rated at 25MW. These are the first production aero derivate gas turbines to incorporate compressor inter-cooling and exhaust gas recuperation, intended to give fuel efficiency characteristics comparable to diesel engines.

The BAE team consists of Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Alenia Marconi Systems, Vosper Thornycroft, Rolls-Royce, Babcock BES, Strachan & Henshaw, Fleet Support Ltd., QinetiQ, BAE Systems Marine and Swan Hunter. The idea is that team commonality with partners will bring the benefits of synergies and efficiencies while familiarity in working relationships will foster confidence in the sharing of confidential data.

By working closely with its future carrier partners, BAE Systems is aiming to bring creativity and innovation into the design of the carriers which includes innovative hull and island designs, as well as systems such as automated weapons and munitions handling.

An important aspect of this project is that it involves the use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components and the application of technology from other programmes, such as the Type 45 Destroyer and from other industries, such as commercial aviation and commercial shipbuilding. This innovative approach is claimed to produce solutions that add real value for money through life.

To develop a yard-endorsed design and build strategy, BAE has established an integrated shipbuilding team with Vosper Thornycroft of Portsmouth, Swan Hunter of Newcastle, Babcock BES of Rosyth and BAE Systems Marine of Barrow-in-Furness and the Clyde. In addition, Northrop Grumman brings significant experience in the design and build of aircraft carriers, through its work on similar programmes for the United States government through its Ship Systems and Newport News Shipbuilding businesses.

The planned modular, multi-yard build strategy means that the integrated team is working together to produce a plan to construct blocks as large, fully outfitted self-contained units. These modules will subsequently be assembled to form blocks, which will then be joined at a separate final assembly facility, yet to be decided although one of the options is BAE?s own yard at Barrow-in-Furness which has the largest covered building berth in Europe. Studies are already being undertaken into the transportation of the blocks between facilities to determine the most effective way to achieve this.

The other rival consortium led by Thales (formerly Thomson-CSF), has an equally impressive list of team members comprising Lockheed Martin (participating in both teams with corporate “firewalls” to safeguard competition-sensitive information) together with Raytheon, BMT Defence Services Ltd, DML (Devonport Management), Halliburton KBR, Alstom and CAE Electronics. QinetiQ also has a “firewalled” involvement with both teams, supplying skills and services across of range of disciplines.

Thales has disclosed its strategy for the shipbuilding phase of the CVF programme, outlining plans to construct each of the two planned carriers in five “superblocks” of up to 16,000t, with different shipyards competing for each section. The decision to build in sections was taken because Thales found that no single UK facility had the necessary size or skills to meet the in-service date without unacceptably high risk. The design proposed by the French led consortium is based on a conventional take-off and landing but features an innovative two-island concept together with a podded propulsion system and widely separated generator spaces. The Thales ship is somewhat larger than that proposed by BAE.

It is quite feasible that, if Thales was appointed as the prime contractor, some of the blocks could be built and assembled in France. After all, the DCN Brest naval shipyard in Brittany last year delivered the French Navy?s nuclear aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle.