Royal Navy matters [Archive] - Page 2

buglerbilly

31-10-11, 05:48 PM

British and French navies plan major exercise for 2012

09:14 GMT, October 31, 2011 The flagships of the Royal Navy and the Marine nationale are lined up to work side-by-side next year to demonstrate the progress made between the two fleets.

The Royal Navy's key deployment of 2012 - which will see the UK Response Force Task Group (UK RFTG) head to the Mediterranean - is due to join forces with the FS Charles de Gaulle and her carrier battlegroup for an exercise that will highlight co-operation between the two navies.

The link up was agreed by the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, and his French counterpart, Amiral Bernard Rogel, who have met twice recently - once in Paris and once at the US Navy-led International Sea Power Symposium on Rhode Island - to formally review progress made since the signing of the UK-France treaty last year.

The two admirals said that maritime operations off Libya this year had demonstrated the significant progress already made in developing cooperation and interoperability between the two navies.

In addition to the international effort in the Gulf of Sirte, 2011 has seen the Cougar 11 Task Group - the first test of the UK RFTG since it was formed under last year's Defence Review - work with the French patrol ship FS Commandant Birot, while just this month assault ship HMS Bulwark hosted 130 troops from 2nd Marine Infantry Regiment (2RIMa), plus all their equipment, for the latest Joint Warrior exercise in northwest Scotland.

In the two recent meetings, Admiral Stanhope and Amiral Rogel decided that the major assets of both navies should make 'maximum use' of working together as the two navies look to create a Combined Joint Expeditionary Force by the mid-decade - and that much of the foundations for such a force have already been laid.

The coming years will see an increasing number of British sailors and marines trading places with the French counterparts as part of the Personnel Exchange Programme designed to improve the understanding of the respective navies so they can work together more effectively.

In addition, more work will be carried out on the two navies' aircraft carrier programmes, enabling British aircraft to fly from the Charles de Gaulle and French aircraft to operate from HMS Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales when they enter service towards the decade's end.

During his time in the USA, Admiral Stanhope visited Groton, Connecticut, known as the 'submarine capital of the world', to visit the latest addition to the US Silent Service.

The USS Missouri is the seventh of a planned 30 Virginia-class hunter-killer submarines, which are similar in size, firepower, equipment and price to the UK's new Astute-class boats.

Captain Mike Bernacchi, Commander of the US Navy's Submarine Squadron 4, guided Admiral Stanhope around the brand-new Missouri. Admiral Stanhope is himself a submariner with two commands - those of HMS Orpheus and HMS Splendid - under his belt, and the role of teacher on the Perisher command course in a naval career spanning four decades.

The US officer said the visit was highly beneficial for both navies as the submariners discussed construction, training and modernisation of the two silent services:

"Throughout my naval career I have had great interactions with the Royal Navy and through engagements, such as the visit aboard USS Missouri by the First Sea Lord, which was very engaging," Capt Bernacchi explained.

"We continually share information, which contributes to our alliance and makes us both stronger.

"We discussed the advantage of the new training technologies and how that has led to advances in onboard warfighting preparation, which our captains are using to very effectively prepare our Virginia-class boats for at sea operations."

buglerbilly

09-11-11, 01:57 PM

Portsmouth’s BAE Systems Handed Massive Ship Building Contract

(Source: The News, Portsmouth; posted Nov. 9, 2011)

Portsmouth’s ship building industry is set to receive a huge boost after a major air craft carrier contract dramatically switched to the city from South Tyneside.

Part of a £55million landmark order for Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales will move from A&P Tyne in Hebburn to BAE Systems in Portsmouth. There is speculation at the Hebburn yard that the contract was cancelled because of a lack of work at BAE Systems in Portsmouth.

The news comes just weeks after the yard built and delivered its section for the previous carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth 11 – five weeks ahead of schedule.

Stewart Boak, managing director of A&P Tyne, expressed his ‘disappointment’ at the shock news at the loss of the contract for the carrier unit in a memo to the Hebburn work force yesterday.

Mr Boak told the Hebburn work force: ‘I am extremely disappointed to have to advise you that our customer BAE Systems has cancelled the above work scope on Ship 02. The work will now be completed at BAE Systems’ Portsmouth facility. I am sorry to have to bring you this news, it in no way reflects upon the performance of all involved in the contract to date. Thank you.’

Management at A&P Tyne were told verbally about the contract switch last week, before written confirmation from BAE Systems.

No one was available for comment at BAE Systems.

-ends-

buglerbilly

09-11-11, 03:03 PM

UK's first Type 45 destroyer ready for maiden deployment

A British Typhoon fighter aircraft makes a fly-by of HMS Daring. (Photo: UK MoD)

07:40 GMT, November 9, 2011 HMS Daring will sail from Portsmouth in the New Year, after more than four years of trials, tests and training which have just concluded with eight demanding weeks off Plymouth.

The first of six cutting-edge Type 45 destroyers, HMS Daring will sail on her maiden deployment in 2012, after she and her company of 180 men and women came through final training with flying colours.

The Portsmouth-based warship has just completed two months in the hands of the team from Flag Officer Sea Training (FOST), specialists who prepare the entire fleet for all eventualities when deployed around the globe.

Daring left Operational Sea Training (OST) off Plymouth with a 'very satisfactory' score from the assessors - most ships generally pass the exacting workout with a 'satisfactory' mark: "Everyone's really pleased that the ship did so well at OST - we are ready for anything now," said Leading Seaman John Davies.

"It will be great to get home though, see my wife, and relax for the first time in two long months."

Those 'two long months' saw Daring carry out hurricane disaster relief at Bull Point, opposite Devonport Naval Base; evacuate civilians from a worsening international crisis; deal with terrorist attacks while alongside at the base; demonstrate that she can cope with an attack involving biological or chemical weapons; fight off swarms of small attack craft at sea; and, not least, her raison d'être, fending off air attack.

Daring came through her first stint with FOST in the spring of 2010, during which numerous lessons were learned about training the 45s for front line deployments - and since when Daring herself has received additional firepower (Phalanx automated Gatling guns) and witnessed a substantial change in personnel (including a new commanding officer).

Although half the class of six Type 45s have been declared operational, none have deployed yet as they have been undergoing either training, maintenance or enhancements.

2012 will be the 'Year of the 45' with Daring, Dauntless and Diamond all earmarked to make their maiden deployments.

The first to go, fittingly, will be Daring - although when and where to will not be disclosed until nearer her departure date.

Over the next few weeks bespoke kit for her impending deployment will be fitted and tested, and there will be some final maintenance and husbandry before the destroyer sails: "I now have absolute confidence in my ship and her crew," said Commanding Officer Captain Guy Robinson.

"I have seen them face the challenges that may be expected of a warship which could be asked to operate anywhere across the globe.

"Recent events in the Mediterranean and Middle East demonstrate just how quickly a crisis can develop. Daring's versatility, reach and punch make her a very credible UK asset - and one that I am proud to command."

buglerbilly

10-11-11, 12:10 AM

Navy's new Wildcat makes first landing at sea

An Equipment and Logistics news article

9 Nov 11

The Royal Navy's next-generation helicopter, the Wildcat, has landed on a ship at sea for the first time.

A Royal Navy Wildcat helicopter in flight
[Picture: Crown Copyright/MOD 2011]

On 7 November, the aircraft touched down on the flight deck of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) aviation trials ship Argus off England's south coast, at the start of four weeks of tough trials for air and ground crew.

Wildcat is the 21st century variant of the Lynx helicopter which has served the Navy since the 1970s.

The landing on RFA Argus heralds four weeks of 'operating limit trials' for the Wildcat, which will lay the foundations for flying the new helicopter when it enters front line service.

A team from AgustaWestland, the Yeovil firm which builds the Lynx, experts from the Aircraft Test and Evaluation Centre at Boscombe Down, and Navy air engineers and technicians have joined Argus for the trials.

It fell to Lieutenant Commanders Robert Dowdell and Lee Evans to make the historic flight - assisted by a Lynx Mk8 of 815 Naval Air Squadron, which will get its hands on Wildcat in a little over two years' time:

"This marks a significant milestone in the life of Wildcat," said Lt Cdr Rob Taylor, Commanding Officer of 700W [W for Wildcat] Naval Air Squadron [NAS] - the trials unit set up at RNAS [Royal Naval Air Station] Yeovilton in Somerset specifically to bring the new aircraft into service.

"The deck landing's the first in a series of trials which will see Wildcat cleared to operate on all classes of Royal Navy and RFA ships in all theatres of the world."

Wildcat is bristling with new sensors and kit - improved radar, improved communications suite, more powerful engines, more firepower, and a 'glass' cockpit with four large display screens replacing the older dials and screens.

The first deck landing of a Royal Navy Wildcat helicopter is achieved on Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel Argus off the south coast of England
[Picture: Lieutenant Ed Barham RN, Crown Copyright/MOD 2011]

The cockpit's layout has been heavily influenced by input from the pilots and observers to allow them to find, collate and report contacts at sea or on land rapidly.

At the same time, engineers should find the Wildcat easier to maintain - which means the aircraft will have an even higher rate of availability than the already-reliable Lynx.

The first Wildcat arrives at Yeovilton, home of the Navy's entire Lynx Force, in January 2013, when the team at 700W NAS will determine how aircrews will operate the helicopter on deployment.

At the same time, a training course will be designed ahead of the first Wildcat crews converting from the existing Lynx joining 702 NAS, the Lynx operational training unit, in January 2014.

From there, the qualified fliers will move to the front line Lynx squadron, 815 NAS, which provides frigates, destroyers and the Navy's ice patrol ships with dedicated Flights of helicopters, plus air and ground crew, for their global deployments. The first Wildcat Flight is earmarked to deploy in 2015.

Some 62 Wildcats are being bought by the MOD, 34 for the Army Air Corps and 28 for the Fleet Air Arm. The Army variant is due to begin operations in 2014.

tiddles

10-11-11, 03:52 AM

buglerbilly

10-11-11, 04:05 AM

The current Lynx has served a number of Navies with success for some years & the Wildcat should be perfectly OK for the RN as a replacement. It seems to me to be a bit small [load wise] for Army operations although the British Army has been using it seemingly successfully for some years, I had thought if they are about to replace the older Army Lynx it would be a good time to get the NH90/ Blackhawk size Helo, not much local work there though.
Tiddles

The Brits don't need either the NH90 nor the BlackHawk. They have an Upgrade programme for all PUMA's with new engines and a raft of other things, The EH-101's are transferring from the RAF to the Navy for Amphib roles consolidating the Merlin's in the RN, the Chinooks are being or about to be Upgraded and more procured as new builds. The Wildcats and AH-9's will/do serve in the Light Support role for which they are emminently suited, the Naval version replace Sea Lynxes on Type 23's where/when Merlins are not required..........truth be known they'd be more suitable for the RNZN than the SeaShytes they currently have and find difficult to support.

The Brits could do with more Tactical Merlins but in the current economic climate that is not going to happen.

tiddles

10-11-11, 08:35 AM

I know its been said a thousand times before but once more wont hurt - Both the RNZN & the RAN would have been better off if the Lynx had been selected & not the Seasprite, & we wouldnt have been about $1 Billion lighter,with nothing to show for it.
Tiddles

ADMk2

10-11-11, 08:43 AM

True enough, we would have had a very capable helo in-service for years, instead of no capability for years...

OTOH the Wildcat is one of the ugliest looking helos I've seen in years. Beauty doesn't play much part in capability I know, but damn she ugly!!!

pdf27

10-11-11, 08:48 PM

It's a well known fact that Helicopters only fly due to being so ugly the earth repels them, so surely thisis a good feature?

buglerbilly

15-11-11, 12:51 PM

New Royal Navy Submarine Fires First Tomahawk Missiles Across North American Skies

(Source: Royal Navy; issued Nov. 14, 2011)

HMS Astute, currently in the Gulf of Mexico for the first test run of her system, has performed the “first of class” firing of Tomahawk cruise missiles while submerged. (UK MoD photo)

The Royal Navy’s newest submarine has blasted Tomahawk missiles far across the North American skies, as part of its first test firing mission.

The Tomahawk weapons rocketed from HMS Astute at up to 550 miles per hour (885kph) across the Gulf of Mexico. The 5.5-metre-long cruise missile weighs 1,300kg and has a range of more than 1,000 miles.

Astute’s Commanding Officer, Commander Iain Breckenridge, said:

“This first-of-class firing proves that Astute is a truly capable submarine. It means that the UK submarine service will be able to provide the UK’s strike capability for many years to come.”

HMS Astute is in the Gulf of Mexico for the first test run of her system. She has the largest weapon-carrying capacity of all the Royal Navy’s attack submarines and can hold a combination of up to 38 Tomahawk missiles and Spearfish torpedoes.

The UK is the only other country supplied Tomahawk technology by the USA. It has been in operation since 1999 and has been launched from various submarines to support operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and, most recently, Libya.

The Astute Class of nuclear powered attack submarines is the most technologically advanced submarines to serve with the Royal Navy and will progressively replace the Trafalgar Class currently in service. They have been designed with modern operations in mind and are vastly different in shape, size, capacity and capability to their predecessors.

Commander Breckenridge said:

"The most noticeable difference for the ship’s company is that for the first time everyone has their own bunk. Design changes that will make an operational difference include the fact that we have a reactor that will never need to be refuelled in the boat’s 25 year life.

“We have optronic masts instead of traditional periscopes, which means we have saved lots of space in the control room as well as having the benefit of digital cameras instead of traditional optical periscopes.”

HMS Astute will continue her trials in the USA until the early spring before returning to the UK for training before her first operational deployment.

BACKGROUND NOTES:

• The Astute Class is designed to perform a number of roles including anti-submarine and surface ship warfare, to gather intelligence to protect the UK’s strategic deterrent and surface shipping. It can also attack targets on land with Tomahawk guided missiles.

• The First of Class, HMS Astute, was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 27 August 2010 and is currently undertaking a period of extensive sea trials before she is handed over for operational service.

-ends-

buglerbilly

15-11-11, 10:35 PM

Babcock delivers upgraded Type 23 frigate

HMS Kent leaving Rosyth after refit by Babcock. (Photo: Babcock, Dave Cullen)

15:22 GMT, November 14, 2011 Type 23 frigate HMS Kent has left Babcock’s Rosyth dockyard to start sea trials, with a number of significant upgrades following a successful refit by Babcock. The demanding and tightly scheduled project has seen HMS Kent receive more than 20 upgrades, as well as undergoing a full programme of deep maintenance including structural repairs, renewal of hull coatings and refurbishment and maintenance of all the ship’s systems and equipment.

Babcock’s experience on previous Type 23 docking periods and the close and effective working between Babcock, the Ministry of Defence (MOD), and Ship’s Staff have contributed significantly to ensuring optimum efficiency, cost-effectiveness and safety; resulting in the successful completion of the programme, on-time and in-budget.

Upgrades and improvements as a result of the refit include: installation of Sonar 2087, the tactical variable depth anti-submarine warfare system (involving significant structural modifications to the aft end); the new DNA(2) Command System (central to the ship’s fighting capability against air surface and underwater threats); the SeaWolf Mid-Life Update comprising tracking, guidance and weapon management upgrades; the 4.5 Mk8 Mod1 gun replacement and the new 30mm Automatic Small Calibre Gun fit; installation of the Defence Information Infrastructure (Future) (known as DII(F)) system to enable information sharing and collaborative working across the Armed Forces and MOD; NATO radial filters to protect fresh air supplies against nuclear, biological, or chemical attack; and a new sophisticated incident detection system.

Additionally, living and working conditions on-board in even the most extreme ambient temperatures have been improved with a ‘globalisation’ fit, which involved a re-design of the entire ship’s air conditioning system affecting most compartments on-board. There were also galley equipment upgrades and habitability improvements, as well as mechanical system upgrades.

Babcock project manager Russell Glancy commented: “This project, over its 50 week timeframe, has involved an extensive scope of work and a number of challenges which have been successfully met. In addition to the multiple upgrades and improvements, the 295,000 manhour project has involved the overhaul of some 500 or so items of equipment and has seen more than 13km of cable installed and 15,000 litres of paint applied. It is thanks to the pro-active approach and strong spirit of partnering displayed throughout by all key stakeholders (Babcock, ship’s staff and MoD), that we have successfully met the challenges; on-schedule and to cost and quality. HMS Kent now leaves in the best possible material condition to commence her sea trials ahead of the ship’s return to operational duties.”

MoD Project Group Manager David Winstanley said: “To have achieved the ready for sea date to the original contracted schedule has been a tremendous achievement. It is a testament to the strength and durability of the Babcock/Ship’s Staff/MoD partnership and to the valuable contributions made by the wider stakeholder community.”

HMS Kent will now undergo sea trials before returning to the Fleet in February 2012.

buglerbilly

16-11-11, 12:01 AM

Nice pics from the Tomahawk launches by HMS Astute..................

The first Tomahawk cruise missile to be launched from HMS Astute heads skywards
[Picture: Petty Officer (Photographer) Paul Punter, Crown Copyright/MOD 2011]

A Tomahawk missile is prepared for launch on board HMS Astute
[Picture: Petty Officer (Photographer) Paul Punter, Crown Copyright/MOD 2011]

HMS Astute sails from Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base, Georgia, USA
[Picture: Petty Officer (Photographer) Paul Punter, Crown Copyright/MOD 2011]

buglerbilly

16-11-11, 12:59 PM

Already flagged previously.............

United Kingdom – Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System Long Lead Sub-Assemblies

(Source: Defense Security Cooperation Agency; issued November 15, 2011)

WASHINGTON --- The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress today of a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of the United Kingdom for one long lead sub-assemblies for the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System/Advanced Arresting Gear (EMALS/AAG) and associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support for an estimated cost of $200 million.

The Government of the United Kingdom (UK) has requested the long lead sub-assemblies for the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System/Advanced Arresting Gear (EMALS/AAG).

The EMALS long lead sub-assemblies include: Energy Storage System, Power Conditioning System, and Launch Control System. The AAG includes: Power Conditioning, Energy Absorption Subsystems, Shock Absorbers, and Drive Fairleads. Also proposed are other items for Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment, spare and repair parts, support equipment, personnel training and training equipment, publications and technical documentation, software support, U.S. Government and contractor engineering, technical, and logistics support services, and all other related elements of program support.

The estimated cost is $200 million.

This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to maintain and improve the security of a key NATO ally that has been, and continues to be, an important force for major political stability and economic progress throughout Europe.

The proposed sale will improve the UK’s aircraft carrier capability to meet current and future threats of adversaries at sea. The sub-systems will introduce state-of-the-art technology in the areas of aircraft launch and recovery onboard the UK’s future aircraft carrier program. The UK will have no problem absorbing these additional sub-systems and support into its armed forces.

The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region.

The prime contractor will be General Atomics in Rancho Bernardo, California. There are no known offset agreements proposed in connection with this potential sale.

Implementation of this sale will not require the assignment of additional U.S. Government or contractor representatives to the UK. There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a result of this proposed sale.

This notice of a potential sale is required by law and does not mean the sale has been concluded.

-ends-

buglerbilly

16-11-11, 11:50 PM

MOD floats submarine disposal plans 15.11.11

Uploaded by BritishForcesNews on Nov 16, 2011

Members of the public have had their first chance to inspect Ministry of Defence plans to cut up old nuclear submarines.

Britain has never disposed of a nuclear submarine, which means there are 17 currently in storage with the reactors intact.

A public consultation has opened into the latest plan to get rid of them, with an exhibition of the options underway in Plymouth.

buglerbilly

17-11-11, 02:04 PM

Defence Secretary Responds to Report On Major Projects

(Source: U.K Ministry of Defence; issued November 16, 2011)

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has said, following the National Audit Office's publication today of a report analysing the cost, time and performance of the MOD's 15 largest military equipment projects, that the Department has got a grip on its equipment programme.

The National Audit Office's (NAO's) report says that action taken by the Ministry of Defence to balance its overall budget in the short term following the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) has contributed to a near £500m in-year cost increase in the 15 largest defence projects.

The NAO adds that, when coupled with previous cost growth, these projects are now £6bn above forecasts made when the main investment decisions were taken.

The NAO also adds that additional costs have been avoided by reducing the amount of equipment the Department originally planned to buy, saying that had the Department not reduced equipment numbers, cost growth could have been approximately 20 per cent above the approved costs.

Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said today:

"The Ministry of Defence has been hampered by a legacy of poor planning and performance on some past projects, and the resulting cuts and delays are not value for money.

"But it is welcome news that the Department has finally accepted that the financial position it is in is serious and is actively working towards balancing its books in the longer term."

Mr Hammond said:

"This Government inherited a black hole in the Defence Budget and the NAO has rightly welcomed the fact that we are now balancing the MOD's books. We have got a grip on the equipment programme through the difficult decisions taken in the SDSR and radical reform of the Department.

"The trend of vast cost increases seen under the last Government has been halted. The 0.9 per cent overall increase this year is still too much, but it is seven times lower than the last year of the previous administration.

"It was right to take tough decisions in the Strategic Defence and Security Review to deal with an equipment programme that was out of control. The Nimrod MRA4 was over eight years late, almost £800m over budget, and had seen the unit cost of each aircraft soar by 200 per cent, with no clear idea of when the capability would be delivered."

Several media outlets have today focused on claims in the NAO report that, by extending the Astute build programme, the MOD will have to use older boats beyond their out-of-service dates, work the smaller fleet of Astute submarines harder, or reduce scheduled activity for submarines. Some media outlets speculate that this could put national security at risk.

This is not the case. We will always have submarines available to deploy on operations.

The Royal Navy currently operates six Trafalgar Class attack submarines, and seven Astute Class attack submarines are being introduced. There is no significant change to the availability reported in last year's NAO report; it was manageable then and is manageable now. We are mitigating Astute delays by extending the service life of Trafalgar Class submarines.

The NAO report also claims that the decision to extend the construction time of the Astute Class submarines has incurred additional costs amounting to the cost of acquiring a further boat.

Mr Hammond continued:

"We do not agree with the NAO that the additional cost of ensuring a seamless build for both Astute and the successor submarines could have paid for an eighth Astute. Once build and through-life costs are taken into account, an extra boat would cost £1.4bn - more than stretching the programme has cost."

In concluding his response to the NAO report as a whole, Mr Hammond said:

"Overall, much progress has been made, but more work is needed to achieve better value for the taxpayer while providing the Armed Forces with the equipment they need. Getting this right is key to securing Britain's defence for the future.

"The introduction of the Major Projects Review Board is helping ensure our biggest programmes remain on track. I intend to take a leading role in ensuring this agenda is delivered."

-ends-

buglerbilly

21-11-11, 11:11 PM

Navy frigate sent to Libya with four missiles

A Royal Navy frigate was sent to the Libyan war zone armed with as few as four missiles, it has been disclosed.

HMS Westminster Photo: Chris Ison/PA

8:01PM GMT 21 Nov 2011

Royal Navy officers said HMS Westminster was “dangerously under-defended” when it was called on to patrol close to the Libyan port city of Benghazi in March.

The warship can carry 32 Seawolf and eight Harpoon missiles but it is understood that military cutbacks left the Westminster and its crew of 190 with only a fraction of that capability.

As Seawolf missiles — which are used to intercept incoming missiles — are fired in pairs, sources said the Westminster had just two rounds to defend against missile attacks from Col Muammar Gaddafi’s forces.

In another recent admission, the Royal Navy said it was unable to spare a warship to guard British waters for the whole of October after last year’s defence cuts.

Rear Admiral Chris Parry, a retired officer, said it was unbelievable that the Westminster had so few missiles on board and said ships in the Falklands and the Gulf wars were equipped to full capacity. He added: “This is yet another example of the incoherence of last year’s Strategic Defence and Security Review. What if the Government’s bluff had been called? What would the Ministry of Defence be saying if the Westminster had been hit by something? They took a big risk.

“The Government needs to realise there’s only a limited amount you can cut the tail before the teeth fall out.”

Penny Mordaunt, the Conservative MP for Portsmouth North, who is a naval reservist, said: “I am absolutely convinced, and so are other warfare officers I’ve spoken to, that the Westminster would have been in danger.

“We’ve hollowed out the capability to a dangerous level.”

The Ministry of Defence accepted that the Westminster was short of missiles when it sailed to Libya and that it was not replenished at sea. But a spokesman would not confirm or deny claims that the ship had just four missiles in the war zone. Ursula Brennan, the Permanent Under Secretary at the MoD, said: “The assessment of the risk to HMS Westminster would have taken into account the other capabilities that we had in terms of submarines, aircraft and surveillance and so on. The questions will then have been asked, 'In those circumstances, do we think that is a risk worth taking?’ “That is a judgment our operations people take on a daily basis.”

buglerbilly

27-11-11, 02:30 PM

Navy will be 'too small for two carriers'

25 November 2011

The UK will "certainly" not be able to operate both Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers in 2020 if the Royal Navy is reduced to 29,000 personnel in line with current planning, the head of the Royal Navy has said.

First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, speaking at a Henry Jackson Society event on 24 November, said that manpower was one of his most "significant concerns" regarding the future of the navy.

Current navy assumptions will see the second-in-class aircraft carrier fitted with catapults and arrestor wire ready to operate the F-35C Joint Strike Fighter carrier variant in 2020, but the fate of HMS Queen Elizabeth, which will launch first and be used to train crews in handling HMS Prince of Wales, is less certain.

"There's a people issue here," said Admiral Stanhope. "I don't have enough people in a 29,000 navy to operate two aircraft carriers."

The First Sea Lord said the navy's top priority at the moment was modelling how to reduce manpower to targeted levels by 2020 whilst delivering the Full Spectrum Capability demanded by Future Force 2020 plans.

"We in the Navy have one of the most complicated tasks because we deliver a competency across the air, sea and land interface," he said. "Royal Marines, FAA pilots, submariners, frigate drivers, mine countermeasures, all of these carry specific levels of competency and you've got to make sure you've got enough to be able to feed the machine that's using them," he said.

"It's a very, very complicated business and one that we're putting a great deal of effort in to make sure that we retain the critical mass within the service to generate full spectrum capability. And I seek full spectrum capability because that allows the UK to act independently should it have to in the event of special circumstances.

"Delivering that capability with a number which will be 29,000 people in 2020 is a concern, and we've got to get this modelling absolutely right. And who we make, regrettably, redundant, and who we allow to voluntarily be redundant is a critical feature of that modelling; absolutely core to naval business at the moment."

Current planning assumptions will see HMS Queen Elizabeth put to sea in 2016, Admiral Stanhope said.

"It will, as a first of class vessel have two, if not three years of trials, we will be operating the biggest warship we have ever operated in this country and therefore there will be a protracted period of trials during which the Prince of Wales build continues.

"We will sort out all the challenges that a new class of vessel bring along and we will operate that ship effectively by the time Prince of Wales comes out such that at that moment we will transfer the crew to the Prince of Wales, all qualified to operate that type of ship. You just then have six months' worth of new ship trials and we then get straight on to the fixed wing piece of the jigsaw.

"That would leave a Queen Elizabeth question mark," he said. "There's a people issue here, I don't have enough people in a 29,000 navy to operate two aircraft carriers. There's the issue with regards to the landing platform helicopter requirements, which provide littoral manoeuvre for commando forces. Could it be used for that? Could we, if the pressures were such, then go and re-refit Queen Elizabeth to take catapults and traps – which is within the feasible. I don't know.

"It is ambiguous but, given the people, we certainly can't use both."

buglerbilly

27-11-11, 10:37 PM

MoD spends £2bn on nuclear weapons ahead of Trident renewal decision

Ministry accused of pre-empting parliament's decision on Trident and attempting to force the hand of future governments

Rob Edwards

guardian.co.uk, Sunday 27 November 2011 18.11 GMT

A Vanguard class nuclear submarine carrying Trident nuclear missiles sets sail from Faslane naval base in Scotland. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

The Ministry of Defence is spending £2bn on new nuclear weapons plants before a formal decision has been taken over whether to replace Trident warheads, according to ministers.

The revelation has prompted fierce attacks on the MoD for making "a complete mockery" of the democratic process by pre-empting a decision and so attempting to force the hands of future governments.

The ministry says the investment helps to ensure the safety of the existing Trident warheads, but accepts that the money also maintains the capability to design a new warhead "should that be required".

Details of the MoD's investments have been unveiled for the first time. They include a £734m facility called Mensa for dismantling and assembling of warheads, a risky but essential maintenance process; a £634m highly enriched uranium plant called Pegasus; and a £231m high explosives factory called Circinus.

The plants are being built at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) sites at Aldermaston and Burghfield in Berkshire. Other facilities with similarly stellar names but smaller bills – Orion, Gemini, and Leo – are also being built as part of the AWE development plan covering 2005 to 2015. The costs of two more – Octans and Orchard – are being kept secret for commercial reasons.

The figures have been released by the defence minister Peter Luff in answer to a parliamentary question by the Green MP Caroline Lucas. Although a few were known from freedom of information requests or other sources, the bulk had previously been kept confidential.

"The fact that the MoD signed off on these costs before a decision has even been made on replacing the Trident warhead makes a complete mockery of the democratic process," said Lucas.

"It's clear that replacing this extravagant and discredited white elephant project would mean locking the UK into the costly technologies of the past, at a time when we should be developing the realistic defence solutions of the future."

She called on the government to end the "culture of secrecy" that allowed crucial military spending decisions to be pushed through without proper parliamentary scrutiny.

Spending so much on nuclear weapons at a time of economic austerity was also "morally indefensible and economically illiterate", she said.

The government decided in October last year to postpone a decision on whether to develop a new nuclear warhead until after the next election in 2015. To save money, and to appease the Liberal Democrats, ministers also deferred the main investment decision on replacing the submarines that will carry the warheads.

According to Peter Burt of the Nuclear Information Service, the new weapons plants would have a life of at least 40 years. "By spending billions of pounds now, the MoD is trying to force the hands of future governments into developing a new nuclear warhead, regardless of whether it will be necessary or affordable," he said.

An MoD spokeswoman pointed out that the government was committed to a "continuous at-sea nuclear deterrent" based on Trident. "This investment maintains the safety of the current Trident warhead stockpile by sustaining essential facilities and skills," she said.

"It also helps maintain the capability to design a replacement warhead should that be required following decisions in the next parliament."

buglerbilly

29-11-11, 02:28 PM

MPs Warn Royal Navy's Carriers Will Be Costly, Late, and of Limited Use (excerpt)

(Source: The Guardian; published November 29, 2011)

The aircraft carriers being built for the Royal Navy will be less useful, take longer to finish, and likely cost more than claimed, a parliamentary watchdog warns.

The first, HMS Queen Elizabeth, will be mothballed immediately it is launched in 2016, according to the existing plan. However, the second, HMS Prince of Wales, is not now expected to be fully operational until 2031. Moreover, it will only be able to stay at sea for up to 200 days a year, significantly fewer than envisaged, says the Commons public accounts committee.

The MPs' report, out on Tuesday, makes clear the quick decision to adapt the carriers to fly US-made Joint Strike Fighters, taking off by catapult and landing by arrester wires, will increase the planes' cost as well as that of the carriers, but by how much will not be known until December 2012.

The cost of the US JSFs – or F35s as they are now called – is spiralling, and the Ministry of Defence has already cut substantially the number it plans to buy; development is also threatened by pressures on the American defence budget.

The catapult/arrester arrangement enables British aircraft to land on French carriers, and vice versa – increasing co-operation; the UK version also has longer range and carries heavier weapons.

The report says that the construction of the carriers themselves is "progressing well", but warns the costs of converting the carriers "are not yet fully understood".

It continues: "The technology proposed has yet to be tested and the [fighter] version the UK intends to buy will be unique to Britain. The costs of converting the carrier for use with the carrier variant aircraft will not be known until 2012."

Margaret Hodge, the former Labour minister and chair of the public accounts committee, told the Guardian: "The carriers' starting cost was £3.5bn, is currently about £6.2bn, and is likely to rise to up to £12bn. There will be nine years without a carrier, and it will be at sea for fewer than 200 days on average." (end of excerpt)

Click here for the full story, on the Guardian website.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/nov/29/royal-navy-carriers-impaired-use-public-accounts-committee

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Readers are also referred to the related story posted today titled NAO Revises Opinion on UK Carrier Plans.)

http://www.defense-aerospace.com/articles-view/release/3/130771/nao-revises-opinion-on-uk-carrier-plans.html

(ends)

MPs Report on: Providing the UK's Carrier Strike Capability

(Source: House of Commons Public Accounts Committee; issued Nov. 29, 2011)

The Commons Public Accounts Committee publishes its 56th report of Session 2010-12, on the basis of evidence from the Ministry of Defence (MOD). The Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP, Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, today said:

“Once again, a major MOD project will be completed much later, cost much more and offer less military capability than originally planned.

“Changes to the aircraft carriers and the aircraft flying from them in the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review have changed the risks and costs involved in ways that are not fully understood.

“Rather than two carriers, available from 2016 and 2018, at a cost of £3.65bn, we will now spend more than £6bn, get one operational carrier and have no aircraft carrier capability until 2020 – almost a decade.

“The second carrier will be mothballed, while the operational carrier will be available at sea for only 150 to 200 days a year.

“On top of that, the technology to enable the new aircraft to fly from the carrier is untested. The newly constructed ship will have to undergo immediate modification and the costs of this will not be known until December 2012.

“In preparing options, the Department concentrated on short-term affordability and the need to make cash savings, and did not focus strongly on long-term value for money.

“While the Department believes the decision will save £3.4 billion, only £600 million of this constitutes cash savings, with the other 80 per cent simply deferred costs.

“It is of deep concern that our ability to hold the Department to account was hampered by the Cabinet Office’s decision to withhold from the NAO all the information it requested to make a judgement on value for money. We welcome the subsequent decision by the Prime Minister and Cabinet Secretary to make the papers available, following pressure from this Committee and others."

Margaret Hodge was speaking as the committee published its 56th Report of this Session.

Background

The 1998 Strategic Defence Review committed to replace the three existing Invincible Class aircraft carriers with two larger, more versatile, carriers capable of carrying a more powerful aircraft. By the time the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) started, the Department had signed manufacturing contracts for two carriers with an estimated cost of £5.24 billion and delivery dates of 2016 and 2018. The construction of the carriers by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance is going well to date. The majority of build targets have been met and the project is on track to be within budget.

The Department entered the 2010 SDSR with an expected deficit in its equipment programme over the next ten years of up to £38 billion. Decisions taken as part of the Review significantly changed the way the United Kingdom will deliver its Carrier Strike capability. The UK will have no carrier aircraft capability from 2011-2020.(Emphasis added—Ed.) While two carriers are still being built, only one will be converted to launch the planes that have now been selected, and the other will be mothballed. The UK will only have one operational carrier with a significantly reduced availability at sea when Carrier Strike capability is reintroduced in 2020. That carrier is being built according to the old design and will have to be modified to make it compatible with the requirements of the new aircraft.

The SDSR decision to change the aircraft flown from the carriers from the Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) variant of the Joint Strike Fighter to the carrier variant changed, but did not necessarily reduce, the balance of risks and uncertainties to the programme in ways which are not yet fully understood. The carrier variant will be more capable with greater operational range and the ability to carry a heavier payload. However, they will require the installation of catapults and arrestor gear on the carriers to help them take-off and land. The technology proposed has yet to be tested and the version the UK intends to buy will be unique to Britain. The costs of converting the carrier for use with the carrier variant aircraft will not be known until 2012.

Strategic policy decision

Whilst the strategic policy decision to re-focus investment in both the carriers and the linked combat aircraft was well informed, it will only become apparent whether the Department can secure value for money in implementing the strategic policy decision when it fully develops and costs detailed delivery plans to support robust investment decisions, probably in late 2012.

As we have commented before, the Department's singular failure to manage its equipment programme within affordable limits has had damaging consequences for both military capability and value for money. It meant that options prepared by the Department to support the SDSR were heavily influenced by the need to make cash savings and by short-term affordability.

The Department believes that the SDSR decision will save £3.4 billion, but only £600 million of this is cash savings while the remainder is simply deferring expenditure beyond the Department's 10 year planning horizon. The decision will lead to nine years without Carrier Strike and full capability will not be achieved until 2030. It has also acknowledged that there is more work to do to get the best and most flexible operational use from the carrier.

The Accounting Officer confirmed that a policy decision was taken in the SDSR to have aircraft carriers and we do not question this. However, decisions on how to deliver this capability were operational judgements with major cost and value for money implications. We are concerned that the National Audit Office did not have access to all the information it requested to prepare and conclude on value for money in its report of 7 July 2011 on this project. Nevertheless we took evidence from the Department on the basis of that report, on whether the strategic decision to refocus investment was well informed and whether the Department has plans to cost effectively deliver the Carrier Strike capability now required. We welcome the subsequent decision by the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Secretary, in response to our concerns, to allow the National Audit Office access to the relevant material.

Recommendations

In November 2011, the Comptroller and Auditor General produced a memorandum for the Committee on Carrier Strike drawing out the key messages emerging following his access to the relevant papers. Our report draws on the hearing we held on 11 July 2011 and evidence from the Comptroller and Auditor General's report and subsequent memorandum.

We are disappointed that the systemic issues that have appeared in our other recent defence reports continue to arise. In making our recommendations we have built on what we have said in past reports and focussed on two key areas: strategic decision-making and delivery of capabilities.

Click here for the full report (48 pages in PDF format) on the Parliament website.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmpubacc/1427/1427.pdf

-ends-

buglerbilly

01-12-11, 01:31 PM

UK Carrier Strike Capability

(Source: UK Ministry of Defence; issued Nov. 29, 2011)

Both the National Audit Office and Public Accounts Committee today published reports on the MOD's Carrier Strike capability. Several media sources have reported on inaccurate claims that a full Carrier Strike capability will not be achieved until 2030. This is not true.

The more capable Carrier variant of the Joint Strike Fighter fast jet will begin operating from our aircraft carrier from 2020, with six UK jets available for operations. By 2023, this number will increase to 12 UK jets onboard and we will be able to work with our allies to increase that number because of the interoperability that the Carrier variant Joint Strike Fighter allows.

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said:

"We are tackling the inherited black hole in the Defence Budget and, earlier this month, the National Audit Office [NAO] rightly recognised the work that this Government is undertaking to bring the Department's finances back into balance.

"When this Government came into power, the Queen Elizabeth Class carriers were already £1.6bn over budget. As part of an overall package of measures taken in the Strategic Defence and Security Review we have reduced overall spending on the Carrier Strike Programme by £4.4bn over the next ten years.

"The NAO and the Public Accounts Committee have both acknowledged that our decision to build a second aircraft carrier makes financial sense. Converting one of the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers to operate the more capable Carrier variant of the Joint Strike Fighter fast jet from 2020 will maximise our military capability and enhance interoperability with our allies.

"Operating the more cost effective Carrier variant fast jet will, in the long term, offset the conversion costs and provide us with aircraft that have a longer range and carry a greater payload. Until our new Carrier capability comes into service, we can utilise our extensive basing and overflight rights to project decisive air power, as we showed during the Libya campaign."

-ends-

JKM Mk2

02-12-11, 01:06 AM

This whole UK carrier business is an absolute farce and should be considered a national scandal. In fact the whole defence reallignment should be considered as such IMHO.

I'm suprised the Indians haven't jumped in with an offer for the 1st ship. It could very well be operational long before that POS Russian carrier they bought!

Cheers
JKM

buglerbilly

05-12-11, 11:50 PM

'Trail-blazing' U.K. Attack Sub Proves Itself in U.S.

Missile Tests Belie HMS Astute's 'Jinx' Label

By CHRISTOPHER P. CAVAS

Published: 5 Dec 2011 12:35

NORFOLK, Va. - HMS Astute, Britain's first new attack submarine in more than two decades, is the most advanced undersea craft ever fielded by the Royal Navy. But the sub's many improvements often have been masked by a long-running series of developmental and operational problems - including design issues, cost overruns, production missteps, lengthy construction delays, an embarrassingly public grounding last year in Scotland and a tragic shooting on board in April.

Cmdr. Iain Breckenridge, standing with binoculars, guides the submarine Astute to a berth in Norfolk, Va., on Nov. 28. (MC1 Todd A. Schaffer / U.S. Navy)

Now operating from the U.S. East Coast as part of a lengthy trials period, the Astute finally has had a chance to show what it can do, and in November test-fired Tomahawk cruise missiles in the Gulf of Mexico. But the British media, even in reporting on its successes, continue to label the ship a jinx.

Cmdr. Iain Breckenridge, the submarine's commanding officer, bristled when asked about the jinx moniker during a Nov. 29 interview on board his ship.

"The media will always jump at an easy target. So we're an easy target, they're having a field day," he said.

"Fine by me, that's well behind us. I don't dwell on it, I don't look back. Myself and my team move forward to prove what a great submarine she is. With the Tomahawk firings recently, our successful torpedo firings in the summer in the U.K., pushing forward to get all trials completed, getting to Norfolk to meet the senior U.S. leadership, going to AUTEC [the U.S. Navy's Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center test range] in January to finish trials, and getting her back to the U.K. in March, ready to go back into the yard for her final maintenance period before she becomes operational, for us, that's all good news.

"So the media won't use that, because that's not an interesting story. If anything minor happens, they'll jump on it and go, 'wow, wow, jinxed submarine!'

"Well, ask any of my ship's company, any of our supporting personnel, anyone in the Navy, any of our families, any of our friends in the U.S. submarine force; in fact, anybody that basically understands what a first-of-class submarine's got to go through, and they'll recognize that the term 'jinx' is just a very easy one that the media jumps on.

"Does it bother me? Used to, initially. Not bothered by it anymore. There are much more important things to deal with. It's a fantastic submarine to deliver to the front line as soon as possible. And I've got a really good team helping me do that."

Tests, Tests and More Tests

Breckenridge, a veteran submariner who previously commanded HMS Tireless, brought the Astute to the U.S. in October to begin a series of weapons, sensors, systems and warm-weather trials.

"We've got to prove the design, and prove the build," he said. "Over subsequent submarines, they just have to prove the build."

The boat loaded Tomahawk cruise missiles at the U.S. Navy's submarine base in Kings Bay, Ga., then launched two T-hawks from the Gulf of Mexico onto a missile range at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. "Both flew beautifully," Breckenridge said.

Operations on the AUTEC range in January will fully prove the submarine's new Type 2076 integrated sonar suite, and more Spearfish torpedoes will be test-fired.

Breckenridge ticked off a list of new features aboard the sub, which is fitted with six 21-inch torpedo tubes, one more than previous classes. The weapons room also is larger, with a lower deck, allowing for a 50 percent increase in the number of weapons carried - "on the order of 36," he said.

The submarine features a large lockout chamber aft of the fin, or sail, and can carry a drydeck shelter to allow swimmers to enter and leave the sub while submerged.

"That was a real design driver for the boat, and that's why we've got a big sail," he explained. "The shapes and curves [of the hull] help the dry deck shelter sit in the right place."

In the control room, Breckenridge pointed proudly to the Thales Optronics mast displays. Astute is the first British submarine to dispense with traditional periscopes and adopt photronics masts, similar to the arrangement aboard U.S. Virginia-class submarines.

"Much as I loved my old peri-scopes, this is much better," he said. Using the periscope on older submarines at night, he said, required "lights off, curtains draped, black lighting, can't see anything, not good for your eyes. This submarine," he said, has a "better working environment, better for the team. A really good capability. This is U.K. trail-blazing stuff."

The attack center control room on Astute is traditionally located forward on 1 Deck - topmost of the sub's three deck levels - but without the need for hull-penetrating periscopes, designers will have more flexibility to move it. Later ships in the seven-unit class, Breckenridge said, may move the room to 2 Deck and aft a bit. "There's more room down there," he said.

The captain was especially proud of the sub's maneuvering and hovering capabilities, featuring independent diving plane controls handled by a new, complex autopilot system.

"One of the limiting factors in designing a submarine maneuvering envelope is having a stern plane failure to dive or rise," Breckenridge explained. "In my situation, I've got a much wider operating envelope because, if the stern plane does fail to dive, it's probably only going to be one of them, and I can immediately correct it by slowing down and putting the noncasualty plane to rise. It gives us a much broader operating envelope."

buglerbilly

06-12-11, 09:43 AM

What the Hell's happened to the Royal Navy?

Uploaded 02 Dec 2011

buglerbilly

08-12-11, 12:50 AM

HMS Diamond ready for operations

An Equipment and Logistics news article

7 Dec 11

The UK now has three groundbreaking Type 45 destroyers ready to deploy on operations after HMS Diamond passed her final, demanding test.

HMS Diamond - the Royal Navy's third Daring Class destroyer built by BAE Systems in Govan
[Picture: LA(Phot) Nick Crusham, Crown Copyright/MOD 2011]

The state-of-the-art warship has come through six weeks of training and assessment off Plymouth, the final hurdle to jump before she can sail on front line duties.

The Basic Operational Sea Training (BOST) saw Diamond 'hit' with incoming missiles from submarines and her ship's company working in darkness and smoke to deal with fires and floods.

Passing BOST with a 'satisfactory' overall grade, Diamond, the third of six new Portsmouth-based Type 45s, is now fit to deploy on operations, joining her older sisters Daring and Dauntless on the 'ready' list.

All three are scheduled to deploy in 2012 while their three younger sisters - Dragon, Defender and finally Duncan - are undergoing training, trials and a final fitting-out, respectively.

Commander Ian Clarke, HMS Diamond's Commanding Officer, said:

"We are really pleased to have passed BOST. We are getting ready for operations and getting ready to deploy. That's what brought us to Plymouth, to undergo a six-week training package to get us ready for task.

Members of the Fire and Repair Party during a simulated battle damage fire exercise onboard HMS Diamond
[Picture: PO(Phot) Paul Punter, Crown Copyright/MOD 2011]

"This is a brand new Type 45 getting ready for operations, and one of our main tasks is getting the ship's company ready. For each of us undergoing the sea training we are in post for the first time in a new ship and that is a serious challenge."

To pass her BOST package HMS Diamond had to react to constant challenges put in place by the staff of Flag Officer Sea Training (FOST). One of the biggest hurdles was the 'Thursday War', where simulated damage occurred in all parts of the ship.

Commander Clarke said:

"The Thursday War is the culmination of weeks of training at sea. We have had four days of fighting submarines, surface vessels and air strikes and 'the War' is about putting all of that together. This is where things get serious for the ship as things we hope don't happen for real always happen on a Thursday War.

"We have had fires and floods, lost our propulsion and steering - all of that impacts on my ability to fight the ship.

Members of the warfare department at work in the operations room during 'Action Stations' onboard HMS Diamond
[Picture: PO(Phot) Paul Punter, Crown Copyright/MOD 2011]

"However, this ship is a real change in terms of our fighting capability and the Type 45 ships enable us to fight multiple threats at the same time."

On Friday, HMS Diamond was really put to the test with her final inspection. FOST staff came on board to make sure the ship was ready to take on the task of deployment.

Commander Andy Burns, Commander of Sea Training at FOST, said:

"We have about 240 staff working on around 10 training cycles at any one time. We train ships from different nations, but the standards are absolute that they have to reach.

"The Thursday War and final inspections are key steps insofar as they test a ship's ability to manage multiple attacks and damage while remaining a fighting unit.

"There's a real sense of pride for us when a ship comes through her training and is successful, because it really is a thorough test."

buglerbilly

08-12-11, 02:04 PM

Women to be allowed to serve on submarines

A Defence Policy and Business news article

8 Dec 11

Women are to be allowed to serve on submarines for the first time in the Royal Navy's history, the Secretary of State for Defence Philip Hammond announced today.

Royal Navy submarine HMS Astute sails up the Clyde estuary into her home port of Faslane in Scotland
[Picture: Leading Airman (Photographer) J Massey, Crown Copyright/MOD 2009]

The decision comes following an 18-month review conducted by the Royal Navy looking at the legal, operational, health, social, technical and financial issues of allowing women to serve on submarines.

Women had previously been excluded from submariner roles due to concerns about higher levels of carbon dioxide in a submarine atmosphere being a risk to female health. But recent research by the Institute of Naval Medicine showed that these risks were unfounded and that there were no medical reasons for excluding women from service on submarines.

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said:

"I am pleased that women will now have the same opportunity to serve on board our submarines, carrying out vital tasks maintaining Britain's defences around the clock, across the world.

"The Royal Navy has always been at the forefront of innovation, and this decision represents another step in its distinguished tradition of recognising the contribution of its people and making the very best use of the talent from which it can recruit."

The first female submariners are expected to take up their posts towards the end of 2013. Initially this will be a small number of female officers - volunteers who will begin training next year for service on the Vanguard Class of Trident submarines. The first female ratings will be recruited and trained from 2014.

Women will also be able to serve on Astute Class submarines from 2016 when the necessary modifications to on-board accommodation have been made.

The Second Sea Lord, Vice Admiral Charles Montgomery, said:

"Our primary objective in the Royal Navy is maintaining our operational effectiveness both now and in the future.

"This carefully considered decision will allow the Submarine Service to draw on the widest range of talent and skills of our people - those in service and those yet to join. It will therefore enable us to further consolidate our operational success, and it will give our women the same opportunities as men to enjoy a fulfilling and rewarding career in the Submarine Service."

Currently, more than nine per cent of Royal Navy personnel are female, approximately 3,420. Women have been serving on board Royal Navy ships since 1990.

buglerbilly

11-12-11, 01:00 AM

A Whitehall scandal that's bigger than lobbying?

Revealed: the top public officials involved in awarding companies lucrative contracts - and who then go to work for them

At least four top military officers and government ministers involved with the procurement of two Royal Navy aircraft carriers, which cost more than £6bn, have since joined companies with an interest in the field

By Andrew Gilligan

10:00PM GMT 10 Dec 2011

Nahhhhhh this cannot be happening...........Jeezus where have these journo's been hiding..........its a non-story especially as a lot of the Carrier contracts are sole-source in any case, as in keeping the UK industrial base going.

It was the week that Bell Pottinger, one of Britain’s largest lobbying firms, was secretly filmed bragging of its intimate access to government. But there is a potentially even worse scandal than lobbying: the practice known as the “revolving door”, where ministers, officials or military officers involved in controversial public-sector contracts then go on to work, at high salaries, for the beneficiaries of those same contracts.

The stakes here are higher than Bell Pottinger’s boast that the Prime Minister will take your phone call. Billions of pounds of public money are on the line. In one of the biggest-spending departments, the Ministry of Defence, almost 250 staff – including 20 generals, admirals or air marshals – have joined defence companies in a single year, new figures obtained by this newspaper show.

And a Sunday Telegraph investigation has established that the organisation supposedly responsible for vetting the most senior “revolving-door” appointments has not vetoed a single application in the last 15 years.

According to the annual reports of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), it has considered 944 applications for private sector jobs by former top mandarins and ministers since 1996. Of these, 412 were approved with conditions, and 532 – 56 per cent – were approved unconditionally. None was rejected.

Among the most heavily criticised deals of recent years is that for the Royal Navy’s two new aircraft carriers, which will cost taxpayers more than £6 billion, even though one will be immediately mothballed and the other will carry no aircraft until 2020. At least four top military officers and ministers, including the heads of the Navy and the RAF, a former vice-chief of defence staff and the former minister for defence equipment, Ann Taylor, have since joined companies with an interest in the aircraft-carrier project. Their appointments were approved by Acoba.

Paul Flynn, a Labour MP who has campaigned on the issue, said: “Rather than crawling off in shame and going to live in a hut in the Hebrides, some of the people involved in this disaster are taking high office in the companies responsible. I am not suggesting misconduct by any individual here , but the prospect of retirement work is potentially corrupting.”

Acoba is chaired by the Conservative peer and former trade secretary Lord Lang, who himself has an extensive portfolio of business interests, including the chairmanship of Marsh & McLennan, a large business consultancy.

Lord Lang was one of the politicians secretly filmed by Channel 4’s Dispatches last year offering his services to a fake lobbying company set up by the programme, though he told them that he would not do any lobbying personally.

According to Mr Flynn, a member of the Commons’ public administration select committee, which conducts pre-appointment hearings into some public posts, the committee wanted to veto Lord Lang’s appointment to Acoba, and did not do so only because the appointment had already been announced.

When Lord Lang appeared before the committee earlier this year, he insisted that Acoba “works extraordinarily well”. The proportion of appointments it approves with conditions – such as that the appointee should not carry out any lobbying for a set period – has risen in recent years. However, Lord Lang admitted that Acoba has “no powers either to police or enforce” its conditions.

The Sunday Telegraph has also established that seven former ministers and top civil servants this year alone did not bother to approach Acoba for approval before taking up private-sector jobs, even though they are obliged to do so. Acoba retrospectively approved six of the jobs, declined to consider the seventh, and took no action other than noting its “concern” on its website. The seven jobs represent a quarter of the cases considered by Acoba so far this year.

Among other cases approved by Acoba in the past 18 months is that of John Suffolk, who has moved from the highly sensitive post of chief information officer at the Cabinet Office to global cybersecurity officer for Huawei, a Chinese company accused by the Pentagon of having “close ties” to China’s military.

Huawei is moving heavily into Britain after being blocked from expansion in America amid security fears. Its activities are currently being probed by the US House of Representatives’ intelligence committee. Huawei denies any intelligence links and Acoba has imposed a condition that Mr Suffolk must not “draw on any privileged information” from his time at the Cabinet Office, though it is unclear how this can be enforced.

Acoba has also recently green-lighted the moves of three top officials and a former minister to lobbying companies. Sir Brian Bender, former permanent secretary at the Department for Business, joined Mandate Communications. Acoba gave unconditional approval without even imposing the normal 12-month ban on lobbying government.

Lord Hunt, the former Labour health minister, was cleared to join Cumberledge Connections, a health lobbyist run by a former Tory health minister, Baroness Cumberledge, with a 12-month ban on lobbying government.

Sir Liam Donaldson, former chief medical officer, was cleared in May to work for the lobbyist Acpo Worldwide. Although Acoba approved the appointment with a 12-month ban on lobbying government, the ban took effect from Sir Liam’s last day in office, which was in May last year, so he was able to lobby from his first day in his new job. Acoba has never imposed a lobbying ban of more than two years. Lord Lang told MPs that longer bans would be a “restraint of trade” and against the applicant’s human rights.

Many other former ministers have taken up posts in areas for which they previously had responsibility, with Acoba’s approval. Baroness Smith of Basildon, the former Cabinet Office minister responsible for government information technology, has joined Vertex Data Science, a computer outsourcing company.

Lord Knight, the former employment and schools minister, has joined a training company which has many contracts with his former departments or bodies funded by them.

The most controversial area, however, is in defence, which is plagued by colossally expensive contracts delivering poor value for taxpayers. Acoba does not consider jobs taken by military officers below the rank of general, admiral or air marshal, or civil servants below the rank of director. Such lower-level appointments are cleared by the MoD and figures are not easily accessible.

However, Freedom of Information Act requests show that in 2009/10, the latest available year, 326 MoD officials or military officers were cleared to join the private sector. Of these, 240 – almost three-quarters – went to defence sector employers.Mr Flynn said that there “must be some connection” between the MoD’s overspending on its contracts and the fact that so many of its staff go on to work for defence contractors.

“This is potentially even worse than lobbying,” he said. “Thirty years ago, top public sector jobs were seen as the pinnacle of someone’s career. You were never going to do anything more important. Now, the danger is that they are seen as merely a stepping stone to private-sector riches – and that, rather than serving the taxpayer, becomes your prime objective.”

A spokeswoman for Acoba said that a number of ministers’ and officials’ applications for job approval had been withdrawn because of advice that Acoba provided. These figures were not included in the annual reports, she said.

She added that Acoba’s membership was a matter for the Prime Minister and she defended Lord Lang’s role, saying that in the Dispatches sting “no offer of employment of any kind was made or accepted”, and that Lord Lang would have cleared any such offer with Acoba before taking it up.

buglerbilly

14-12-11, 02:20 PM

UK Without Surveillance Aircraft As Russians Call (excerpt)

(Source: The Scotsman; published December 14, 2011)

Now bereft of patrol aircraft, the UK MoD had to dispatch a destroyer half-way around the country to keep an eye on Russian ships that anchored off its coast. (MoD photo)

The appearance of a Russian navy battlegroup off the coast of Scotland last night raised fresh concerns over the UK government’s decision not to have any surveillance aircraft.

Ministry of Defence (MoD) sources told The Scotsman that a Type 42 destroyer, HMS York, had to be despatched from Portsmouth to shadow the group of Russian ships, 25 miles off the coast of Moray.

The battlegroup, headed by the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, was understood to be sheltering from extreme weather conditions just outside UK territorial waters, but inside its exclusive economic zone.

In the past, a Nimrod aircraft would have flown from RAF Kinloss in Moray to observe the group. However, because the replacement Nimrods were cancelled and Kinloss was closed in the strategic defence and security review last year, the UK has had no surveillance available.

One of the greatest concerns about the loss of surveillance aircraft was the protection of the northern passages. (end of excerpt).

Click here for the full story, on the Scotsman website.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/uk_without_surveillance_aircraft_as_russians_call_ 1_2006847

(ends)

Royal Navy Keeps Watch On Russian Aircraft Carrier

(Source: Royal Navy; issued Dec. 13, 2011)

The Royal Navy’s Type 42 destroyer HMS York, based in Portsmouth, yesterday met with the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov in international waters off the east coast of Scotland.

The 65,000 ton carrier, with other warships and support vessels, is thought to be en route to the Mediterranean on exercise. The aircraft carrier anchored outside British territorial waters some 30 miles off the Moray Firth where she was thought to have taken advantage of the relative shelter to avoid the worst of current bad weather in the North Sea.

HMS York is currently the designated Royal Navy’s Fleet Ready Escort (FRE), tasked to provide contingency capability in UK home waters. The FRE is designed to be available for any tasking, from evacuation or escort duties, or to support counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics or Other Government Departments.

-ends-

tiddles

15-12-11, 12:34 AM

pdf27

15-12-11, 08:32 AM

tiddles

15-12-11, 09:09 AM

The coastguard has a number of fixed wing aircraft for fishery protection, we've got various fixed radar sites and if we really needed good photos there's a recce version of the Tornado. They probably sent York because it was available and tasked to turn up at events like this.
The Scotsman might have been a bit negative about it all it seems. The situation may not be perfect but the UK is not without coastal surveilence if you are correct.
Tiddles

buglerbilly

20-12-11, 02:18 PM

Babcock to upgrade Royal Navy Type 23 frigate

08:51 GMT, December 20, 2011 Babcock is to undertake an upgrade and maintenance programme which began today on the Type 23 frigate HMS Portland at its Rosyth dockyard, including some significant upgrades and improvements to maintain the ship at peak effectiveness.

The docking period will draw on Babcock’s experience from previous successful Type 23 refits, including that on HMS Kent recently completed by the same team, and its close partnering relationship with the MOD, to deliver the programme with maximum efficiency and minimised cost, representing optimum value for money.

Among the upgrades and improvements that HMS Portland will receive during the substantial refit are the new DNA(2) Command System (key to the ship’s fighting capability against air, surface and underwater threats); the new Defence Information Infrastructure (Future) (DII(F)), enabling information sharing and collaborative working across the defence sector network; the fit of Sonar 2087 (the tactical variable depth active and passive anti-submarine warfare (ASW) system), involving significant structural modifications to the aft end of the ship; the SeaWolf mid-life update (SWMLU) comprising tracking, guidance and weapon management upgrades to counter evolving anti-ship missile threats; the 4.5 Mk8 Mod1 gun replacement; and new 30mm automatic gun fit.

Further upgrades will include NATO radial filters to protect fresh air supplies from contamination, and the Nuclear Biological Chemical Defence Incident Surveillance System; an upgrade to the High Pressure Air system (providing flexibility of supply); the fit of an electro-catalytic chlorination system to control fouling and corrosion in sea water cooling circuits (which in turn will help to extend the life of affected equipment, optimise engine efficiency and aid efficient fuel consumption, and optimise air conditioning capacity); and a galley equipment upgrade and habitability improvements.

In addition to these upgrades a full programme of deep maintenance will be undertaken, including structural repairs, refurbishment and maintenance of all the ship’s systems and equipment, and renewal of the hull coatings.

The demanding and tightly scheduled programme is to be undertaken within an 11 month timeframe. Babcock Project Manager Russell Glancy said: “We will be applying our experience from previous Type 23 refits and will continue to build on the recent success of HMS Kent to ensure that this upgrade and maintenance programme is delivered safely and effectively, to schedule, within budget, and meeting the high quality standards for which Babcock is recognised. We will also ensure that the strong spirit of partnering between all key stakeholders (MOD, Ship’s Staff and Babcock) is embedded within the team, thus ensuring we successfully meet the challenges of this project.”

MOD Project Group Manager, David Winstanley, said: “We are looking forward to the challenges of Portland’s upkeep period and are confident that the embedded partnering ethos will ensure another successful project at Rosyth.”

HMS Portland will leave Rosyth for sea trials in autumn 2012.

buglerbilly

22-12-11, 02:13 PM

Wildcat Touches Down Ahead of Sea Trials

(Source: British Forces Broadcasting Service; issued Dec. 21, 2011)

The Royal Navy’s next-generation helicopter has landed in Portsmouth for three days of trials on board a Type 23 frigate.

The Wildcat touched down on HMS Iron Duke as part of intensive tests before the fast and potent helicopter is declared operational.

Three years from now the Wildcat will be the backbone of the Royal Navy’s frigate and destroyer operations around the globe, replacing the trusted Lynx which has served the Fleet Air Arm loyally since the mid-70s.

Next month the aircraft will begin trials at sea but not before necessary fundamental checks are carried out on board HMS Iron Duke.

As well as landing on the frigate, a 31-strong test team need to ensure Wildcat can be moved in and out of the hangar using the ship’s helicopter recovery system. On-board refuelling and ammunition checks were also carried out.

Pilot Lieutenant Commander Lee Evans said so far he was impressed with the Wildcat’s performance:

“It flies like a Lynx which is good from a pilot’s point of view. It’s stable, it’s got one third more power than a Lynx and that gives you much more confidence as a pilot.”

The mass of data and readings recorded by the test team will take around nine months to analyse.

“The science going into the trials is amazing,” said Lt Cdr Evans.

The helicopter has already completed ‘hot and high’ trials in Colorado in the USA and has flown on to and off the auxiliary vessel RFA Argus at sea.

-ends-

buglerbilly

05-01-12, 12:47 AM

HMS Kent sails after major upgrade

An Equipment and Logistics news article

4 Jan 12

Royal Navy warship HMS Kent returned to her Portsmouth home in December following a year-long, £24m upgrade in Rosyth, Scotland, which saw major improvements to her systems and equipment.

Royal Navy frigate HMS Kent returns to Portsmouth following a £24m upgrade in Scotland
[Picture: Leading Airman (Photographer) Keith Morgan, Crown Copyright/MOD 2011]

HMS Kent has benefited from an overhaul of all her hull, upper deck and her complex weapons systems. Key upgrades include a new 4.5-inch (114mm) medium-range gun plus new 30mm close-range guns on her port and starboard sides.

She has also had a new command system, target control radars and new towed array sonar fitted. The sonar gives the vessel phenomenal capability and makes her a world-leading anti-submarine warfare platform.

Since the 180-strong ship's company moved back on board in September they have completed an extensive number of engineering, equipment and manpower tests and trials in preparation to return to sea.

On leaving Rosyth, HMS Kent conducted inspections, exercises and trials off the east coast of Scotland to put her new systems and equipment to the test.

HMS Kent sails into Portsmouth Harbour
[Picture: Leading Airman (Photographer) Keith Morgan, Crown Copyright/MOD 2011]

Her Commanding Officer, Commander Ben Ripley, said:

"It is a great honour to bring HMS Kent back to her home port of Portsmouth. The crew have worked for many months away from home, some for over a year, and our return today is a poignant moment for those who have seen her through the entire refit process.

"The ship was fortunate to have had an excellent engineering refit with Babcock in Rosyth and our return to Portsmouth, on time and on budget, shows how the Royal Navy and British industry can work successfully together to a common purpose."

HMS Kent will formally rejoin the fleet after undertaking further sea trials.

buglerbilly

05-01-12, 01:32 PM

Thales Welcomes Seventh Royal Navy Frigate Sonar Upgrade

(Source: Thales; issued January 4, 2012)

HMS Kent, one of the Royal Navy’s (RN’s) most advanced Type 23 frigates, has been fitted with Thales UK’s Sonar 2087 system as part of a multi-million pound upgrade to her systems and operational capability. Kent now becomes the seventh Type 23 frigate to be upgraded with the Sonar 2087 system.

HMS Kent will emerge as one of the most capable anti-submarine warfare frigates in the world...” Having entered dry dock in November 2010, Kent has now left the dockyard fresh from a comprehensive upgrade to her systems and equipment, and sailed under the famous Forth Bridges to begin her sea trials.

The ship has benefitted from a £24m overhaul of her hull, upper deck and complex weapons systems. The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) says that the fitting of the new active towed-array sonar gives the Type 23 frigate “phenomenal capability” and makes her a “world-leading anti-submarine warfare platform”.

This type of frigate can also carry the Merlin helicopter, which is fitted with the Thales FLASH dipping sonar. The combination of 2087 and FLASH makes the Type 23 a formidable anti-submarine warfare (ASW) platform.
Sonar 2087 is a towed-array system that enables Type 23 frigates to hunt the latest submarines at considerable distances and locate them beyond the range from which they can launch an attack.

The system is a low-frequency active sonar, consisting of both active and passive sonar arrays. The system is manufactured at Thales’s sites in Cheadle Heath in Manchester and Templecombe in Somerset in the UK, and in Brest, France.

Training at sea will see Kent conduct many inspections, exercises and trials off the east coast of Scotland.

Speaking of the trials, the ship’s commanding officer, Commander Ben Ripley, says: “HMS Kent will emerge as one of the most capable anti-submarine warfare frigates in the world, and today is our first step in realising this goal.”

John Pollard, Capability Manager for Sonar Systems at the MoD’s Defence Equipment & Support facility, says: “Recent operational deployments using Sonar 2087 against actual ‘threat platforms’ continue to show this to be a very capable ASW system, giving these platforms a significant capability enhancement.”

“HMS Kent will soon enter service alongside the other six Sonar 2087-fitted platforms further extending the Royal Navy’s ASW capability.”

Thales is a global technology leader for the defence & security and the aerospace & transport markets. In 2010 the company generated revenues of £11.2 billion (€13.1 billion), with 68,000 employees in 50 countries. Thales UK employs 8,000 staff based at 35 locations. In 2010 Thales UK’s revenues were around £1.5 billion.

-ends-

buglerbilly

07-01-12, 02:49 AM

US to help UK rule the waves

By Philip Ewing Friday, January 6th, 2012 9:44 am

Secretary Panetta and the U.K.‘s secretary of state for defence, Phillip Hammond, signed an agreement Thursday that will help the Royal Navy get ready for its two forthcoming but controversial aircraft carriers.

As everyone was going nuts over the big strategy roll-out, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little issued this announcement:

Secretaries Panetta and Hammond signed a Statement of Intent on Carrier Cooperation and Maritime Power Projection that will serve as the framework for increased cooperation and interoperability on the use of aircraft carriers, as well as provide the basis for the U.S. to assist the UK Royal Navy in developing its next generation of aircraft carriers. This cooperation is a cutting-edge example of close allies working together in a time of fiscal austerity to deliver a capability needed to maintain our global military edge.

In short, the Royal Navy hasn’t flown its own fast jets off its own carrier with catapults and arresting wires since 1979, aboard the old warhorse HMS Ark Royal. The three carriers it has had since then — the HMS Invincible, Illustrious and another Ark Royal — proved to be essential ships, but they were built with ski-jumps and designed for Harriers and helicopters only.

So although the Royal Navy brass is excited about getting big ships and their own batch of F-35Cs … let’s just assume everything goes well and all today’s arrangements materialize as planned … British pilots and sailors will have a steep learning curve to be ready when the equipment is. Enter the Royal Navy’s onetime foe turned steadfast ally, the U.S. Navy.

British and American pilots have served exchanged tours for years, but Thursday’s agreement could let the two navies take it to the next level. Royal Navy pilots could haunt U.S. Navy Hornet squadrons, trying to pick up as much as possible about cats and traps, and British sailors could spend a lot of time aboard U.S. carriers, watching American sailors handle the flight deck and also the loud, complicated gear belowdecks.

Now all that needs to happen is for the F-35 program to procede exactly as planned; the world economic slump to dissipate and guarantee Britain’s ability to afford its two ships; the new carriers to arrive on time and ready for service; and Bob’s your uncle.

Read more: http://www.dodbuzz.com/2012/01/06/us-to-help-uk-rule-the-waves/#ixzz1ijkVTsKW
DoDBuzz.com

buglerbilly

07-01-12, 02:59 AM

More on this via AOL Defense blog...........

US and UK To Work Together on Carrier Design, Deployments

By Colin Clark

Published: January 6, 2012

PENTAGON: Sometimes politico-diplomatic announcements are just plain hard to decipher, even when you know they convey significant news.

That may be the case with this nugget sent out yesterday evening by Pentagon spokesman George Little:

Finally, Secretaries Panetta and Hammond signed a Statement of Intent on Carrier Cooperation and Maritime Power Projection that will serve as the framework for increased cooperation and interoperability on the use of aircraft carriers, as well as provide the basis for the U.S. to assist the UK Royal Navy in developing its next generation of aircraft carriers. This cooperation is a cutting-edge example of close allies working together in a time of fiscal austerity to deliver a capability needed to maintain our global military edge.

Clearly, this marks a significant commitment by both countries. Carriers are the stuff of dreams for those wishing to deploy their presence in force far from home and are almost as important as space flight to national prestige. The fact that the US would agree to help Britain develop its next two carriers is worthy of note. Add to that the language about "Increased cooperation and interoperability" and you may have a major event.

We talked to some of the experts to see how much perspective we could offer you, dear readers. Andrew Krepinevich, a member of the Defense Policy Board who advises Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on strategic issues, offered a bit, but not much.

"Not sure on this one. Based on what you've given me this may be a case of where the British are looking for help from our industrial base. This wouldn't be the first time. In the late 90s when they were trying to build a new class of submarines (the Astute Class), they realized they lacked the ability to do so, and came to us for help," Krepinevich wrote in an email. "They may have lost some key sectors of their shipbuilding base when it comes to carriers as well."

Frank Cevasco, one of the leading experts on international defense cooperation, offered more detail.

"The UK MoD is struggling big time under a substantially reduced defense budget with no relief in sight. The MoD was forced by budget considerations to mothball many of its ships and change direction with regard to its program to build two aircraft carriers. Under the current plan, the UK will not have an operating carrier for several years (I don't remember the details). I understand the second carrier will be the only one that is fully operational with the first more in a trial configuration," he wrote.

The new agreement "came as a surprise to me, especially in light of the relatively long-standing UK-France carrier cooperation. But I can see the new cooperation as a vehicle for the US to share some of its carrier design and operation know how with the UK. And assistance in any form can only be helpful to the UK," he noted.

The British carrier dilemma is acute. With their decision to drop the VSTOL capable F-35B (being bought by our Marines) in favor of the catapult-launched F-35C (being bought by our Navy) the British incurred significant new costs to redesign their carriers. Just how significant was made clear recently when the UK Procurement Minister, Peter Luff said this:

Our latest cost estimate for the Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft carrier program is £5.2 billion. This figure is based on the current configuration of the carriers and does not include the additional costs of installing catapults and arrestor gear to enable it to operate the more capable carrier variant of the Joint Strike Fighter decision which will be taken next year. The costs of conversion are under investigation, but are currently estimated to be in the order of £1 billion. As part of a package of measures taken in the strategic defense and security review, we have reduced overall spending on the Carrier Strike Program by £4.4 billion over the next 10 years.

For a shrinking British military, so hungry for savings it is slicing significantly into the number of people who serve in its Army, the prospects of coming up with an additional £1 billion is remote, to say the least.

Meanwhile, it bears remembering that the UK and France cooperate to some degree on their own carrier forces. Does this mean we have the beginnings of a min-NATO carrier group? It's awfully hard to tell. The challenges of working out who would have priority to decide whose carrier goes where and when and why might be too great to overcome.

Cevasco says that the UK "understands the challenge associated with working cooperation in parallel with both the US and France. Some of what the US provides can certainly be shared with the UK and France, but I suspect some of what the US shares with the UK will be shared subject to the understanding it not be transferred further. The UK has operated in that dual mode for decades--separating its transatlantic cooperation and its intra-Europe cooperation."

In terms of industrial cooperation, Cevasco thinks that UK-French cooperation and US-UK cooperation "will simply make it easier for the UK and France to support their domestic carrier programs. The US might also learn something from British and French shipbuilders -- I recall a multi-nation ship design cooperation during the 1980s; the US Navy and the others exchanged information about their national design practices and all benefited."

This story will surely grow as we learn more.

Milne Bay

07-01-12, 03:46 AM

I wonder if this means US aircraft and pilots on UK carriers, until the UK gets its own F-35's.
Until then they will need to learn how to operate the carriers with fast jets and they have nothing with which to do this.
Interesting.
MB

buglerbilly

12-01-12, 02:07 PM

Wildcat begins sea trials with Iron Duke

An Equipment and Logistics news article

12 Jan 12

Wildcat, the Navy's next-generation helicopter, has begun its most extensive trials yet, joining a frigate at sea for the first time.

A Wildcat helicopter takes off from the flight deck of HMS Iron Duke
[Picture: Crown Copyright/MOD 2012]

The successor to the trusty Lynx, which has served the Navy and the Army admirably since the 1970s, will spend the next month flying on and off HMS Iron Duke in the English Channel as part of its most extensive trials yet.

Wildcat is the next generation of light multi-role helicopter to serve both the Army and the Navy in the future. The Navy variant of the Wildcat will be the mainstay of helicopter operations from Royal Navy destroyers and frigates, with 28 ordered for the Fleet Air Arm.

Although the aircraft looks similar to its predecessor - with the exception of its distinctive tailplane which improves the helicopter's stability - Wildcat's characteristics are sufficiently different from Lynx to warrant extensive flight trials, setting the parameters within which it can safely operate.

Wildcat has gone to sea before, landing on the back of aviation training ship RFA Argus off the south coast of England back in November 2011.

A Wildcat helicopter takes off from the flight deck of HMS Iron Duke
[Picture: Crown Copyright/MOD 2012]

And the prototype ZZ402 paid a brief visit to HMS Iron Duke just before Christmas, when pilots and technicians tested some of the basics.

Those trials were carried out with the ship stationary in Portsmouth Naval Base. For the 'Ship Helicopter Operating Limits' trials currently underway, Iron Duke and Wildcat have put to sea.

A team of more than 30 experts has joined the Type 23 frigate for the evaluation; the ship has also been fitted with specialist instruments to record every aspect of the trials.

Initially the trials will take place in Lyme Bay, before Iron Duke sails increasingly westwards, not least searching for rough weather to help define the helicopter's operating limits 'over the full envelope of operations' (i.e. payloads and weights carried by Wildcat in all manner of climatic conditions).

The trials should take until around early February 2012 after which around nine months is required to analyse and evaluate all the information gathered.

buglerbilly

26-01-12, 12:53 AM

Leave the landing light on

An Equipment and Logistics news article

25 Jan 12

The deck of the new Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers may be the size of four football pitches and supported by the best part of 65,000 tonnes of steel but, from three miles (5km) out, when viewed through the BAE Systems simulator at Warton, it's tiny and the target area for landing looks even smaller. Report by Steve Moore.

A pilot approaches the deck of one of the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers using the BAE Systems simulator at Warton
[Picture: Andrew Linnett, Crown Copyright/MOD]

Add in your 150-knot (278km/h) speed, a keen wind, a rolling sea state, a touch of mist, a black night, and you can see why landing an aircraft on a ship is probably the most difficult task most pilots will ever face.

Welcome to the deck of one of the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers, due in service by the end of the decade. Well, not quite the real carrier, which is under construction at Rosyth. This is BAE Systems' simulator at Warton, the only one in the world where the F-35 aircraft meets the future pride of the 2020 Royal Navy.

But this is not about training pilots, nor honing the skills of the personnel whose deck-based task is to guide the aircraft in safely.

This is about designing the flight deck, making sure its massive array of coloured lights and lenses, deck markings and arrestor gear make for the safest environment for recovering the aircraft.

Tests are at an advanced stage using US Navy F-18 pilots, hugely experienced in taking off from and landing on carriers.

This is something new for the UK. Our carriers, remember, have operated the short take off and vertical landing (STOVL) Harriers for more than a generation. Skills in landings are, shall we say, a little rusty.

Tests will inform the Aircraft Carrier Alliance on design of the deck. With every simulated landing, Defence Equipment and Support's Joint Combat Aircraft Team learns more about the behaviour of the F-35's Carrier Variant (CV), the F-35C, which the UK will be operating - a decision firmed up by the Strategic Defence and Security Review.

The simulator at BAE Systems in Warton is hosting tests to design the deck of the Queen Elizabeth Class carriers:

"Basically we are dealing with a completely different method of landing," said Pete Symonds of the Aircraft Carrier Alliance.

"With STOVL landing you stop and land; CV landing is land and stop. So it's a completely different set of lights in completely different positions. Then the aircraft is different. We've built a new model into the system as clearly the control laws are different with many different characteristics including an arrestor hook."

Tests are at an advanced stage using US Navy F-18 pilots
[Picture: Andrew Linnett, Crown Copyright/MOD

The team has adapted well to the changes though:

"From the ship point of view it has been an easier task to organise the lighting system as we are now following how the Americans do it. The American layouts have been our starting point and we're trying to improve on them," said Mr Symonds.

"And we're helped by the fact that the actual size of the carrier flight deck was driven by the requirement to be adaptable. The STOVL ship could have been smaller but the adaptable design was driven by the size of the runway, which was needed to recover the aircraft.

"We've taken the flight deck, and started again. After the decision was made to move to the Carrier Variant we had a period of looking at variable equipment selection before we started the work.

"We now have the flight deck at what we call level two maturity, so effectively the big bits are already fixed. The design of the flight deck is pretty well sorted."

Testing will soon move to other simulators to test recovery of helicopters to the carriers.

From the Joint Combat Aircraft (JCA) Team's point of view the F-35C will be equally capable from sea or land:

"The current focus for the JCA Team is ensuring the aircraft is integrated onto the carrier in the most optimal way," said Wing Commander Willy Hackett, the team's UK Requirements Manager.

"This aircraft will be the first stealth platform to operate from an aircraft carrier, which will bring new challenges. Recovering an aircraft to a small moving airfield, especially at night or in poor weather, has always focused the mind of any pilot who has flown at sea.

"The F-35 will bring new technology which in time will make landing on an aircraft carrier just another routine part of the mission. On entry into service the aircraft will be equipped with the Joint Precision Approach and Landing System [JPALS] which will guide the aircraft down to a point where the pilot can take over and land the aircraft manually.

Every simulated landing provides the Joint Combat Aircraft Team with more data about the behaviour of the F-35's Carrier Variant, the F-35C
[Picture: Andrew Linnett, Crown Copyright/MOD]

"Future upgrades intend to allow JPALS to actually land the aircraft without pilot input in very poor weather."

He added:

"A new flight control system, combined with new symbology in the helmet-mounted display, looks to drastically reduce pilot workload on a manually flown approach.

"This technology is being investigated by the US and UK, and if successful will see a major reduction in the training required to keep pilots competent at landing on aircraft carriers from the middle of the next decade.

"Once this new technology is invested in the F-35C the pilot will be able to focus on the mission to an even greater extent than is possible now in the current generation of carrier variant aircraft.

"UK JCA squadrons will therefore be more operationally focused than current generation sea-based aircraft and will keep UK air power at the front rank of military powers."

So who benefits most from the current carrier testing? Back to Mr Symonds:

"Well actually it's both the Aircraft Carrier Alliance [ACA] and the Joint Combat Aircraft Team," he said. "From the aircraft side the team has to be satisfied it is safe to operate the aircraft at sea efficiently. So in terms of the JCA safety case, it is critical that we are able to demonstrate safe F-35C recovery operations.

"From the ACA perspective, we have to prove that the ship is safe to operate the aeroplane so we have to provide sufficient visual landing aids to demonstrate to our safety case that it works. Both teams must be confident that what we will be putting on the deck works. We will be making sure it is a win/win for both teams."

The BAE Systems' simulator at Warton - from left: the simulator controller, the view of the simulated aircraft, and the pilot in the cockpit
[Pictures: Andrew Linnett, Crown Copyright/MOD]

Landing on the new carriers - what the pilot sees

Aircraft approach the stern as the carrier steams into the wind. Pilots aim for the second or third of the arrestor wires - the safest, most effective target.

Aircraft are guided by deck personnel - the Landing Signal Officers - via radio and the collection of lights on deck.

When the aircraft has landed the pilot powers up the engines to make sure that, if the tailhook doesn't catch a wire, the plane is moving fast enough to take off again.

Pilots will look at the Improved Fresnel Lens Optical Landing System for guidance - a series of lights and lenses on a gyroscopically-stabilised platform.

Lenses focus light into narrow beams directed into the sky at various angles. Pilots will see different lights depending on the plane's angle of approach. On target, the pilot will see an amber light in line with a row of green lights.

If the amber light is above the green, the plane is too high; below green it is too low. Much too low and the pilot will see red lights.

So how did I do? My first attempt saw my F-35 scream way past the carrier, too fast, too high, and with no hope of landing. A second was just as wayward, overshooting and just missing the island superstructures, necessitating a stomach-churning go-around.

A third and final approach needed a last-second drop in height, allowing me to find the last of the arrestor wires, ending in a landing more akin to Fosbury than any of the elite pilots who have been using the simulator for their landings.

The flight deck has about 250 metres of runway distance for landing aircraft. A runway on land would be around 12 times longer. And doesn't move.

Landing on a carrier deck pitching up and down by up to 30 feet (9m) in a rough sea can be daunting enough. A pilot has to place the aircraft's tailhook in a precise part of the deck 150 feet (46m) long by 30 feet (9m) wide to catch the arrestor wires, and do it at night too.

The arresting wire system can stop a 25-tonne aircraft travelling at 150 miles per hour (240km/h) in just two seconds in a 300-feet (90m) landing area. Deceleration is up to 4Gs.

This article is taken from the January 2012 edition of desider - the magazine for Defence Equipment and Support.

buglerbilly

27-01-12, 01:05 AM

IN FOCUS: Royal Navy chief looks to the future with carrier, F-35 programmes

By: Craig Hoyle London

9 hours ago

Source:

The Royal Navy and Fleet Air Arm entered a period of forced transformation 16 months ago, when the UK government approved major cuts to their equipment and personnel structures as part of its Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR). However, with a final tranche of around 250 staff cuts having been confirmed in mid-January, the head of the UK's "senior service" is looking firmly to the future.

While the SDSR led to the *removal of the UK's carrier strike capability, via the early retirement of its BAE Systems Harrier GR7/9s, First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff Adm Sir Mark Stanhope believes the RN remains well positioned. Reductions felt since late 2010 have driven a busy agenda, "but that hasn't disturbed or changed the effect that the navy is having out there at sea or on land," he says.

The future shape of the lapsed carrier strike capability is already taking form, with major structures for the first of two 65,000 tonne Queen Elizabeth-class vessels now in assembly and deliveries looming for the UK's first test examples of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).

Due to be accepted during May, short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft BK-l and BK-2 will support the UK's participation in US-led initial operational test and evaluation activities at Edwards AFB, California. Another should follow in 2014, with the US Marine Corps having agreed in principle to swap a C-model carrier variant for London's originally intended third F-35B. This was requested after the UK swapped its interest to the largest version of the JSF, as part of the SDSR.

An in-service date for the F-35C will be defined as part of a Main Gate investment decision next year, although final numbers will not be determined before the UK's next defence review, planned for 2015.

The decision to jump from the STOVL version has prompted changes to the Queen Elizabeth design, with Stanhope now expecting second-of-class ship the Prince of Wales to gain an electromagnetic aircraft launch system/advanced arresting gear, for "cat and trap" operations.

Using the same technology *developed for the US Navy's next-generation carrier the Gerald R Ford, this will enable the carrier to support flying trials soon after becoming available.

Specification changes should be finalised by the end of 2012, when the UK will also confirm the expected in-service dates for its largest ever warships. This was originally targeted for around 2020, but Stanhope noted: "The big question is what happens to the Queen Elizabeth."

The RN faces a major challenge in regaining the skills required to resume "big deck" carrier operations, after what is nearing a 40-year gap since the retirement of Ark Royal and its Blackburn Buccaneers and McDonnell Douglas Phantoms. This need will be fulfilled partly under the terms of a statement of intent recently signed by the service and its US counterpart.

The first Fleet Air Arm pilot to benefit from the arrangement is just completing a combat deployment flying Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornets from the USS John Stennis, and others will follow.

"About four more [pilots] are about to enter the system, but this will increase to the teens over the next 10 years," Stanhope says. Some Royal Air Force personnel will also be trained for carrier operations under the arrangement, while one or two RN pilots are likely to begin flying soon with the French navy.

"It's very easy to focus on *pilots, but that's not the core of the challenge we face," Stanhope says. Other key skills to be learned include providing trained air traffic controllers, landing *signal officers, deck crew and weapons-handling personnel, plus the engineers to support high-tempo operations at sea.

A new airborne early warning capability is also to be acquired for the future carriers, with the RN's Westland Sea King 7s to be retired by March 2016.

Stanhope confirmed that a *capability gap could occur until the Prince of Wales becomes operational, and that although the service has studied equipping several AgustaWestland AW101 Merlins for the role, other options remain open.

In the long-term, the navy also has a "huge interest" in unmanned air vehicles and their underwater equivalents, although its chief went on to add: "it's just [a question of] moving forward at the right pace." Describing morale within his service as "balanced", as a result of the SDSR process, Stanhope says: "it's not a question of good or bad, but of people recognising where we are and looking forward."

Referring to the service's *participation in last year's Libya operation, ongoing tension with Iran in the Straits of Hormuz and supporting security requirements for this year's *Olympic Games in London, he concludes: "We are a navy *relevant to today's *requirements."

buglerbilly

28-01-12, 02:20 AM

U.K. To Develop Short-Range Weapon To Protect Warships

Jan. 27, 2012 - 12:24PM

By ANDREW CHUTER

The weapon would be developed based on MBDA’s Common Anti-air Modular Missile, above. (MBDA)

Love the looks of this system and the ideas behind the missile, not least the cold launch...............IF it works out as advertised, and there is no reason to think it will not, I'd be keen to see it added to as many RAN and RNZN warships as possible including the LHD/LPD's. Hell I'd add it to the AOR's!

LONDON — Development of a short-range weapon to protect Royal Navy warships from fast jets and sea-skimming missiles has been given the green light by the British government.

Sources here said missile builder MBDA and the Ministry of Defence signed the deal just before the end of the year but have kept the move under wraps.

Neither the contractor nor the MoD was prepared to comment on the missile contract.

The Future Local Area Air Defence System (Maritime) program will provide a new-generation weapon to replace the long-serving Seawolf missile currently employed by the Royal Navy, when it goes out of service in 2016.

Details of the plan to develop the weapon based on MBDA’s Common Anti-air Modular Missile (CAMM) are scarce but the source said the deal could be worth in the region of 500 million pounds ($784 million).

The missile is expected to be initially deployed on existing Type 23 frigates but will later be used on the upcoming Type 26/Global Combat Ship.

Future iterations of the weapon are destined to replace the Rapier ground-to-air missile deployed by the British Army, as well as provide technology insertions for the Royal Air Force’s Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missile on which the CAMM is loosely based.

CAMM is one of six missile programs placed into an assessment phase in 2008 by the MoD/industry partnership known as Team Complex Weapons.

The Team CW scheme was launched by the then-Labour government in 2006, ending competition over a range of weapons and bringing together the skills of the leading weapon suppliers here such as MBDA, Thales UK and QinetiQ in an effort to maintain sovereign capabilities at a time of declining demand for new weapons.

Other programs being looked at include an update of the Storm Shadow cruise missile, development of the ground-launched Fire Shadow loitering munition, light and heavy future anti-surface guided weapons, and air-to-ground precision weapons.

Late last year also saw the government extend the assessment phase of Thales UK’s work on the Future Anti-Surface Guided Weapon (Light) using its Lightweight Multirole Missile.

The missile will be fitted to the AgustaWestland Wildcat naval helicopters due in service by the middle of the decade.

buglerbilly

30-01-12, 03:05 PM

Now we have a name for it...............

Ares

A Defense Technology Blog

Sea Ceptor is Born

Posted by Robert Wall at 1/30/2012 3:25 AM CST

The U.K. has given the go ahead for the short-range air defense system for its Type 26 Global Combat Ship and also the existing Type 23 frigates.

Sea Ceptor, as the new system is called, is to replace the Seawolf system. MBDA has received a GBP483 million system demonstration phase contract from the U.K. Defense Ministry to work on the system, also called the Future Local Area Air Defense System (Flaads).

(Artists rendering: MBDA)

Sea Ceptor is being designed to destroy aircraft and supersonic anti-ship missiles, including saturation attacks. The Common Anti-Air Missile is to be the interceptor. The U.K. Defense Ministry puts the defended area of the system at 500 square miles. "This new weapon system will equip our frigates to deal with the type of sophisticated missile threat expected in the coming decades. Investment in advanced defence technology, such as Sea Ceptor, is vital to ensure the Royal Navy’s continued ability to defend the U.K.’s interests wherever necessary,” Adm. Mark Stanhope, the First Sea Lord, says in a statement.

The system is to be fielded first on the Type 23s around 2016 and be on the Type 26s when they enter service.

buglerbilly

31-01-12, 01:20 PM

Thales Selected to Supply Proximity Fuzes for New UK Anti-Air Missile

(Source: Thales UK; issued January 30, 2012)

A computer-generated image of the new Sea Ceptor missile for use by the Royal Navy
[Picture: Copyright MBDA Systems/MOD 2012]

Thales UK has been awarded an £11m contract by MBDA to provide the laser proximity fuze for Sea Ceptor’s common anti-air modular missile (CAMM). The contract is for the development and qualification of the laser proximity fuze, and includes options for various production quantities.

Thales has traditionally supplied the majority of the proximity fuzes for MBDA missiles, including the Seawolf and Rapier missiles that CAMM will replace. The particular challenge in this instance has been to improve performance while significantly reducing price by maximising the use of modularity, generic signal processing and commercial off-the-shelf components.

The contract follows almost five years of Thales research and development, and collaborative working with MBDA on the FLAADS/CAMM concept and assessment Phase.

“MBDA’s selection of Thales UK for the delivery of this critical capability reinforces Thales’s position as a leader in the field of proximity fuzing and as the UK Ministry of Defence’s sovereign provider under Team Complex Weapons.” says Alex Cresswell, head of Thales UK’s land defence business. “This award is a reflection of the invest-ment that Thales continues to make to develop this technology for the benefit of the UK Armed Services.”

Commenting on the selection of Thales UK, Steve Wadey, MBDA’s Executive Group Director Technical and UK Managing Director, says: “Thales brings a wealth of experience in proximity fuzing and we view them as an important contributor to the complex weapons sector in the UK. The Sea Ceptor system and its CAMM missile will deliver a next-generation air-defence capability for the Royal Navy, with excellent potential for overseas sales.”

Thales UK’s Basingstoke facility will undertake the development and qualification work.

Thales has more than 40 years’ experience successfully supplying missile electronics to customers worldwide. There are over 100,000 missile equipments operational in more than 50 countries. Seekers, proximity fuzes, and safe and rrm units are key product areas for Thales, in service in many missiles including TOW-2B, JSOW, Paveway 2/3/4, Storm Shadow, ASRAAM, MICA, EXOCET, Seawolf and Rapier.

Thales is a global technology leader for the defence & security and the aerospace & transport markets. In 2010 the company generated revenues of £11.2 billion (€13.1 billion), with 68,000 employees in 50 countries. Thales UK employs 8,000 staff based at 40 locations. In 2010 Thales UK’s revenues were around £1.5 billion.

-ends-

buglerbilly

31-01-12, 01:21 PM

HMS Daring Sets Sail with World-Class Thales Systems

(Source: Thales; issued January 30, 2012)

The first of the Royal Navy’s (RN’s) Type 45 destroyers, HMS Daring, has set sail on operational duty fitted with Thales UK’s new fully digital radar electronic support measures (RESM) system. The platform, the first of the Daring class, has been fitted with new digital antennas supplied by Thales as part of the UAT MOD 2 update programme.

In conjunction with the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), Thales has developed the direct radio frequency sampling and wideband digital receiver technology necessary to achieve a true digital antenna. This joint development required a six-year, multi-million pound research programme.

We continue to provide cutting edge electronic warfare technology to the RN...” The technology provides excellent system performance in the modern dense radar environment and is capable of managing multiple, truly simultaneous signals. This enables the ship to operate in all operational maritime theatres, including the littoral, and provides the RN with world-leading electronic warfare support and threat-identification technology.

By digitising at the antenna the majority of the receiver functionality is implemented as software and firmware algorithms. The system is therefore easily upgraded and new signal analysis tools are easily introduced, keeping the RESM capability current in a rapidly evolving operational environment.

This approach also maximises the use of commercial off-the-shelf hardware, making the RESM significantly more reliable, easier to maintain and hence cheaper to own.

To meet the operational requirements of the Type 45 programme Thales undertook an extremely challenging programme to provide the first two Type 45s with this critical technology. Thales delivered the programme, maturing the technology from the demonstrator phase through to platform acceptance in around 19 months.

The first system completed factory acceptance in November 2011; the installation, setting to work and harbour acceptance test were conducted in December. The system successfully completed sea trials in early January 2012.
The second system, scheduled for HMS Diamond, is completing integration and is due to complete factory acceptance at the end of this month.

Thales is currently the sole supplier of RESM equipment to the RN’s warship and submarine fleet.

Phil Naybour, head of Thales UK’s naval business, says: “We continue to provide cutting edge electronic warfare technology to the RN, and the innovative technology in the UAT MOD 2 programme now digitises the environment right behind the antenna. The capability and flexibility of the associated processing algorithms means more capability for the navy now and in the future, while minimising through-life cost.”

Type 45 destroyers are also fitted with Thales UK’s fully integrated communications system, S1850M radar (with BAE Systems) and a conical log spiral UHF satellite communications antenna.

Thales is a global technology leader for the defence & security and the aerospace & transport markets. In 2010 the company generated revenues of £11.2 billion (EUR 13.1 billion), with 68,000 employees in 50 countries. With its 22,500 engineers and researchers, Thales has a unique capability to design, develop and deploy equipment, systems and services that meet the most complex security requirements.

Thales UK employs 8,000 staff based at 35 locations. In 2010 Thales UK’s revenues were around £1.5 billion.

-ends-

buglerbilly

31-01-12, 02:30 PM

This is a video link to MBDA's E-catalogue and CAMM-M vid now called Sea Ceptor............its slow in loading depending on your link................shows how a Type 23 is going to lose radar's once SeaWolf is decamped due to obselescence...........

http://www.mbda-systems.com/e-catalogue/#/solutions/maritime/40/video

buglerbilly

07-02-12, 10:40 AM

HMS Protector cuts through Antarctic ice

A Military Operations news article

6 Feb 12

HMS Protector, the Royal Navy's ice patrol ship, has cut through the ice floes of Antarctica for the first time.

HMS Protector's journey through the Lemaire Channel, situated along the Antarctic Peninsula, where the ship broke through ice for the first time
[Picture: LA(Phot) Arron Hoare, Crown Copyright/MOD 2012]

The ship arrived in Antarctica for the first time two weeks ago after her long sail south from Portsmouth and is following up important survey work for shipping in the region with visits to remote research bases locked in the frozen continent.

At Deception Island, a stunning water-filled volcanic caldera that is one of just two in the world, Protector sent her smaller survey boat James Caird IV with multibeam echo sounder equipment to survey the area known as 'Neptune's Bellows'.

It was here that in 2007 the cruise ship MV Nordkapp ran aground and was assisted by the previous ice patrol ship HMS Endurance.

Leading Seaman Chris Smith, the boat's coxswain, said:

"Working on the Neptune's Bellows survey was a highly satisfying job professionally; being part of a team that worked on something this important to the safety of navigation makes all the hard work of being away from my family worthwhile."

A team of four spent two nights at an abandoned Admiralty base, braving gale-force winds with 55-knot (100km/h) gusts to both collect information used for chart-making and satellite-positioning and to record the tidal range.

The team took precise GPS measurements on land to make sure the tide gauge was level. The information will allow the UK Hydrographic Office in Taunton to produce accurate charts for ships transiting the area.

HMS Protector and her sea boats in Port Lockroy
[Picture: LA(Phot) Arron Hoare, Crown Copyright/MOD 2012]

Lieutenant Graham Blenkinsop, the officer in charge of the survey boat, said:

"The opportunity to survey Neptune's Bellows was fantastic; being able to use the Royal Navy's most advanced survey motor boat and in such a stunning area.

"It was even more satisfying to know that the work we were doing will have a direct impact on the safety of the many cruise ships and research vessels that pass through Neptune's Bellows and to know that we have done our part to make such an isolated part of the world safer for the ships and their crews."

Later, some of the crew of HMS Protector visited the Spanish Antarctic station Gabriel de Castilla, meeting base commander Major Antonio Casals Abraham and his team, who greeted them with a British Union Flag flying next to the Spanish flag on the beach.

After a tour, Lieutenant Commander Andy Storey, Operations Officer on Protector, presented a ship's crest to the base commander and invited him to dinner with Captain Peter Sparkes, Protector's Commanding Officer, and the Commanding Officer of the Spanish Antarctic patrol ship SPS Las Palmas.

It was in the Lemaire Channel that HMS Protector first broke the ice to mark her role as the Royal Navy's ice patrol ship. It took four hours to travel through the passage, with the ice increasing steadily, and seals and penguins on the ice floes.

HMS Protector's journey through the Lemaire Channel, situated along the Antarctic Peninsula, where the ship broke through ice for the first time
[Picture: LA(Phot) Arron Hoare, Crown Copyright/MOD 2012]

Protector then moved on to Port Lockroy, a historic British base manned by the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust. She brought vital stock, loaded in Portsmouth, to resupply the base, as well as its Post Office and small shop.

The ship's work boat Terra Nova delivered the supplies and then transferred building waste back to Protector to follow Antarctic Treaty and environmental protocols.

The ship's company visited the museum at Port Lockroy where living conditions from the 1940s and 1950s are preserved with handwritten notes and other memorabilia. Lieutenant Simon Lockley discovered that his namesake Sub-Lieutenant Lockley was one of the first base commanders there 60 years ago.

Meanwhile, for three days, Protector deployed her cold weather experts, the Royal Marines, to complete their cold weather training.

Colour Sergeant Mick Cowe, a Mountain Leader, said:

"The environment in Antarctica offers a unique challenge. We are here to provide the appropriate level of expertise to the ship's company and these few days ashore have helped to consolidate our perishable skill set."

HMS Protector has since recovered scientists from the British Antarctic Survey who were dropped off to investigate global warming. Her patrol continues.

buglerbilly

13-02-12, 11:57 AM

21st century airships may join Navy fleet

A new generation of British-built airships may be bought by the Royal Navy to resupply ships, follwoing their use by the US Army on the front line in Afghanistan.

Airship that can travel over 90mph could by used by Royal Navy

By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent

11:44AM GMT 13 Feb 2012

Modern-day Zeppelins will take to the sky for the first time since the First World War when the US Army begins using airships in Afghanistan.

But Navy chiefs are now giving serious consideration to purchasing an airship from the Bedfordshire-based Hybrid Air Vehicles to provide surveillance and re-supply runs to aircraft carriers, The Daily Telegraph can discose.

Scientists from the defence company Northrop Grumman have given briefings to the Navy on the latest airship that is about to enter military service.

The Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle is set to revolutionise air transport by being able to carry very heavy loads or intelligence kit long distances with the ability to land anywhere, including on the water.

The Navy is looking to buy an LEMV to base above the fleet with sophisticated surveillance cameras to spot threats and spy on enemy movements. With a 50 ton payload it can also be used to carry urgent equipment parts such as engines for Joint Strike Fighters out to ships.

Commanders are also considering using it as a counter piracy vessel as the LEMV can lower up to 150 commandos along with their fast inflatable boats.

Travelling at over 80 knots the airship is almost three times faster than ships and the Navy’s version can travel for several days without refuelling its four gas turbine engines.

With a mixture of 60 per cent helium and 40 per cent air it is far less vulnerable to enemy fire than the hydrogen filled Zeppelins that fell prey to the Fleet Air Arm’s incendiary bullets during the Great War.

Tests by the Bedfordshire-based company Hybrid Air Vehicles have shown that bullets and even missiles can pass through the balloon without igniting the gas mixture which has a very low pressure.

“This could be the ideal solution for logistical support for aircraft carriers and ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) for the Fleet,” said a Navy source.

“Carrying 50 tons of stores and supplies it is more than double the capacity of a Hercules.”

The airships will cost £60 million each and can be flown remotely as an unmanned drone.

They could prove a major boon for the struggling British aircraft industry if they attract commercial interest. Oil companies are looking at LEMVs to carry heavy equipment to remote drilling stations without having to use an airfield.

They could also open up a more leisurely route across the Atlantic carrying 200 passengers in safety and comfort in a 36 hour journey consuming a fifth of the fuel used by a jet.

The airships could even be used to transport good within Britain. The company estimates the two hour road journey from Milton Keynes to the heart of London could be cut to 20 minutes

HAV secured a US defence contract for £315 million in 2010 to provide three airships that will take station over Afghanistan able to remain airborne for three weeks while surveying the Taliban over a vast area.

A MoD spokesman said: "The MoD recently received briefings on the possible use of airships and specifically Hybrid Air Vehicles for the movement of equipment and stores but there are currently no plans to buy such equipment.”

Chunder

13-02-12, 01:33 PM

Pardon my complete, utter, preposterous and naive stupidity.... but I've always sorta wondered why you couldn't tether a balloon to a ship if you wanted some sort of increased horizon, and why, would this be a particularly bad idea?

Mercator

14-02-12, 03:28 AM

If you are known to tether airships to your ship, and the airship can see the bad guys, then the bad guys can see you as well. Better to separate the two, I guess.

buglerbilly

14-02-12, 04:33 AM

There are also not many ships that travel at over 80 knots...............

tiddles

14-02-12, 11:59 AM

There are also not many ships that travel at over 80 knots...............
Surely these things dont need forward movement [eg 80 knots] to stay up in the air or do they have to have their engines going all the time to provide power for other purposes. Anyhow I do agree that tying them to a ship might not be a strategicaly wise idea.
Tiddles

Chunder

15-02-12, 11:57 AM

Oh, it was just an idle thought I had in the 90's.... I suppose with wireless linking - you probably don't need that sort of thing. I know it's about 1 post away from being abused as a nitwit. The Tether was to transmit power. Electrical power, from the ship, for the radar, electrical engines & return... or whatever. I suppose now the cable etc would be kinda huge... but if your the RAN off no wheres ville wanting to protect a LPD (I suppose everyone knows where it is by that stage) could be sort of handy?

Anyhow, was just a thought.

Chunder

15-02-12, 12:00 PM

Actually, probably kind of crazy. You'd need a specialist ship just to carry the thing around, like a Radar ship.... Pretty expensive way to run something that was initially thought to be cheap.... oh well.

buglerbilly

17-02-12, 12:23 PM

Construction of Second Carrier Begins at Portsmouth

(Source: BAE Systems; issued February 16, 2012)

PORTSMOUTH, United Kingdom --- Production on HMS PRINCE OF WALES, the second Queen Elizabeth-Class aircraft carrier, has started today at BAE Systems in Portsmouth Naval Base – the future home of the Queen Elizabeth Class.

Work on the forward section of the hull, known as Lower Block 02, commenced as Commander-in-Chief Fleet Admiral George Zambellas cut the first steel in a ceremony at the company's production facility. The huge section, which will weigh around 6,000 tonnes upon completion, will house the ship's machinery spaces, stores and switchboards, as well as some of the accommodation, including 85 cabins.

Admiral Zambellas, said: ""As Commander-in-Chief Fleet, I am honoured and delighted to be asked to cut the steel that will be form part of the mighty hull of HMS Prince of Wales, the second of the Royal Navy's new 65,000 tonne aircraft carriers. Along with HMS Queen Elizabeth these two ships - each of which will be in service for over 50 years - lie at the heart of our national security posture. With the equipment that will operate from them, they will be pivotal to the UK's ability to project power at range for decades to come."

Mick Ord, Managing Director at BAE Systems' Naval Ships business, said: "The steel cut for Lower Block 02 demonstrates the steady progress which continues to be made on the carrier programme.

As home of the Royal Navy's surface fleet, everyone here is hugely proud to be involved in one of the largest engineering projects in the UK today and excited that the ships will return to Portsmouth, as their home port once complete."

As a member of the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, BAE Systems is working in partnership with Babcock, Thales UK and the Ministry of Defence to deliver the biggest and most powerful surface warships ever constructed in the UK. The company has an overarching role in managing the QE Class programme, as well as playing a central role in the design and build of the ships.

Construction of the forward island, which will control vessel navigation and house the ship's bridge, is also underway at Portsmouth, while work continues on Lower Block 02 and the stern section (known as Lower Block 05) of HMS Queen Elizabeth. Both sections are in the advanced stages of outfit, with the team focusing on preparing the blocks for their transit to Rosyth later this year, where all of the units and sections of the carriers will come together to be assembled in the dry dock.

Integration and testing of the ship's complex mission system is currently underway at the company's Maritime Integration and Support Centre on Portsdown Hill, whilst teams of engineers from BAE Systems and Thales are testing the advanced communications systems for the ships. Elsewhere in the Hampshire region, Southampton-based Kempsafe Limited has contracts to supply galley and laundry equipment on the vessels and Portsmouth-based Selex Communications is involved in the design of the Identification Friend or Foe system.

A significant plan of investment is underway to enhance the Naval Base, which will become the home of the two aircraft carriers when they enter service. The plan, which will cost approximately £140 million, includes the dredging the existing channel to Portsmouth to make it deeper and wider, and refurbishing the base's jetties to ease access for both the QE Class and Type 45 fleet.

Each 65,000 tonne aircraft carrier will provide the armed forces with a four acre military operating base which can be deployed worldwide. The vessels will be versatile enough to be used for operations ranging from supporting war efforts to providing humanitarian aid and disaster relief.

The QE Class will be the centrepiece of Britain's military capability and will routinely operate at least 12 of the carrier variant Joint Strike Fighter jets, allowing for unparalleled interoperability with allied forces.

-ends-

JKM Mk2

17-02-12, 01:41 PM

What's this guy talking about? 50 year operational life -the heart of the national security posture etc. I was under the impression the Queen Elizabeth was going straight into 'reserve' on completion. P of W will be hamstrung initially by a lack of aircraft (rather important for an aircraft carrier!) and given all the other shit that is going on with the RN I wonder just how effective these ships will turn out to be.

JKM

buglerbilly

18-02-12, 01:23 AM

Navy's next helicopter completes trials on HMS Iron Duke

An Equipment and Logistics news article

17 Feb 12

The Royal Navy's next generation helicopter, Wildcat, has completed 20 days of demanding trials aboard HMS Iron Duke, laying the groundwork for future operations.

A Wildcat helicopter undergoing trials from HMS Iron Duke
[Picture: Crown Copyright/MOD 2012]

Wildcat landed nearly 400 times on the frigate's flight deck by day and night in various weather conditions as the ship sailed off the coasts of southern England and northern Scotland.

The Portsmouth-based frigate sought the most challenging weather conditions around the UK as she took the Wildcat - successor to the long-serving Lynx - to sea to help write the rulebook for the new helicopter.

From 2015, Wildcat will be the principal helicopter used by Royal Navy frigates, including Iron Duke and her Type 23 sisters, and destroyers on operations around the globe.

Although Wildcat looks like the final variant of the Lynx Mk8, currently in service with the Fleet Air Arm, it is classed as a new aircraft - it handles differently for a start, not least thanks to new engines and the distinctive tail boom which marks Wildcat out from its forebears.

As a result, a new rulebook has to be written to define what are known as 'ship-helicopter operating limits' - the guidelines for safe Wildcat operations by day and night in various weather conditions and with different payloads.

A Wildcat helicopter leaves HMS Iron Duke
[Picture: Crown Copyright/MOD 2012]

For that, Wildcat needed to go to sea. It enjoyed two ten-day periods of trials aboard Iron Duke, one in mid-January, the second at the beginning of this month, ranging from the waters off the South Coast to the Western Approaches, Irish Sea and northern shores of Scotland as the frigate searched for suitable weather conditions to lay down the limits for safe Wildcat operations.

In all, Wildcat touched down on Iron Duke's flight deck 390 times, including 148 night landings - 76 of them using night-vision goggles.

From Iron Duke's viewpoint, the new helicopter certainly impressed. Commander Nick Cooke-Priest, the frigate's Commanding Officer, said:

"Wildcat is a very capable aircraft, a completely valued successor to the Lynx, and once fully mature will provide significantly enhanced capability to the maritime domain."

Prototype ZZ402 paid a brief visit to Iron Duke just before Christmas, when pilots and technicians tested some of the basics such as whether the flight deck recovery system could pull Wildcat into the hangar, did Wildcat fit in the hangar, can it be easily refuelled and rearmed and 'talk' to the frigate's command systems, all of which were in the affirmative.

A Wildcat helicopter comes in to land on the flight deck of HMS Iron Duke
[Picture: Crown Copyright/MOD 2012]

The prototype's two Fleet Air Arm test pilots assessed and scored the difficulty and workload required for each landing in each different weather condition or sea state, while a myriad of sensors recorded more than 4,000 different items of data from the helicopter's engines, rotor and transmission.

These included video feeds from all the crew positions, stresses and strains from all over the airframe and rotor blades, engine and gearbox parameters and undercarriage loadings.

The crew scores and reams of data are now being analysed by experts (it'll take them until towards the end of the year) to set the limits for day and night operations by Wildcat at sea in various conditions and with various payloads.

In addition to the test pilots, two flight test engineers, aircraft and stress engineers, instrumentation experts and ship's flight personnel (to carry out maintenance on the prototype and move it in and out of the frigate's hangar) - a good 30 extra souls in all - squeezed aboard the Type 23, which was fitted with accurate ship motion and wind sensors for the tests.

A Wildcat helicopter landing on HMS Iron Duke's flight deck
[Picture: Crown Copyright/MOD 2012]

The trials team used the opportunity of operating Wildcat at sea for the first time to test its mission systems, night-vision cockpit and navigation systems, paving the way for the helicopter's front line duties in three years' time.

Commander Cooke-Priest said that the helicopter is 'ideally suited to the nature and breadth of naval operations', and added that:

"Commanders should be very excited by Wildcat's potential."

While Wildcats work their way along the production line at AgustaWestland's Yeovil factory, ZZ402 will continue her trials, including tests of radar, electro-optics and navigational kit, and conducting missile firings.

The first of 28 naval variants of Wildcat is due to be delivered to its future home of Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton ten days before Christmas for trials with 700W Naval Air Squadron.

Unicorn

19-02-12, 09:52 AM

Prototype ZZ402 paid a brief visit to Iron Duke just before Christmas, when pilots and technicians tested some of the basics such as whether the flight deck recovery system could pull Wildcat into the hangar, did Wildcat fit in the hangar, can it be easily refuelled and rearmed and 'talk' to the frigate's command systems, all of which were in the affirmative.

If it couldn't do those fairly basic tasks after several billion ponds of development, then a number of RN and BAe personnel should have been taken out and shot.

.

buglerbilly

23-02-12, 11:32 AM

DSME Announced as Winning Bid for Royal Navy’s MARS Tanker Competition

AEGIR vessel design. (Image: BMT Defence Services)

I wonder if we can slip a couple in for Australia.............:dunno

16:55 GMT, February 22, 2012 Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) is pleased to announce it is the preferred bidder for the Royal Navy’s MARS (Military Afloat Reach and Sustainability) Tanker. DSME and partners will provide the specialised design and build of four new logistic support vessels, to be operated by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA).

The contract will be worth an approximate GBP452 million, with a significant proportion going to sub-contractors and partners. As part of the RFA’s fleet, the MARS Tankers will offer logistical support to the Royal Navy by providing fuel, food and fresh water to naval vessels at sea. The vessels will each be just over 200 metres in length, 28 metres in beam, and have a displacement of over 37,000 tonnes. Each will be able to carry the equivalent volume of more than 7 Olympic-sized swimming pools of fuel cargo. This new addition to the fleet is due to be in service with the RFA from 2016 onwards.

The winning bid combines outstanding shipbuilding quality and superior technology from DSME with naval design expertise from Bath-based BMT Defence Services with their AEGIR vessel design. These Naval Auxiliaries will exploit the economic efficiencies of the world’s premier shipbuilder, whilst retaining UK capability, knowledge and skills in naval ship design and engineering.

DSME is the world's pre-eminent specialised shipbuilder with a proven record of delivery spanning both complex commercial and military ships. From commercial tankers and offshore platforms, to destroyers and submarines, DSME is recognised as a world leader in the construction of technically demanding vessels. The commercial build and outfitting practices adopted for the MARS Tanker, will deliver an efficient, high quality build process.

With the RFA Flotilla providing ever greater support to Royal Navy operations as well as providing a visible UK military presence across the globe, the BMT-AEGIR® platform design has been specially optimised for the requirements of the Royal Navy and RFA. It utilises a hull design that meets the latest marine pollution regulations and adopts design principles that are common with the latest Royal Navy platforms. DSME and its partners have refined this design in conjunction with many equipment suppliers.

Sang-Tae Nam, President and CEO of DSME commented; “DSME is especially proud to have won this important contract from the UK MOD, it shows a level of confidence in our ability to build ships to time, cost and performance. This significant win in the UK, coupled with our recent Indonesian submarine order, helps to further broaden our international business credentials. Exporting these MARS Tankers to the UK adds to our already strong and competitive portfolio, and we have no doubt that the great and longstanding relationship between DSME and BMT will be strengthened by this success.

Muir Macdonald, Managing Director of BMT Defence Services said: “We, and our partners DSME, are delighted with this result against such strong international competition and are looking forward to reinforcing our partnership with this joint success. I know we shall very much enjoy working closely with the MOD to now deliver these ships that are such an important addition to the RFA fleet. It will be a privilege to work with a shipbuilder with the reputation and capabilities of DSME; it gives BMT a massive boost in further proving our design and engineering expertise.” He continued: “The global market for auxiliary vessels will remain strong over the next couple of decades and the selection of our AEGIR® design puts Britain in pole-position for championing our design and know-how around the world.”

Chief Defence Materiel, Defence Equipment and Support, Bernard Gray: “After an open, fair and rigorous competition involving bidders from around the world, DSME emerged as the preferred bidder. The DSME solution offers the best operational capability for the Royal Navy at the lowest whole life cost. A foreign build offers best value for money for Defence, whilst the UK SME Company BMT Defence Services -AEGIR design ensures our ability to meet international maritime obligations and provides the means for the Royal Navy to operate worldwide.”

buglerbilly

24-02-12, 12:50 PM

Specification for the MARS tankers................from BMT's website:

Principal Particulars

• Overall Length - 200.9m
• Length between perpendiculars - 185.1m
• Breadth (moulded) - 28.6m
• Depth to main deck (moulded) - 14.3m
• Draught - 10m

Key Features

Cargo

Tanks for Diesel Oil, Aviation Fuel and Fresh Water
Lub oil stored in drums
Stowage for up to 8x20 containers

Aviation

Flight deck for 1 medium helicopter
Maintenance hangar
In-flight refuelling capability

Replenishment

3 abeam RAS stations for Diesel Oil, Aviation Fuel and Fresh Water
Solid RAS reception up to 2te
Future Fit of 1 stern fuel delivery reel
VERTREP using organic helicopter

Accommodation

63 crew
46 non-crew embarked persons

buglerbilly

29-02-12, 12:13 PM

Ares

A Defense Technology Blog

Post-Nimrod: Preserving the U.K.'s MPA Skills

Posted by Robert Wall at 2/29/2012 4:13 AM CST

I had no problem seeing NIMROD cancelled it should never have been started!!! joke of a programme..........BUT to not replace it immediately is assinine nonsense!

The U.K. has dispatched 33 RAF aircrew overseas to help retain maritime patrol capability skills in the wake of the cancellation of the Nimrod MRA4 fleet.

As with its effort to retain its aircraft carrier operations skills, the U.K., in the MPA domain, is leaning on allies to help personnel retain their know-how to reconstitute its capabilities at a later date. The MOD says the so called Seedcorn initiative costs about £3.25 million per year, including travel costs.

What is unclear is how long the program will need to run. The MOD is still sorting out what its long-term Nimrod MRA4 replacement program will be.

There are other MPA bills that still have to be defined. For instance, other systems, such as the Sentinel R1, are to take on sea-surveillance roles. The Franco-British Telemos unmanned aircraft also is supposed to absorb some of the tasking in the next decade. What the cost will be to adapt these systems for the maritime surveillance task still needs to be fully defined.

pdf27

29-02-12, 08:26 PM

Sadly, the money just isn't there for a Nimrod replacement at the moment. I'm actually shocked that MARS has finally been ordered - failing to do so would have crippled the RN rather badly, but would have been politically quite easy.

buglerbilly

01-03-12, 10:20 PM

UK aircraft carrier plans in confusion as ministers revisit square one

Decision expected by Easter on which US joint strike fighter Britain will buy: ministers now want to revert to original choice

Richard Norton-Taylor

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 1 March 2012 19.21 GMT

A US joint strike fighter. The UK is deciding whether to buy the cheaper 'cats and flaps' version or revert to the vertical-landing model. Photograph: Joely Santiago/AP

Mere words cannot describe what a clusterf#*k this programme is................:doh

Britain's troubled and increasingly expensive plan to equip the navy with new aircraft carriers has been plunged into fresh turmoil as ministers consider reversing their earlier decision to change the type of plane that should fly from them, it has emerged.

The government announced in last autumn's strategic defence review that it had decided to buy the "cats and flaps" (catapults and arrester gear) version of the US joint strike fighter. This would have a "longer range and greater payload ... the critical requirement for precision-strike operations in the future", the government stated.

Moreover, the government added, it will be cheaper. It would also enable French planes to land on British carriers, and vice versa, inkeeping with the new UK-French defence spirit of co-operation.

Now, in an extraordinary volte-face, the Ministry of Defence says the "cats and flaps" planes may well be cheaper but it would be too expensive to redesign a carrier – more than £1bn – to accommodate them. The ministry is thus faced with the prospect of renegotiating a deal with the US, reverting to its original plan – namely buying the short take-off and vertical landing version of the aircraft, even though it is acknowledged to be less effective and more expensive .

The latest chapter in the troubled saga of Britain's future aircraft carriers – whose own estimated costs have soared – was raised on Thursday in a letter to the defence secretary, Philip Hammond, from Jim Murphy, his Labour opposite number.

Murphy referred to "worrying suggestions" that the government was about to change its mind about the kind of aircraft to buy from the US. "It is vital that there is now clarity on the government's plans for this vital area of the defence equipment programme," he wrote.

Murphy said the decision in the defence review to scrap the Harrier fleet meant the UK would have no carrier aircraft capability until 2020 – and then only one carrier would be operational.

Defence officials said that the government was "re-assessing" its earlier decision because, they indicated, of pressures on the defence budget.

HMS Queen Elizabeth, the first carrier, will be mothballed immediately it is launched in 2016, according to existing plans. The second, HMS Prince of Wales, will be able to put to sea by 2020, but it is not known how many planes will be able to fly from it – nor what kind.

The two carriers, originally priced at £3.5bn, are now estimated to cost £6.2bn. According to the Commons public accounts committee, the cost is likely to icrease to as much as £12bn.

The government, which originally said it wanted more than 100 joint strike fighters, says that it will have just six operational ones by 2020. The unit cost of the joint strike fighter, made by Lockheed Martin, has soared because of production problems and delays caused by US defence budget cuts. Britain's BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce have big stakes in a future deal adapting the joint strike fighter for British forces.

A spokesperson for the MoD said: "We are currently finalising the 2012-13 budget and balancing the equipment plan. As part of this process, we are reviewing all programmes, including elements of the carrier strike programme, to validate costs and ensure risks are properly managed. The defence secretary expects to announce the outcome of this process to parliament before Easter."

Zen9

01-03-12, 11:04 PM

Gubler, A.

02-03-12, 05:27 AM

HMG’s decisions re their carrier capability aren’t just making Australian defence procurement look good, its making Indian defence procurement look good!

This is a joke surely? Cat and Trap will more smoothly interface with both the French and the USN, and the former is surely an increasing factor as we supposedly work towards more anglo-french cooperation.

That's all just the propaganda from the initial decision to change. They would only need high level of integration with the USN and le Royale if they had to operate CATOBAR aircraft. Otherwise back to STOVL (F-35B) and VTOL (helos) the RN doesn’t need any help to maintain a strike carrier capability.

buglerbilly

02-03-12, 09:52 AM

.............its making Indian defence procurement look good!

Nahhh they've got at least 10 years before they look as good as the Indians..............

buglerbilly

03-03-12, 02:32 AM

Letter Raises Possibility U.K. Could Return to STOVL F-35

Mar. 2, 2012 - 11:38AM

By ANDREW CHUTER

Britain may be reconsidering its decision to nix a purchase of the short-takeoff and vertical-landing variant of the Joint Strike Fighter, known as the F-35B. Above, a STOVL plane is shown earlier this year at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. (Angel DelCueto / Lockheed Martin)

LONDON — New doubts have emerged over the future of Britain’s aircraft carrier plans following a letter sent by the opposition Labour Party suggesting the government is considering reverting to its original plan to buy the short-takeoff and vertical-landing (STOVL) variant of the Joint Strike Fighter instead of the conventional-takeoff version.

Delays and uncertainties over the rising cost of purchasing the F-35 have also added to concerns about the future of the program, Jim Murphy, Labour’s shadow defense minister, said in the March 1 letter to Defence Secretary Philip Hammond.

In the letter, Murphy asks whether the government is considering abandoning its decision, made in the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), to introduce “the [F-35C] carrier variant of the JSF in 2020 and whether any consideration is being given to reversing the decision to abandon the short-takeoff and vertical landing [F-35B] version.”

Murphy said there had been “worrying suggestions” about the F-35C variant of the JSF and its possible impact on the construction of the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier scheduled to carry them.

A spokeswoman at the MoD admitted a review of the carrier and other programs was underway as part of the planning round for the 2012-13 financial year, but didn’t directly address whether another JSF change was in the offing.

“We are currently finalizing the 2012-13 budget and balancing the equipment plan,” she said. “As part of this process, we are reviewing all programs, including elements of the carrier strike program, to validate costs and ensure risks are properly managed. The defense secretary expects to announce the outcome of this process to Parliament before Easter.”

The spokeswoman said the government remains committed to implementing the decision to reintroduce a carrier strike capability as part of its Future Force 2020 reorganization of the military.

In the letter, Murphy writes he is “concerned that the cost of conversion combined with the increased unit cost [of the aircraft] could be prohibitive to the plans as outlined in the SDSR being realized.”

Rumors of a possible change have been circulating for several weeks, and a source here, who asked not to be named, said high-level conversations about a possible change back to the STOVL variant have already taken place between the MoD and the Pentagon.

At the time of the British switch in allegiance, the STOVL version, also being purchased by the U.S. Marine Corps, was reckoned by many to be under threat of cancellation. That threat was lifted recently.

A flip-flop by the U.K. government would be hugely embarrassing. The British burnt their bridges with the U.S. Marine Corps when they abandoned the STOVL concept virtually overnight, and used up a lot of political capital in Washington as well, an industry executive here said.

If a reversal is being considered, it could have something to do with Hammond’s reappraisal of the costs involved in the change over, the executive said.

Hammond’s nickname among industry executives is “Forensic Phil” — a compliment to his thoroughness on the financial aspects of programs and other budget issues facing the MoD.

The Conservative-led coalition government announced in the SDSR that it would fit catapult and arrestor gear, known as cats and flaps, and other design changes to at least one of the two 65,000-metric-ton aircraft carriers — being built by a BAE Systems-led alliance — to accommodate the change from STOVL to conventional aircraft.

The SDSR called the F-35C “more cost-effective and capable” than the Lockheed Martin F-35B version that the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force originally agreed to buy.

The aircraft continues to have its problems, though. Recently, it was discovered that the tail used by the F-35C was in the wrong place and would have to be redesigned.

The redesigned aircraft carrier, which is expected to use General Atomics’ new electromagnetic aircraft launch system if the F-35C buy does ahead, would also be interoperable with key allies like the U.S. and France, the government said at the time of the SDSR.

The National Audit Office, the government watchdog, has estimated the carrier redesign could cost up to 1.2 billion pounds ($1.9 billion) on top of the 5.2 billion pounds already being spent on the Queen Elizabeth-class warships.

Douglas Barrie, the senior air analyst at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, said that it may not be the aircraft itself that is the cause of the concern but the cost of converting the aircraft carrier.

“With ongoing concerns over budgets and costs at the MoD, one reason the U.K. might be considering overturning the decision to move to the conventional aircraft might have more to do with the financial implications of changing the ship design rather than concerns over the aircraft itself," he said.

The carrier build alliance is midway through an 18-month study into the cost and various redesign options of changing to the conventional aircraft requirement and is scheduled to report results at the end of this year.

In the meantime, the possible costs and other problems involved in a carrier redesign are causing increasing concerns in the MoD, a second source said.

For the moment, the only significant design change being built into the first carrier, now being assembled at Rosyth, is the removal of a ramp that would help the STOVL aircraft take off.

That carrier could be mothballed once it is handed over in 2016. The second carrier, the vessel expected to carry the electromagnetic aircraft launch system, is due to be handed over two years later.

The SDSR announcement said the Royal Navy’s carrier strike capability would be reduced to just one operational vessel, with the other being put on extended readiness or possibly sold.

The first carrier operating Joint Strike Fighters is not expected to be operational until at least 2020 and then with only six aircraft in the first instance, Murphy writes in his letter.

Chunder

03-03-12, 08:29 AM

So why aren't they sacking the fucking Defence Minister?

Seriously.

Mercator

03-03-12, 08:33 AM

Only been there 3 or 4 months. It wasn't him.

buglerbilly

03-03-12, 08:49 AM

So why aren't they sacking the fucking Defence Minister?

Seriously.

They've had six in six years, therein lies part of the problem enhanced by the mostly duckeggs the Labour Party installed...........at least the Brit party knows how to spell "labour"

As Merx says this guy's only been there a few months.................

Zen9

03-03-12, 11:35 PM

OK lets see now, we've signed up for EMALS production slots (IF I get the acronym right for the US electromagnetic catapults).

USN has bought the farm on EM Catapults, its that or nothing as to my knowledge no one is making the steam sort anymore and hasn't since the last order from the USN.
Trials on EM catapults are well along, not testing, trials.

UK government has switched the order form F35B to F35C.
Pilots have been sent to undergo USN training for CATOBAR flight ops.

CVF contract has been altered to move from the less detailed to the more detailed plans for fitting EM catapults and arrestor gear to the ship.

All a lot of costs sunk in this major shift from -B to -C. On the way the whole of the Harrier II fleet has been junked and sold for parts, pilots either reassigned or handed their P45's. Regenerating STOVL capability now would cost a fortune, since it would involve regaining STOVL aircraft and pilots, plus training more up.

And now some ____(censored) Labour Shadow Defence Minister is trying to stir it up over a move back to F35B?
Is this just on the outside or has some idiot in No.11 been doing the half the numbers again?
And in jumps the media, what agenda do they have?
Oh I know, a piece in the Guardian.

Capability, -C will go further. It also has the larger weapons bays (larger or structurally able to cope with heavier loads I forget which).
Guarantee, USN has this as its only LO first day of the war aircraft coming down the line. There is nothing else, no F117N, no NATF, no A/F-X, no A12 and any musings over a future new airplane is talk for the next 20 to 30 years, JSF is coming in the next 10.
Interopability, USN uses the CATOBAR, MNdF uses it and that will matter more than being only able to interoperate with the USMC and limited numbers of Spanish and Italian assets.
F35-B is a 'only game in town' for STOVL, whereas CATOBAR has at least the SuperHornet and the Rafale as backup options.

buglerbilly

04-03-12, 06:12 AM

How to land an F-35 jet fighter at sea

See video here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17238393

3 March 2012 Last updated at 03:14 GMT

BAE Systems is already carrying out test flights of the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter plane, flying off the next generation of Queen Elizabeth Class Carriers.

It has built a sophisticated simulator at its factory in Warton, Lancashire, to help pilots and engineers re-learn the old skills of naval flying, using catapults and arrestor gear - or "cats and traps".

The technology has not been used by the Royal Navy for almost 50 years.

BAE Systems test pilot, Steve Long, and chief engineer Chris Garside explain how it works.

However, the government has now indicated it may be considering an alternative method of landing.

buglerbilly

05-03-12, 10:09 AM

HMS Astute arrives home from US sea trials

An Equipment and Logistics news article

2 Mar 12

Royal Navy submarine HMS Astute returned home to Scotland yesterday after deploying to America for her most important series of sea trials yet.

A tug vessel greets HMS Astute on the Clyde
[Picture: Leading Airman (Photographer) Paul Halliwell, Crown Copyright/MOD 2012]

The hunter-killer nuclear submarine HMS Astute, the first of the Navy's next-generation submarines, is the most advanced submarine Britain has ever sent to sea.

She has spent the last four-and-a-half months off the eastern seaboard of North America undergoing extensive trials, including firing her main weaponry for the first time.

She spent 77 days at sea, 65 alongside, and was inspected by 18-stars-worth of American and British naval authority - including the First Sea Lord and America's naval equivalent, the Chief of Naval Operations.

She 'battled' against USS New Mexico, America's newest and best Virginia Class hunter-attack submarine, deep dived, fired her Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles, and over the course of the deployment sailed 16,400 miles (26,400km).

Her Commanding Officer, Glasgow-born Commander Iain Breckenridge, aged 45, was met in the Clyde yesterday by his wife Steph, and she sailed with him the last few miles to the Coulport side of HM Naval Base Clyde.

HMS Astute surfaces in the Clyde following sea trials off North America
[Picture: Leading Airman (Photographer) Paul Halliwell, Crown Copyright/MOD 2012]

He said:

"We are looking forward now to a bright future - this is a submarine of tremendous capability."

Of the deployment, which saw them visit the giant US Naval Base in Kings Bay, Georgia, Commander Breckenridge said:

"We met and surpassed every expectation. She is just better than any other submarine I have ever been on.

"Astute is still on trial and she is first of class which always brings its own problems, but we are beginning to look beyond those problems and see the promise.

"We fired off four Tomahawks, aimed at a corner of Eglin Air Force Base to test for accuracy, and we fired six Spearfish torpedoes, including the first salvo firing by a British submarine for 15 years.

HMS Astute in the Clyde
[Picture: Leading Airman (Photographer) Paul Halliwell, Crown Copyright/MOD 2012]

"Our sonar is fantastic and I have never before experienced holding a submarine at the range we were holding USS New Mexico. The Americans were utterly taken aback, blown away with what they were seeing."

Commader Breckenridge, whose first submarine was diesel-powered HMS Olympus, basically a redesign of Second World War technology, added:

"This is the future - Astute is on her way - and she is still a trials boat."

The oldest man on board, coxswain Chief Petty Officer John Adam, aged 50, from Old Kilpatrick, said:

"To have achieved what we achieved is a very significant milestone. The whole world was watching us and we did it. To serve on a boat like this in the twilight of my career has actually been the highlight of my career."

The youngest man on the 7,800-tonne boat, Stoker Jonathon Ball, aged 19, from Ballyclare in Northern Ireland, only signed up in January of last year. Astute is his first submarine and the deployment marked his first trip to America:

HMS Astute in the Clyde
[Picture: Leading Airman (Photographer) Paul Halliwell, Crown Copyright/MOD 2012]

"I volunteered for this because it was the bigger challenge and submarines are a lot more interesting than skimmers," he said. "America was just great."

Astute will never need refuelling. Her sonar can track ships 3,000 miles (4,830km) away and her missiles have a target range of 1,200 miles (1,930km) - with accuracy measured in metres.

Not only that, Naval Command in Britain can reprogramme the missiles in mid-flight and aim for another target, even if the submarine is thousands of miles away.

Next in line for Astute is a base maintenance period at Faslane, before returning to sea later in the year for more trials.

Commander Breckenridge concluded:

"She is one awesome piece of kit - and I am very proud of the fellowship that has formed in a very fine crew."

buglerbilly

10-03-12, 08:11 AM

U.K. Reviewing Lockheed’s F-35B Model, U.S. Official Says

By Tony Capaccio and Gopal Ratnam - Mar 10, 2012 12:17 AM GMT+0800

The U.K. is reconsidering its 2010 decision not to buy Lockheed (LMT) Martin Corp.’s F-35B jet, said U.S. Navy Vice Admiral David Venlet, program manager for the Joint Strike Fighter.

Asked in an interview if the U.K. is again interested in the F-35’s short-takeoff and vertical landing model, Venlet replied: “That is under consideration.”

If the U.K. decides to buy the F-35B, it would be a boost to Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed, as well as the U.S. Marine Corps, which is the major customer for the airplane. In January, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta lifted a yearlong probation on the B model, which is the most complex of the three F-35 variants. At an estimated $382 billion to produce different models for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, the F-35 is the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons program.

In October 2010, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, who is scheduled to visit the U.S. and meet with President Barack Obama March 13-14, announced that Britain wouldn’t buy the F-35B model. Instead, the U.K. expressed interest in the Navy’s aircraft carrier version, which is projected to be cheaper than the short-takeoff and vertical landing model.

The U.K.’s reconsideration of the F-35B model is a “relatively new development” driven by “national U.K. financial constraints and what it costs” to modify its two future Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers so they could carry the U.S. Navy’s F-35C, Venlet said after a presentation to a Credit Suisse conference on defense programs yesterday in Arlington, Virginia.

U.K. Review

The U.K. Ministry of Defense said it is currently completing its budget for 2012 to 2013.

“As part of this process we are reviewing all programs, including elements of the carrier strike program, to validate costs and ensure risks are properly managed,” the ministry said today in an e-mailed statement. “The defense secretary expects to announce the outcome of this process to Parliament before Easter.”

Those modifications to the carriers may include adding catapults, arresting gear and other equipment needed to operate the F-35C, he said. “There is a cost” to making those changes “and I think they are re-analyzing” if they should buy the short-takeoff model instead, Venlet said.

“I have told them at various levels of the government, we are with you whatever you need,” Venlet said.

The U.K. is one of eight partners to the U.S. in the Joint Strike Fighter program. The others are Australia, Turkey, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, Denmark and Norway.

To contact the reporters on this story: Tony Capaccio in Washington at acapaccio@bloomberg.net; Gopal Ratnam in Washington at gratnam1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Walcott at jwalcott9@bloomberg.net

buglerbilly

11-03-12, 03:58 AM

Update on the Type 26 programme via the excellent UK Armed Forces Blog..........the guy who runs it is Italian! Go firgure....doesn't stop the quality of what he prints though............

Friday, March 2, 2012Type 26 update

Infinite thanks to The Mintcake Maker, who commenting on my latest article on frigates brought to my attention a video from BAE systems that, although released in January, prior to the IET conference on the 26, escaped my radars entirely. Am i ever glad that he did link the video to me!

I do want to take this chance to say once more than i welcome any kind of comment, feedback, suggestion and opinion, and i totally do encourage any reader to talk freely and share what he wants with me. It really makes me glad, and, like in this case, it can add a lot of new info and hints for debate to the mix.

Here is the video, peel your eyes open at around 01.15:

[Video NOT available, its been removed]

I think you'll have immediately noticed how differente these new images are, compared to the old and well known concept arts about the Type 26.

The old Type 26 renders showed this ship:

The new images, significantly shown in a video released in January 2012, after the Capability Decision Point, and thus almost certainly showing the current thinking lines, show a very different ship:

The changes are quite dramatic, and as The Mintcake Maker noted, the new superstructure does indeed look a bit like a stealth, modern Type 22. The feeling is there, when one looks at the image.

The lines of the new design look cleaner and, at least at first gaze, should prove far more stealthy than the previous concept. The CIWS Phalanx 1B aft has been re-positioned, and unsurprisingly it is now shown mounted atop the hangar, in center position. Many commenters, myself included, had been quick to notice that this installation is the one that makes the most sense and ensures the best overall coverage.

The missile fit has changed, too. Two small silos, probably numbering 4 cells each, are shown on each side of the CIWS Phalanx in B position. These are almost certainly quad-packed with CAMM missiles for point defence and, according to MBDA, potentially for surface-strike against fast and small targets.

Behind this "Self Defence" assembly of missiles and CIWS gun, a large number of missile cells can be seen. These are presumably Strike Lenght cells for offensive armament (from cruise missiles to, potentially, ASROC and Anti Ship missiles). I think i've counted two rows of 12 cells each, in the photo, but information about this point is murky, as is the quality of the image. Indicatively, the number of cells could go from a minimum of 16 (a single 8+8 Sylver launcher, in this case) to 24 (two 6+6 modules mounted side to side) to a maximum of 32 (two 8+8 modules mounted side to side).

No Harpoon launchers can be seen in these images, even though i assume they could be fitted aft of the mast, between the radar tower and the funnel.

The alternative is a vertical-launch anti-ship missile (and, consequently, a replacement of Harpoon, which is both needed and desirable) or, much less attractive, the lack of anti-ship armament. I'm willing to rule this last option out: it would frankly be ridiculous to remove ASMs even from the frigates. I can accept that the main RN's anti-ship weapon is the submarine service, but this does not mean that we can/should do away with missiles on the (much more numerous) surface vessels.

The hangar seem to be single, and the volume of the superstructure suggests a large one is provided. As already reported a few times on this blog, it seems more and more likely that the Type 26 will have the same hangar of the Type 45 or an even larger one (note that the ship-boat spaces are positioned ahead of the hangar, which is potentially full-width as a consequence), which means 1 Merlin + drone(s) or up to 2 Wildcat helicopters.

The dog kennel mini-hangar, specific for drones, seems to have been abandoned, and this can only make me glad.

Such small "dog kennel" would rule out the possibility of ever operating 2 helicopters, while at the same time setting hard limitations to the size of UAVs to be developed and put in service. It felt, as soon as it was proposed, like a lose-lose solution. So the change is more than welcome.

Another surprise is the provvision, apparently, of no less than 3 davits. Stealth doors in the superstructure can be seen, identical to the boat spaces on the Type 45, arranged 2 on Starboard and 1 on Port side. This makes me wonder if the Flexible Mission bay under the flight deck has been sized down further during the latest updates. After all, with the capacity of the Flexible Deck being described as 4x 12-meters RHIBs, 3 more boats make for a really impressive number of hulls.
Not that this is a bad thing at all, but it makes me stop for a moment of thinking all the same.

I think it is highly unlikely, however, that the Flexible Deck has been abandoned entirely, because the Navy seemed really pretty keen on getting it, and because such a large, reconfigurable space is excellent for mission flexibility and for ensuring the vessel has plenty of growth margin for its service life, which by design will be no shorter than a long 30 years.

Wholly new is also the placement of the small caliber guns of the frigate: the two DS30M remotely-operated 30 mm guns are mounted high up on sponsons stretching out from the hangar's sides, and giving the guns unrivalled firing arches for excellent coverage.

Overall, this new design seems very promising, but it would be very great to hear some more details about the ship design. I hope that, soon, someone will provide us with some good info!

I've evidenced some things and made a few observations, using Paint.

The new images shown in the video seem to be a direct evolution of an earlier image shown at DSEI last year, which can be considered a midway step towards this latest design.

This image shown at DSEI is far closer to the latest design visible in the video than the early concept arts. Image from NavyRecognition.

The image showed the DS30M guns shown far back, but located low at flight deck level, but the superstructure design is already moving towards the latest lines in a very evident way. CIWS are not shown in this graphic, but the missile silos ahead are taking the shape that they have in the video.

Assuming that the general information in the graphic is still valid, core crew will be 115 plus up to 20 men for the aviation flight, with accommodation for 130 + 36. The rear mission bay is present, but unfortunately no data on its sizes is provided. The large hangar is confirmed by the specification of an embarked wing of a Merlin HM2 plus UAV, which can only mean a pretty wide and deep space even if, of course, we do not know the indicative sizes considered for the rotary wing UAV. At DSEI the RN received a proposal for a Gazelle light helicopter conversion into a UAV, though, so we might easily be looking at something pretty significant.

The graphic also contains precious info about propulsion: CODLOG, with two electric engines, one per shaft, feed by 4 Diesel Generators for cruise and by a direct drive Gas turbine for max speed.

A configuration similar to that of the french FREMM. CODLAG is almost certainly feasible, but apparently not favored, undoubtedly due to cost. Almost certainly it will be an option for export orders.

The Gas turbine could be a WR21, as on Type 45 (which has 2), or a more powerful MT30, as on CVF (2 per each carrier). I'd be inclined to indicate the WR21 as likely fit, considering the 5400 tons of the Type 26 current concept, but it is essentially speculation. MT30, would a more future-proof solution due to the greater power output, which would support service-life growth in the weight of the vessel.

buglerbilly

13-03-12, 01:06 PM

Minehunter's upgrade reaches major milestone

An Equipment and Logistics news article

12 Mar 12

The installation of two new engines marks a major milestone in the 12-month upgrade of Royal Navy minehunter HMS Chiddingfold.

A new Caterpillar C32 ACERT engine is carefully craned into HMS Chiddingfold during upgrade work being carried out by BAE Systems in Portsmouth
[Picture: Crown Copyright/MOD 2012]

The two new engines replace her old Rolls-Royce Deltics which have been used in the Royal Navy's minor war vessels for decades.

The work is part of a major mid-life upgrade of the Navy's eight Hunt Class minehunters being carried out by BAE Systems in Portsmouth.

The programme will enhance and significantly extend the lives of the eight ships, maintaining their position as some of the most capable mine countermeasures vessels in the world.

Work on Chiddingfold started in January with the removal of two sections of deck to allow access to the bowels of the ship.

With the engine room fully prepared for the new Caterpillar C32 ACERT engines they were carefully craned into the ship and onto their new mounts.

Lieutenant Peter Davis, the ship's executive officer, said:

"It is very exciting for us to see the new engines being put into Chiddingfold after months of preparation.

"She is the first of the re-engined Hunt Class minehunters and we are looking forward to putting this new system through its paces later this year to find out exactly how the ship will perform."

Mark Draper, BAE Systems Project Manager for the Hunt repropulsion programme, said as well as replacing engines the work also included fitting new gearboxes and propellers and an upgrade to the hydraulic bow thruster system.

Mr Draper concluded:

"Chiddingfold is the first of class for this project and we are learning a lot. The engine installation is a real milestone. The team is working hard and know there is a lot left to complete this challenging programme."

JKM Mk2

13-03-12, 02:48 PM

You know, from my point of view, HMS Astute doesn't seem to have particularly fine lines -lots of bumps and curves. I'm sure, from the reports given, this is not a problem. But it doesn't seem to be as 'clean' as I would have expected.

JKM

buglerbilly

13-03-12, 10:54 PM

Lockheed could accommodate UK reversal on F-35 variant

By: Craig Hoyle London

8 hours ago

Source:

A possible UK decision to reverse a variant switch on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter would not cause a problem for Lockheed Martin, according to one of the company's senior programme officials.

Speculation has mounted over recent weeks that the UK government could backtrack on its decision to shift its interest in the short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35B to the C-model carrier variant. The move was included as part of its Strategic Defence and Security Review of late 2010, but has prompted concerns over the costs involved with modifying the Royal Navy's future Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers with the required launch catapults and arrestor gear.

While deferring any comment on the likelihood of a reversal of the decision to the company's UK customer, Lockheed vice-president F-35 programme integration and business development Stephen O'Bryan says: "We have the [production] capacity if the UK went B. We are agnostic on the platform and our supply chain could handle a switch back."

In a statement, the UK Ministry of Defence says it is currently finalising its budget for 2012-13 and balancing its equipment plan. "As part of this process we are reviewing all programmes, including elements of the carrier strike programme, to validate costs and ensure risks are properly managed," it says.

Defence secretary Philip Hammond will announce the outcome of this process before Parliament's Easter recess starts on 27 March, but the MoD says the government remains committed to fielding a new carrier strike capability as part of its "Future Force 2020" plans.

© Aircraft Carrier Alliance
UK plans currently envisage introducing the carrier variant F-35C

Lockheed had originally expected to produce 14 F-35Bs this year, but this rate now stands at three following the US Department of Defense's decision to slow the variant's introduction. The STOVL aircraft had been placed on probation under the threat of cancellation, but this was lifted by US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta early this year following its strong performance during testing conducted in 2011.

Two F-35Bs are scheduled to be delivered in May 2012 to support the UK's involvement in US military-led initial operational test and evaluation of the JSF. Aircraft BK-1 and BK-2 will be flown to Eglin AFB in Florida to support this work. Under current plans, the pair will be followed in 2014 by an F-35C dubbed CK-1.

Meanwhile, O'Bryan says Lockheed has performed a preliminary design review to address an issue with the F-35C's arrestor hook design, after concerns were raised over its performance during previous trials. An improved system with a redesigned hook point and "hold-on damper" will undergo testing at the US Navy's Patuxent River site in Maryland later this year. The F-35C "will go to the boat in 2014, as scheduled", he adds.

buglerbilly

19-03-12, 09:55 PM

Government plans U-turn on aircraft carriers as catapult costs spiral

Defence secretary wants to switch back to version of Joint Strike Fighter ministers dismissed as more costly and less effective

Nick Hopkins

guardian.co.uk, Sunday 18 March 2012 16.54 GMT

Philip Hammond, the defence secretary. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, has recommended a U-turn on one of the most controversial proposals of the cost-cutting armed forces reforms, the Guardian has learned.

David Cameron will decide this week whether to agree to an embarrassing about-face involving the Royal Navy's over-budget aircraft carriers, which are under construction.

In the strategic defence and security review (SDSR), the prime minister insisted the carriers would have to be converted to include "cats and traps" to allow a version of the new Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) to be catapulted from the decks and caught by arrestor wires on landing. But the Guardian has been told the cost of the modification has spiralled out of control, to between £1.9 and £2bn.

With the "carrier variant" version of the JSF also beset by technical problems, the MoD has concluded the carrier programme could be delayed by at least another seven years – to 2027 – unless it abandons the plan.

Though he knows the U-turn will be humiliating for the coalition, Cameron has been told the best option is to switch back to another version of the JSF, which was ruled out in the review because it was likely to cost more and do less.

Having mocked Labour for earlier taking the "wrong" decision, the government will be taunted by the shadow cabinet if Cameron accepts the judgment of military chiefs that the MoD's losses should be cut now before costs balloon again.

"There will be short-term pain for the government, but in the long run, it is by far the best option," said a Whitehall source. "Adapting the carriers is skewing the defence budget out of shape, and there is every likelihood the costs will continue to rise. It has to be Cameron's decision, but the military advice is clear."

Hammond's sensitivity on the subject is acute; he has demanded a vow of silence from all senior MoD civil servants, who have been told not to speak to the media about any military equipment programmes without his authority before the budget for next year is approved.

A U-turn would be humiliating for Cameron and his deputy, Nick Clegg, who both signed off the SDSR. They were withering about Labour's decision to commit to the F-35B version of the JSF, an aircraft that could take off and land in a similar way to a Harrier jump jet.

Instead, they argued for the F-35C, saying it was the better aircraft and equipping the carriers with the accompanying catapults would make it possible for French and American aircraft to land on them too.

"The last government committed to carriers that would have been unable to work properly with our closest military allies," the document said.

"It will take time to rectify this error but we are determined to do so. We will fit a catapult to the operational carrier to enable it to fly a version of the JSF with a longer range and able to carry more weapons. Crucially, that will allow our carrier to operate in tandem with the US and French navies."

The SDSR also claimed the carrier version of the JSF would be cheaper in the long run, reducing "through-life costs by around 25%".

However, the National Audit Office expressed deep concern about the cost of fitting catapults. This expense contributed to the government's decision to deploy only one of the two carriers being built, with the second being put at "extended readiness" – in effect, mothballed.

If Downing Street sanctions the U-turn, it may try to blame the former defence secretary, Liam Fox, who championed the decision in the SDSR in September 2010.

The MoD hopes the savings from abandoning catapults could allow the second Queen Elizabeth class carrier to be put to proper use after all, sources said. However, that is not without its problems. One of the two is being fitted to take helicopters.

Jim Murphy, Labour's shadow defence secretary, said the government appeared to be in disarray. "This would be one of the biggest public procurement messes for many decades. David Cameron has potentially wasted more than a year and squandered millions. A combination of prime ministerial hubris and MoD incompetence has led to British military power being degraded."

Admiral Lord West, a former first sea lord and security minister, said: "I am slightly amazed at the costs of adapting the carriers, but if they are of that order then you can understand why they are considering this change.

"You have to make the best of a bad job. The navy wanted the capability of the carrier version of the JSF, but the other version is still a good aircraft. And if the navy gets a second carrier operational, then some good will have come of it."

An MoD spokesman said no decisions had been taken.

"We are currently finalising the 2012-13 budget and balancing the equipment plan. As part of this process we are reviewing all programmes, including elements of the carrier strike programme, to validate costs and ensure risks are properly managed. The defence secretary expects to announce the outcome of this process to parliament before Easter."

A senior defence source added: "Jim Murphy's comments are irresponsible and opportunist. It ill behoves him to talk about mismanagement of projects. Labour left a carrier programme that had ballooned in costs and made it more expensive to cancel the programme than to go ahead with it."

buglerbilly

24-03-12, 09:44 AM

Aircraft carrier costs will be half what you think, US tells ministers

The US Navy has intervened over the adaptation of a British aircraft carrier for a new generation of fighter jets, to assure ministers that the cost will be less than half the Ministry of Defence’s estimate.

A file photo of Harriers leaving Ark Royal Photo: ROYAL NAVY

By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent

8:00AM GMT 24 Mar 2012

Converting HMS Prince of Wales so that it can be used by the Joint Strike Fighter will require significantly less than the £2 billion quoted by officials, the assistant secretary of the US Navy, Sean J Stackley, insisted.

In a letter seen by The Daily Telegraph, he told Peter Luff, the defence procurement minister, that the necessary equipment would cost £458 million before installation. Defence experts estimate the installation cost at £400 million.

The letter was sent to Mr Luff before the Prime Minister met Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, at an emergency meeting about the carrier on Monday.

The carrier project has been overshadowed by cost and technical issues. In the Strategic Defence and Security Review of 2010, which scrapped Harrier jump jets, the Coalition opted for a conventional take-off and landing model of the new, American-built fighter instead of a jump-jet variant.

But ministers were on the point of changing their minds after MoD officials forecast that the cost of adapting a carrier to use the conventional planes would rise from £500 million to £1.8 billion.

Following the intervention by the US Navy, David Cameron has ordered a Treasury-led re-examination of the project.

The Major Project Review Group will submit a report on April 16 which it is understood will be considered by the National Security Council the next day.

The letter from Mr Stackley outlined studies concerning a sophisticated but untested catapult system to help aircraft reach take-off speed.

He reassured the British that the risks of the project, and of a new arrester wire system for deck landings, would be underwritten by the US, which is installing the system on one of its carriers. Mr Stackley ended by saying: “The department of navy is committed to supporting the success of the UK CVF (conventional carrier).”

The Americans sent the letter following tense meetings with British officials on the margins of Mr Cameron’s trip to Washington last week.

“They want to ensure that the information the British Government is working from is accurate because currently that quite clearly is not the case,” said a Whitehall source.

Two British carriers are being built, but one will be mothballed following the SDSR. Reverting to jump jets for both of them would not help American military planners, who want to be able to base a squadron of their own jets on a British carrier.

Separate accommodation is being built on board HMS Prince of Wales with communications facilities that would be for “US Eyes Only”.

There are also said to be technological concerns over the jump jet version of the fighter and the Americans might be positioning themselves to ditch it altogether.

“This letter could be a warning shot saying if you Brits go back to jump jet carriers then there might be no planes to fly off it,” said a defence source.

Richard Scott, of Jane’s Defence Weekly, said: “The trouble the Government has is in getting reliable cost data but at least the costs the Americans are giving are quite reassuring.”

An MoD spokesman said: “Work is ongoing to finalise the 2012-13 budget and balance the equipment plan. This means reviewing all programmes, including elements of the carrier strike programme.”

ARH v.3.1

24-03-12, 10:33 AM

What a monumental fuck up!

buglerbilly

24-03-12, 12:38 PM

Which one?

ARH v.3.1

24-03-12, 03:02 PM

All of the above, but the re-re-reversal on converting the carrier.

buglerbilly

26-03-12, 01:29 PM

£350m Nuclear Submarine Upgrade to Secure 2,000 UK Jobs

(Source: UK Ministry of Defence; issued March 25, 2012)

Babcock has won a £350 million contract to upgrade and refuel the Royal Navy missile submarine HMS Vengeance, one of four Vanguard-class SSBNs in British service. (UK MoD photo)

The future of 2,000 British jobs will be secured following the signing of a multi-million pound deal to upgrade one of the Royal Navy’s nuclear deterrent submarines, the Defence Secretary will announce today (26 March).

The £350 million contract to refit and refuel HMS Vengeance will be confirmed by Phillip Hammond during a visit to Devonport Dockyard in Plymouth on Monday morning. It will sustain more than 1,000 jobs at Babcock in Devonport, Plymouth, and a further 300 at other companies in the city. Such is the scale of the refit that another 700 jobs in the industrial supply chain across the UK will also be sustained.

HMS Vengeance is one of the UK’s four Vanguard class submarines, designed to carry the UK‘s Trident nuclear missiles. Together they form the backbone of the UK’s continuous at-sea nuclear deterrent.

The upgrade is expected to take three and a half years – clocking up a total of 2.5 million man hours. It will involve a complete overhaul of equipment on the submarine as well as the installation of improved missile launch equipment and upgraded computer systems.

A new reactor core – the energy source that powers the 15,000 tonne vessel – will also be fitted meaning that HMS Vengeance will be able to operate until the end of her remaining operational life without having to refuel again.

Announcing the HMS Vengeance refit contract during a visit to Devonport Dockyard, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said:

“As well as securing 2,000 UK jobs, this contract will ensure the nuclear deterrent submarine fleet can continue to operate safely and effectively to maintain a continuous at sea deterrent. As we stabilise the defence budget we are increasingly able to commit to equipment projects to safeguard the UK’s National Security.

“Devonport Dockyard is at the heart of maintaining and supporting the Royal Navy and I am pleased that such a large number of jobs will be protected.

”Our White Paper published earlier this year said we would support key sovereign capabilities in British companies that help us to protect our national security and this contract with Babcock is evidence of that commitment.”

Work on HMS Vengeance will begin in the next few weeks. She is the last of the four ballistic submarines to undergo a complete overhaul and refuel. Her sister vessel, HMS Vigilant, recently completed her upgrade and is due to depart Devenport for sea trials on Tuesday 27 March.

The Royal Navy’s newer submarines are designed so that they never need to be refuelled.

Rear Admiral Simon Lister, Director of Submarines for the MoD, said:

“This contract marks the final phase of what has proved to be a very successful programme of refuelling our fleet of nuclear submarines. The highly sophisticated nature of the work involved in the deep maintenance of these magnificent vessels is testament to the experience and skills of the workforce here in Devonport and those in the supply chain across the UK.”

Even though this is the last time a complete refit will be carried out, the submarine dockyard at Devonport will continue to carry out regular maintenance on all of the Vanguard class to ensure they operate safely and effectively.

-ends-

buglerbilly

29-03-12, 10:22 PM

HMS Vigilant sets sail after refuel and upgrade

An Equipment and Logistics news article

29 Mar 12

Royal Navy submarine HMS Vigilant sailed from Plymouth on Tuesday, 27 March, after nearly three-and-a-half years undergoing work to replace her nuclear fuel and to upgrade key areas.

HMS Vigilant leaves Devonport Dockyard, with HMS Ocean astern
[Picture: LA(Phot) Joel Rouse, Crown Copyright/MOD 2012]

HMS Vigilant was taken in hand by Babcock in 2008 and is the third Vanguard Class submarine to undergo a long overhaul period and refuel at Devonport. She moved out of dry dock in November 2011 to conduct final reactor commissioning and crew training prior to departure for sea trials in April.

Commander Mark Lister, the Commanding Officer of HMS Vigilant, said:

"It has been a huge privilege to have worked with the dedicated and highly skilled members of the joint project team that have delivered HMS Vigilant back to the Royal Naval fleet to such a high standard.

"The relationship forged between Babcock Marine, the Ministry of Defence's Defence Equipment and Support, Rolls-Royce and the submarine's staff, as well as the suppliers and contractors that have supported them, has prospered during the natural significant pressures present during this technically complex long overhaul period and refuel.

"The submarine's crew and I are excited to be taking HMS Vigilant to sea for the first time in three-and-a-half years and we are looking forward to seeing how she performs on her extensive sea trials. As I leave Devonport today, the whole of 'team Vigilant' should be justifiably proud of a job well done."

HMS Vigilant, assisted by tugs, passes Plymouth Hoe on her way out to sea
[Picture: LA(Phot) Joel Rouse, Crown Copyright/MOD 2012]

As one of the Ministry of Defence's most complex projects costing over £300m and consuming 2.5 million man-hours of work, HMS Vigilant has been refuelled using a Rolls-Royce-designed upgrade to her nuclear reactor which will power the submarine to the end of her life.

Additionally, around 80 major design improvements have been incorporated, including significant enhancements to strategic and combat weapon systems and sensors that will ensure the submarine remains highly capable to meet the exacting demands that will be placed on her during her next commission and fulfil her vital role in national defence.

HMS Vigilant witnessed the development of a joint project team and close working relationships between the Defence Equipment and Support organisation, Babcock, Rolls-Royce, submarine staff and a myriad of companies, including many Plymouth area businesses, that have provided specialist technical support.

The joint project team is now focused on finalising the comprehensive sea trials programme that will support delivery of the submarine to the Royal Navy in June this year. This will be followed by intensive sea training by the staff of Flag Officer Sea Training to forge the crew and submarine into a single operational team.

buglerbilly

10-04-12, 01:52 PM

IN FOCUS: Why the UK's carriers will not be 'airfields at sea'

By: Peter Collins

2 hours ago

Source:

Stick or twist? That is the choice facing UK defence secretary Philip Hammond, who is poised to announce a decision on the future of the nation's carrier strike ambitions and choice of embarked combat aircraft.

The main issue to be decided is whether to keep faith with a decision made in late 2010 to switch allegiance from Lockheed's short take-off and vertical landing F-35B to the manufacturer's C-model carrier variant. Attributed at the time to a desire to acquire the stealthy aircraft in its "more capable, less expensive and longer-range" version, the act has had massive cost implications for the Royal Navy's future aircraft carrier programme at a time of severe budget-tightening.

Studies continue to determine the likely price of adapting one or both of the UK's future carriers to accommodate an electromagnetic launch system and arresting gear to support operations with the F-35C, but the possibility of Hammond soon approving a switch back to the STOVL aircraft appears a real one, given his determination to balance the Ministry of Defence's finances.

© Peter Collins/Flightglobal
The USS Stennis carries in excess of 70 aircraft at any one time

By the time of the first vessel's introduction, the RN will have lacked an operational "large-deck" carrier for more than 40 years since decommissioning the Audacious-class HMS Ark Royal, and the service by no means underestimates the challenge faced in regaining such a capability.

Flight International test pilot Peter Collins had a rare chance to witness fixed-wing operations at close hand in late February, when he spent seven days on board the US Navy's Nimitz-class aircraft carrier the USS John C Stennis (CVN 74). He joined the vessel as Carrier Strike Group 3 made its way home across the Pacific at the end of a seven-month tour of duty in the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea, from where it had provided air support to coalition forces in Afganistan and Iraq.

EXPERT OPINION

Collins - a former military fast jet pilot and test pilot with past experience on the Harrier GR3, Sea Harrier FRS1 (on HMS Illustrious) and the UK's experimental VAAC Harrier, built to aid the development of the F-35B's flight control laws - used the opportunity to assess whether a flat-deck aircraft carrier could be considered an "airfield at sea", and in any way compare to the operations of a land-based, air force wing.

His visit was also intended to highlight some of the challenges that the RN and Fleet Air Arm will face as they prepare to introduce future carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, particularly if the F-35C is retained.

© Peter Collins/Flightglobal
Test pilot Peter Collins onboard the USS Stennis

Collins's hosts were the USN's VFA-14 "Top Hatters" squadron, which flies the single-seat Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet and is commanded by Cdr Kevin McLaughlin. Other elements of Carrier Air Group (CAG) 9 were a squadron of two-seat F/A-18Fs and two squadrons of F/A-18C Hornets, which together made a force of more than 40 attack aircraft. Also on board were individual squadrons of Northrop Grumman EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare, Northrop E-2C Hawkeye airborne early warning and control and C-2A Greyhound cargo delivery aircraft, plus Sikorksy MH-60R Seahawk anti-submarine warfare and MH-60S plane guard helicopters. In all, the air group totalled in excess of 70 aircraft and operated as a self-contained expeditionary air wing.

With a total crew of over 5,000, the Stennis is nuclear powered and displaces over 100,000t, making it much larger than the UK's 65,000t Queen Elizabeth-class ships. It has four side lifts rising from the hangar to the flight deck, an angled deck at the port waist and four steam-powered catapults: two at the bow and two at the angled deck.

LANDING SPACE

But for all its total size, the carrier's angled deck, with four arrestor wires, only measures 786ft (240m) in length and 114ft in width between the painted side "foul lines". From the stern "round down" to the first arrestor wire is 170ft. The arrestor wires are spaced about 40ft apart, with the number three wire being the target that any pilot will aim to catch. A typical approach speed for a mid-weight F/A-18E/F is 140kt (259km/h) indicated air speed, flown at an 8.1˚ angle of attack (AoA).

Aircraft, ground equipment and deck personnel are parked/positioned on both sides of the angled deck landing area and just outside the foul lines. The proximity of landing aircraft to potential obstructions is swiftly apparent, with a Hawkeye's wingtip only 4ft inside the foul line when landed precisely on the deck centreline.

The mechanics of arresting a high-speed fast jet on a deck landing area that is typically less than one-tenth the length of a conventional runway also impresses, particularly as it requires a pilot to catch a wire accurately from a precisely flown approach onto a pitching, heaving and rolling deck. A landing aircraft must also be cleared beyond the foul line and the deck prepared to accept the next arrival within just 55sec.

With aircraft being positioned after landing, others being readied for the next launch and more being armed or moved between deck and hangar, the organisation of the air group around the carrier requires an extraordinary level of co-ordination and control. The hangar space, although large and unobstructed along its length, appears akin to a labyrinth full of aircraft with overlapping wings, tailplanes, rotor blades and propellers, and with maintenance crews working within very confined spaces.

© Peter Collins/Flightglobal

The choreography of air group support on the vessel's deck sees personnel work within "coloured vest" specialisations to direct aircraft to taxi within inches of each other and the deck edges. They also operate quickly and smoothly across a flight deck surface live with jet intakes and exhausts, turning propellers, extending and retracting arrestor cables, operating catapults, open armament and aircraft lifts and many other potential dangers. Their ability to do so is the product of hard-earned experience, strict adherence to procedures and the currency of unbroken operations. This normal deck tempo was maintained during a 12h uninterrupted shift over a six-day week, for up to two months at a time without a break.

The carrier, meanwhile, must co-ordinate its launch and recovery operations with escorting vessels to negate surface, sub-surface and above-surface threats, maintain navigational integrity with regard to obstacles or territorial borders and avoid weather that could compromise flight operations. These factors add layers of operational complexity not encountered by an air force base or station headquarters.

MANUAL LANDINGS

Landing guidance in poor weather or at night can be provided by the advanced carrier landing system, which datalinks information from the ship, or the older antenna-based instrument carrier landing system, and with aircraft using the options of autopilot or auto throttle coupling, if so equipped. But since these auto-systems do not have the same levels of multiple redundancy found in civilian commercial aircraft, they cannot be relied on operationally and cannot always compensate for deck movement. As a result, the great majority of landings are still made fully manually, placing critical importance on the ship's Landing Signals Officers (LSOs), known colloquially as "Paddles".

Each LSO team of around four to six personnel works as a fully integrated unit. Some of these look exclusively at the aircraft, while others view the deck to ensure that it is not fouled. They are backed up by a system of deck lights and radio calls from the Flying Commander, or "Air Boss", to "gate" the landing aircraft at the 100ft and 10ft "wave off" heights. Airspeed, angle of attack and pitch attitude of an aircraft, along with its height on crossing the round down point, are all critical to the landing hook accurately engaging the number three wire.

Using this system, the LSO team will see approach problems developing externally before the pilot recognises them, and give instant correction instructions to improve landing accuracy, safety and pilot confidence.

For the pilot, meeting a landing slot and matching fuel planning requires ongoing calculation throughout the flight, and especially during extended strike sorties, unlike when making a direct recovery to a land base as a singleton or as part of a small battle formation.

Aircraft are recovered into a vertical "stack" above the ship as per standard operating procedures, which place the F/A-18C lowest and E-2C highest. An individual Super Hornet is normally stationed above the stack to act as a tanker, but its fuel offload is limited and could not hope to cover a strike package numbering over 20 aircraft, or if the air group was in the mid-Atlantic with no diversion airfields available.

KNOWLEDGE RETENTION

The "push down" of aircraft within the stack as others descend or break over the ship and turn to land is decided and conducted by the pilots themselves, without radio transmissions or direction from any shipboard air traffic control.

Tactics, latest intelligence on threat systems and weapon employment recommendations across the squadrons are standardised across the navy's carrier air groups through the service's Fighter Weapons School (still nicknamed "Top Gun") via monthly updates. The USN's squadron structure also ensures that corporate knowledge of aircraft and tactics is properly interwoven and self-sustaining.

© Lockheed Martin

Both represent vital functions that the re-configured Fleet Air Arm will need to build, into its future fixed-wing strike fleet organisation.

Establishing a large deck carrier capability with US-style complexity cannot be 'worked up' by using helicopters as an initial option. This means that a decision to keep with the F-35C and converting at least one of the RN's Queen Elizabeth-class ships could be ably supported by using an interim fixed-wing type, most probably leased.

Such a requirement could come down to a straight choice between the F/A-18E/F or Dassault's Rafale M, with the latter considered due to the UK's strengthened military co-operation with France. Both are affordable and capable multi-role aircraft which are available and flying operationally from carrier decks today, and could fill any gap in capability should the F-35C be delayed further. A first Fleet Air Arm pilot has already gained combat experience in flying the single-seat Super Hornet from the Stennis. Others will also take similar exchange posts with the USN, while more are due to fly the Rafale under a recent agreement.

A decision to revert to the STOVL F-35B would pose more of a challenge, with the UK having already retired its Harrier GR7/9 fleet and sold the surplus aircraft to provide spares for the US Marine Corps.

The recruitment and training of all of the specialist carrier air group trades will be a massive future undertaking for the RN, but also the key to allowing its carriers to function effectively, safely and at the correct operational tempo.

It is vital that the UK does not try to reinvent the wheel in reintroducing its languished carrier strike mission from around 2020; it should instead use the template that the USN provides and read this experience across almost directly.

Even in peacetime the expeditionary ethos of the USN's carrier air group is almost totally different to that of a land-based air wing, and also far removed from the RN's previous small and STOVL-optimised carriers, the last of which, HMS Illustrious, will remain in use as a helicopter assault ship through 2014.

Regardless of the aircraft that will be flown from their decks while in service, the UK's future large carriers will bear almost no similarity to a base on land, and any attempt to label them as "airfields at sea" would be mistaken.

buglerbilly

10-04-12, 02:04 PM

Next Steps for Warship Construction

(Source: British Forces Broadcasting Service; posted April 10, 2012)

The "largest and most powerful warship" ever built for the Royal Navy is beginning to take shape as two massive sections of HMS Queen Elizabeth were joined together today.

It took around 90 minutes to move a 4,087-tonne section of the hull of the aircraft carrier 328ft (100m) via 132 remote-controlled transporters to join another section of the ship at BAE Systems' Govan Shipyard in Glasgow. Engineers will now spend the next week ensuring that the sections are perfectly aligned before welding them together into a 263ft (80m) long, 11,500-tonne section.

Project director Steven Carroll said today marked a "major milestone" in the construction. He said: "It's the largest and most powerful warships we've ever built for the Royal Navy. They are 65,000 tonnes, so about three times the size of our present 'invincible' class and these ships will be the flagships for the nation for years to come.

"It's another chapter in a rich history of ship-building on the Clyde and it's a major engineering endeavour and one that we should be proud of as a nation that we can deliver major and complex programmes in the way that we are at the moment."

Mr Carroll said up to 14,000 people are working on the project in terms of the construction, design and manufacturing and supply of materials.

The hull section in Glasgow, which will house two engine rooms, a medical area and accommodation, will now be fitted out before being transported to Rosyth in the autumn to join up with the other sections of the ship which have been constructed in Portsmouth.

The ship is due to be completed by 2016, with another aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, following later. The ships are being delivered by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, a partnership between BAE Systems, Thales UK, Babcock and the Ministry of Defence.

Each of the carriers will be utilised by all three sectors of the Armed Forces and will provide a four-acre operating base which can be deployed worldwide, and will be able to be used in battle and to provide humanitarian aid and disaster relief.

-ends-

buglerbilly

10-04-12, 02:32 PM

BMT Isis Validates Approach Channel Design for New QE Class Aircraft Carriers

08:58 GMT, April 10, 2012 BMT Isis Ltd, a subsidiary of BMT Group Ltd, has announced the completion of its latest project to validate BMT’s design for the Portsmouth Approach Channel, a design conceived to ensure that the Royal Navy’s new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales can transit safely into and out of their home base at HMNB Portsmouth.

Having developed the design for Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) six years ago, as well as completing initial validation work using desk-top simulation and peer review involving RN navigation experts, it was necessary to provide final validation. BMT utilised a full-mission simulator working in real-time with RN navigation experts in a realistic bridge environment.

Working closely with the DIO and the Royal Navy, BMT provided the necessary computer model results, data handling and analysis for the study at the Navigational Training Unit of HMS Collingwood’s Maritime Warfare School. On completion, the RN personnel were happy with the proposed channel design and satisfied that it would allow the safe arrival and departure of the aircraft carriers at Portsmouth. Final validation was therefore complete.

Ian Dand, Principal Consultant at BMT Isis comments: “Our particular role was to help the Royal Navy better understand how the vessels are likely to handle at low speeds and ensure the navigational process can be conducted as effectively as possible. We defined the necessary parameters and tailored the simulator accordingly, so that the navigational characteristics of the aircraft carrier could be reproduced. This allowed the navigators to better understand the topography of the new channel, what aids to navigation were required and where they need to be placed, thereby improving confidence in the proposed Approach Channel design.”

Julian Lockett, Development and Marketing Director at BMT Isis explains: “BMT’s involvement in this prestigious project dates back to the concept design phase with the selection of BMT’s ship design having been a core element. We were delighted to have the opportunity to provide our expertise and knowledge of navigational safety to both the DIO and the Royal Navy and deliver an improved channel. Furthermore, by providing a tailored simulation facility, we have been able to assist in the planning of the navigational challenges associated with the transit of the QE Class, which will be an important aid to navigator familiarisation and training in the future.”

BMT Group has extensive experience in providing world leading navigational services to support ship safety and port terminal developments through innovative software solutions such as BMT ARGOSS’ PC Rembrandt system, a highly accurate, capable and flexible alternative to Full Mission Bridge (FMB) marine simulators.

buglerbilly

12-04-12, 11:12 AM

Huge sections of new Navy carrier joined together

An Equipment and Logistics news article

11 Apr 12

One of the two biggest warships ever built for the Royal Navy has taken another step towards completion with the joining of two huge sections.

Aft-section block LB04 of future Royal Navy carrier Queen Elizabeth on the move in Govan yard
[Picture: Aircraft Carrier Alliance]

In a two-hour operation this past weekend, one section was moved from a large ship hall at BAE Systems' Govan yard, on the Clyde at Glasgow, to join the other part of Lower Block 04, built in a neighbouring hall just 100 metres away.

Block 04 is home to the two main engine rooms, the sick bay and quarters for some of the 1,500 sailors and air group personnel who will serve on the ship.

Together the two sections comprise one fifth of Queen Elizabeth, the first of two 65,000-tonne super-carriers being built for the fleet.

This weekend's operation involved 132 remote-controlled transporters moving 4,000 tonnes of steel.

The transporters moved the two parts to within five centimetres of each other. Workers will spend the coming few days closing the gap, precisely aligning the various units and compartments before welding the sections together.

Queen Elizabeth carrier sections come together
[Picture: Aircraft Carrier Alliance]

Once fully fitted out, the completed block will weigh 11,000 tonnes and form the aft section of the carrier. It is the largest section of the ship, at 86 metres long, 40 metres wide and 23 metres tall – so large that it juts out of the ship hall.

Steven Carroll, Queen Elizabeth Class Project Director at BAE Systems, said:

"Bringing together Lower Block 04 marks the beginning of an exciting stage in the block's life. Once the link up is complete, the team will shift their focus back to the outfitting of the block, including installing 12,000 pipes and 100,000 kilometres of cables, ahead of her departure to Rosyth later this year."

That departure is due in the autumn; this block will be the last hull section of Queen Elizabeth to arrive on the Forth and will join the other units and sections of the ship in dry dock where she is being assembled.

At Govan, work also continues on the mid-section of the second ship, Prince of Wales. Since the first steel was cut on this section in May last year, over 80 units of LB03 are currently in production.

Half a dozen yards around the UK are involved in the carrier project, with some 10,000 people directly or indirectly involved in building sections, parts or providing equipment for what will be the largest ships ever built for Britain's Navy.

Future Royal Navy carrier Queen Elizabeth's aft-section block LB04 on the move in Govan yard
[Picture: Aircraft Carrier Alliance]

At BAE's sister yard in Portsmouth, the final work is being carried out on Lower Blocks 05 and 02 for Queen Elizabeth.

Block 05 leaves for Rosyth the end of the month, 02 in May – but before they leave the construction shed and are lowered on to a barge, they have to be weighed.

Carefully-positioned hydraulic jacks and sensitive load cells convert force into an electrical signal which in turn is translated into an accurate measurement of the block's weight.

Paul Bowsher of the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, the combined BAE-Thales-Babcock and MOD Defence Equipment and Support team working on the huge project, said:

"Getting the weight and centre of gravity right is really important when it comes to arranging for sections to be safely lifted – or moved by barge. We weigh each section at least three times to make sure the readings are accurate."

buglerbilly

26-04-12, 02:31 PM

BMT Confirmed as Sub-Contractor for MARS Tanker Project

Maritime Afloat Reach & Sustainability (MARS) tanker. (Photo: BMT Defence Services Ltd)

Two for the RAN please, NOW is the time to do a deal.................

14:40 GMT, April 25, 2012 BMT Defence Services Ltd, a subsidiary of BMT Group Ltd, has announced that it has been confirmed as a sub-contractor for the Royal Navy's MARS (Military Afloat Reach and Sustainability) Tanker project, supported by sister companies, BMT Reliability Consultants Ltd and BMT Isis Ltd. The four new logistic support vessels will be built by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME), to be operated by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA).

The MARS Tanker build contract is worth an approximate GBP452 million, with UK based firms benefiting from associated contracts including the provision of key systems and equipment. Three of BMT Group's defence subsidiaries will work together with DSME to deliver the project.

Having developed the winning AEGIR® vessel design under its own R&D funding, Bath based BMT Defence Services Ltd will lead and coordinate the BMT work, and make a central contribution that includes the delivery of the complete Basic Ship Design which will lead to Plan Approval. Through its extensive experience of working with the UK MoD, BMT Defence Services is uniquely positioned to provide a range of project management services to the prime contractor, DSME, which will include requirements analysis and acceptance planning, oversight of specific UK factory trials and technical documentation support.

BMT Reliability Consultants Ltd based in Fareham, will assist in the development of a robust and cost effective Integrated Logistics support solution for the vessels. It will apply its extensive experience and understanding of UK MoD and Royal Fleet Auxiliary/Royal Navy practices and procedures and provide specialist services including the management, assessment and optimisation of the Supportability, Availability and Reliability of the vessels.

BMT Isis Ltd will provide assurances that the ships are safe in accordance with MoD standards, as well as UK and international legislation through the production of a Whole Ship Safety Case for the MARS Tankers. As well as developing a comprehensive Hazard Log covering all aspects of ship operation, BMT Isis will conduct a comprehensive environmental assessment of the ships including an inventory of hazardous materials. This essential contribution will both reduce project and regulatory risk and help the MoD to maximise the versatility of the vessels in performing its global role.

David Rainford, Sector Director for Defence at BMT Group said: "BMT's involvement in this project reinforces our world-class reputation in design and engineering, not just through the winning design, but the vital support we'll continue to provide throughout the project. This is a great achievement and reinforces the significant role SME's will play in powering the UK economy out of current difficulties. Despite the current austere outlook for UK defence spending we believe the future is bright for BMT and UK design and knowledge businesses with strong opportunities for growth – the very definition of a British success."

buglerbilly

28-04-12, 01:32 AM

Via UK Armed Forces Commentary........

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Type 26 Update: new BAE video

Once again, not very showy and not very good in quality, but there's a new Type 26 video from BAE, released at DSA 2012 in Malaysi,a and it seems to prove some of the good spotters on this blog right: there's a VLS silo in the funnel. This new video shows it well. Its sizes seem to match the main missile silo, which could mean as many as 24 cells.

Congratulations to the several readers who saw it already in the first video i reported: for how much i tried, i personally struggled to see it, but this new video seems to definitely confirm that something's up there.

Hard to imagine the RN finding the money to put VLS in there when they have difficulties funding the main silo, but we at least know that the design offers this chance. Other highlights: the helicopter hangar door is single (no dog kennel as we all hoped) but, to me, it looks a bit narrow. A single, large hangar is a fundamental requisite for helicopter + UAV operations, so i'm hoping in an hangar at least as large as the Type 45's one.

Published on Apr 23, 2012 by NavyRecognition

BAE Systems has released in early 2012 pictures of an updated design for the Type 26 Frigate Global Combat Ship. The 360 degree view of the new design was unveiled during DSA 2012 in Malaysia.

Original design: http://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.navyrecognition.com%2F inde...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10NEdVi5S5g

A question still to be answered is that of the Flexible Mission Deck. Is it still present? The Royal Navy's Yearbook 2011/12 reports that yes, it is still present. Then again, it still shows the old Type 26 photos. BAE's Global Combat Ship webpage is just about as up-to-date regarding images, though, so it might very well not mean that the info is out of date.
As i wrote in the recent article on the Navy's yearbook, the publication reports, about the Type 26:

The yearbook confirms that the Flex Mission Deck is present. Probably sized, according to BAE data, to take up to 11 standard containers or 4 12m boats.

The yearbook also tells us of the current preferred propulsion option, which is for a CODLOG solution on 4 diesels connected to two large electric motors, generating cruise speed as high as 18 knots, with a direct drive gas turbine for sprints of minimum 26 knots.

Other options have been/are considered, including an integrated all electric solution or a wholly diesel one.

In terms of weapons fit, the yearbook is quite clear about the RN's want to fit the Type 26 with a new medium calibre gun, capable of firing long range, precision guided ammunition. It is very much the identikit of the Oto Melara 127/64 with Vulcano ammunition, especially since the BAE 127/54 rival has been badly damaged by the US cancellation of the guided ammunition meant for it.

Fitting TLAM long range land attack missiles is "subject of further studies" (read: we are trying to get money for it, won't be easy), but regardless of the decision on TLAM it remains the RN's ambition to have the Type 26 fitted at build with a large VLS silo (24 cells) in which land attack missiles and the future anti-ship missile would be carried.

The Type 26 frigate is to "reverse" the Type 45 situation (20% of technology carried through, 80% new kit) by de-risking most of its mission system thanks to the Type 23 mid-life upgrade program.

Type 26 will inherit from the Dukes the Type 997 radar (Artisan 3D), the Type 2087 towed sonar (8x) and its command system will be a derivation of the current DNA(2)/CMS-1.

The adoption of proven, in-service kit for almost 80% of the ship's systems is meant to keep costs and risks down, as there is no margin for error in this crucial program.

Unicorn

06-05-12, 05:53 AM

BMT Confirmed as Sub-Contractor for MARS Tanker Project

Maritime Afloat Reach & Sustainability (MARS) tanker. (Photo: BMT Defence Services Ltd)

Two for the RAN please, NOW is the time to do a deal.................

My understanding is that Navantia have made a proposal to the RAN / ADF for two Cantabria class AORs on the same model as the Canberra class, build in Spain, fit out in Australia, to replace Success and Sirius. with an option for a third.

It would probably be a damn good deal, but it would require a number of people in both the grey sponge and in the house on the hill to think beyond the next budget cycle.

Unfortunately that's not going to happen.

.

buglerbilly

06-05-12, 02:01 PM

My understanding is that Navantia have made a proposal to the RAN / ADF for two Cantabria class AORs on the same model as the Canberra class, build in Spain, fit out in Australia, to replace Success and Sirius. with an option for a third.

It would probably be a damn good deal, but it would require a number of people in both the grey sponge and in the house on the hill to think beyond the next budget cycle.

Unfortunately that's not going to happen.

.

Next Government? Not too many months to go now...........and I sincerely doubt the Spanish can match the Koreans for price/tonne

buglerbilly

09-05-12, 12:53 PM

About-turn on new variant of carriers’ fighter plane

David Cameron has approved a major retreat over aircraft for the Royal Navy’s new carriers, abandoning plans to buy the conventional take-off version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

U.S. Navy variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the F-35C Photo: GETTY

By James Kirkup, Deputy Political Editor

6:20AM BST 09 May 2012

Also posted in the F35 thread in the Airwarfare section........posted here for continuity........

Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, will tell MPs tomorrow that the Government will now purchase the jump-jet model of the plane instead, reversing one of the central decisions in the Coalition’s controversial defence review.

The Prime Minister’s National Security Council yesterday considered Mr Hammond’s plan, which will be announced to the House of Commons.

Mr Hammond will claim the decision will save hundreds of millions of pounds and help the Armed Forces. But he will face accusations of a climb-down driven by financial miscalculation.

The decision to buy the conventional take-off “C-variant” of the F-35 was at the heart of the Strategic Defence and Security Review in 2010.

Deploying the aircraft would require modifications to the new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers to install catapults and landing gear.

The Ministry of Defence originally estimated the cost of that work at around £400 million, but internal MoD projections now put the figure at closer to £2 billion.

Mr Hammond told The Daily Telegraph this week that, since the defence review, “the facts have changed” on the choice of planes for the new carriers.

Attempting to balance the defence budget after years of overspending, Mr Hammond yesterday told Cabinet ministers that the rising cost should lead to the catapult plan being abandoned.

The Daily Telegraph earlier this month disclosed a secret Ministry of Defence paper showing military planners considered the jump-jet to be less useful and powerful than the conventional variant.

Despite the embarrassment of overturning the decision, ministers will argue that the change could bring some military benefits to the UK. In particular, buying the jump-jet could mean the next generation of carriers is ready to sail

The decision to install catapults on the new carriers was expected to delay the arrival of the new vessels until at least 2020. Delays in completing the conventional variant plane could have pushed that date back to 2023 or even later, leaving the UK without a working aircraft carrier for at least a decade.

By contrast, the development of the jump-jet fighter is proceeding more smoothly than expected, meaning the aircraft could be ready to fly from the new carriers as early as 2018.

Adopting the jump-jet could also allow the Navy to have two operational carriers. Under the review, one of the new carriers is to be mothballed to save money.

Downing Street confirmed a statement on the carrier programme was imminent.

buglerbilly

09-05-12, 10:41 PM

U.K. Will Revert to STOVL F-35

May. 9, 2012 - 01:02PM

By ANDREW CHUTER

The U.K.’s first F-35 Lightning II jet made its inaugural flight April 13 from Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth facility. The U.K. has decided to return to the F-35B after switching to the F-35C in 2010. (Lockheed Martin)

LONDON — The British government is set to announce it has changed its mind for the second time in two years on the type of Joint Strike Fighter it wants to operate from the deck of its new aircraft carriers.

The Daily Telegraph reported today that the Conservative-led coalition government decided at a National Security Council meeting yesterday to reverse the U-turn it ordered in 2010 and switch back to the F-35B short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing (STOVL) version of the JSF to equip at least one of the two 65,000-ton aircraft carriers being built for the Royal Navy.

An announcement is expected in Parliament by Defence Secretary Philip Hammond on May 10.

The decision, which has not yet been confirmed by the MoD, will cause huge embarrassment to the government after Prime Minister David Cameron told Parliament in 2010, as part of a strategic defense and security review, that Britain would opt for the F-35C conventional carrier version of the jet built by Lockheed Martin.

Cameron told Parliament that the previous Labour government had made the wrong decision opting for STOVL and that the F-35C was more capable, less expensive, had a longer range and was able to carry more weapons.

The Ministry of Defence, though, forgot to adequately consider the cost of converting one of the Queen Elizabeth-class carriers to be able to launch conventional takeoff aircraft using catapults and arrestor gear.

Hammond, who was not the defense secretary at the time of the defense review, told the Telegraph earlier this week the facts had changed on the choice of aircraft.

Expected conversion costs are said to have risen dramatically to approximately 1.8 billion pounds ($2.9 billion), with the British looking to fit the new electromagnetic launch system being developed for the U.S. Navy to one of the warships.

The cash-strapped British decided that only one of the two carriers being built by a BAE-led industrial alliance would be converted to cats and traps with the other warship either being mothballed or sold off, leaving the British without a carrier presence at sea for long periods.

The converted carrier would have started flying operations around 2020.

The switch back to the ramp-launched STOVL could mean the British are able to mount a continuous carrier operation if the second of the Queen Elizabeth-class vessels is mothballed but available for extended readiness.

The F-35 force will be jointly used by the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. The British had originally intended to buy 150 aircraft, but that figure has been whittled down. It is no longer clear how many and over what period the aircraft, in which industry here has a substantial stake, will be acquired.

buglerbilly

10-05-12, 11:14 PM

It’s Official: U.K. To Switch Back to STOVL F-35

May. 10, 2012 - 10:39AM

By ANDREW CHUTER

LONDON — The British government has confirmed it will revert to the F-35B short-takeoff, vertical-landing version of the Joint Strike Fighter to equip aircraft carriers being built for the Royal Navy.

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond announced in Parliament that the plan to purchase the F-35C carrier variant had been axed due to what he said was unacceptable cost growth and delays in the plan to convert a carrier to handle the conventional takeoff variant.

Hammond said the estimates for converting one carrier had doubled from the original figure of 1 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) to 2 billion pounds.

A senior defense source laid part of the blame for that cost growth at the door of the U.S. government.

The source said U.S. insistence that the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch Systems (EMALS) be purchased through a government-to-government foreign military sales (FMS) deal rather than directly from manufacturer General Atomics, as the British preferred, accounted for around “150 million pounds, about 7 percent,” of the increase in conversion costs.

“The U.S. wanted FMS while we had assumed purchase from the manufacturer … it was their strongly preferred option,” said the source. Senior defense sources said the Ministry of Defence had spent about 40 million pounds conducting design work to convert a carrier to operate the U.S.-developed electromagnetic system to launch the F-35C from the deck of the carrier.

The MoD said it will face some exit costs from the conversion work that are still being negotiated, plus the cost of installing takeoff ramps on the two aircraft carriers. Combined, the estimated total figure of the F-35C conversion is up to 100 million pounds.

The STOVL aircraft, to be used by the U.S. Marine Corps, is now off probation at the Pentagon, as risks have lessened and the U.K. now has greater confidence in the program, he said.

Without the switch back to STOVL, other defense capabilities would have had to be cut to accommodate MoD budget constraints, said the source.

Doug Barrie, the senior air analyst at the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London, said the move smacked of short-term financial expediency.

“The return to the B-model appears financially driven, with the U.K. willing to trade the better range and payload performance of the F-35C to avoid the increasing cost of modifying a carrier with cats and traps. The shift, only 24 months after it selected the F-35C in one of the key choices of its Strategic Defence and Security Review, raises questions as to how the SDSR decision was reached in the first place, and how quickly some of the assumptions have proved to be ‘wrong’. The ability to introduce the second carrier into service is obviously welcome, though at present this is only an ambition and will be dependent on SDSR 2015, and the broader economic environment,” he said.

The previous Labour government originally opted to purchase the STOVL version to fly off two 65,000-ton carriers being built for the Royal Navy, but that decision was overturned in favor of the F-35C by the Conservative-led coalition government in a rapidly constructed strategic defense review in late 2010, just months after it entered office.

At the time, Prime Minister David Cameron cited greater interoperability with U.S. and French aircraft carriers and a cheaper aircraft with longer range and greater capability as the reason for the change.

The MoD said in a statement it was still committed to interoperability, but the “emphasis now is much less on being able to fly our aircraft off U.S or French aircraft carriers and vice versa, but more on ensuring that our carrier strike capability can integrate with allies forces in joint or coalition operations.”

The MoD said the key issue with France was to ensure that “between us we always have one operational, for example, providing cover for each other during refit periods.”

The British are now trying to downplay the superiority of the C variant.

A second senior defense source said the change back to the STOVL aircraft would not impact the weapons load the British plan to carry on the aircraft and many of the missions conducted by the STOVL aircraft would require inflight refueling anyway.

The government also said in 2010 it would forgo having the ability for a continuous presence at sea, and on cost grounds would convert only one carrier to use the catapults and arrestor gear required to launch the Joint Strike Fighters, mothballing or selling off the second warship.

Under that scheme, the Royal Navy, which will operate the jets jointly with the Royal Air Force, would have had a carrier at sea for no more than two-thirds of the time.

Now, with no cats and traps conversion costs, it is holding out the prospect of having a continuous presence with the second carrier able to provide capability while the first vessel is in maintenance.

The MoD admits there is no decision on budgeting for the crew or support for a second carrier and said no decision will be taken until the next Strategic Defence and Security Review planned for 2015.

The first defense source said the design changes required for the conversion had turned out to be more invasive and complicated than expected, with 290 major modifications required to compartments on the warship rather than the 80 compartments originally expected to be affected.

Hammond said that sticking with the F-35C would have delayed getting the carrier strike force into service of at least three years, to 2023.

An MoD spokeswoman said the delay was sparked by a number of issues, including complexity of EMALS and the extent the warship needed to be reconfigured to accept the system.

Under the new plan, the first of class Queen Elizabeth will start sea trials in 2017, with the first F-35B test flights timed for 2018 and an initial operating capability two years later.

That was more or less the plan for the F-35C-equipped carrier except under the scheme hatched by then Defence Secretary Liam Fox and his government colleagues, Queen Elizabeth would have been mothballed or sold off with the second carrier, the Prince of Wales, converted with catapult and arrestor wires to operate the F-35C from around 2020.

The defense source said the plan was to continue the schedule for building the Prince of Wales ahead of going for sea trials in 2020.

Defending the 2010 decision, Hammond, who was not defense secretary at the time, said that the move to the F-35C had been right at the time of the defense review but “the facts have changed and therefore so must our approach.”

The defense source said the decision to switch to the F-35C was reasonable at the time and refused to acknowledge the government should have done more detailed calculations before making the decision, not after.

Jim Murphy, Labour’s shadow defense secretary, condemned the government’s move, saying the carrier policy was in disarray.

“The government’s chaotic carrier policy totally undermines their credibility on defense. This is a personal humiliation for David Cameron,” he said.

“This is a strategically vital element of the equipment program on which our security and thousands of jobs depend, and yet ministers have treated it with hubristic incompetence, wasting hundreds of millions of pounds at a time of painful defense cuts.

“We need a plan to restore Britain’s power and prestige at sea, which was so damaged by the discredited defense review, and there are crucial questions on cost and capability ministers must answer,” said Labour’s shadow defense minister.

pdf27

11-05-12, 07:26 AM

The first defense source said the design changes required for the conversion had turned out to be more invasive and complicated than expected, with 290 major modifications required to compartments on the warship rather than the 80 compartments originally expected to be affected.
That's the version I heard too - EMALS turned out to be a lot bigger than anyone thought it would, causing major redesign work and meaning in practice it wouldn't be possible to convert QE without a massive rebuild for which there isn't going to be the money. Which leaves us with the choice of 2 STOVL carriers or 1 CTOL carrier and an oversized, poorly optimised LPH.

buglerbilly

12-05-12, 11:47 AM

France: U.K. F-35 Pick Could Reduce Naval Cooperation

May. 11, 2012 - 01:42PM

By PIERRE TRAN

Charles DeG cannot take F-35C BUT it can take F-35B as long as you put the relevant fire/heat protection on the deck.........the B burns a lot hotter than the nozzle output of the Harriers.............

PARIS — France regretted the prospect of reduced cooperation with the British fleet air arm following London’s selection of the F-35B short-takeoff, vertical-landing version of the Joint Strike Fighter, and hoped collaboration would continue, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

“We’ve taken note of the United Kingdom’s decision to choose the F-35B vertical-takeoff fighter plane, to the detriment of the F-35C catapult takeoff plane,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said May 11.

“This decision may limit our cooperation in naval aviation, which we regret. We trust that this decision, which the British government says is based on budgetary constraints, will not call our cooperation in the naval aviation sector into question,” Valero said.

Naval aviation was one of many elements of collaboration, and close cooperation will continue between London and Paris, French officials said.

The French reaction came after an announcement the day before by British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond of a planned order of the F-35B over the conventional C model for the Royal Navy’s two new carriers, in an effort to avoid high costs and long delays.

Fitting the U.S.-made catapults and arrestor gear for one carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, would cost 2 billion pounds ($3.2 billion), double the amount needed to fit the ship out to accommodate the F-35B short-takeoff variant.

London had previously decided to ship the F-35C, opening up the prospects of cross-deck operations with the French Navy, which operates Rafale and Super Etendard fighters off the carrier Charles de Gaulle. The British F-35B can land on the French carrier, but the Royal Navy ships will lack the catapults and arrestors to operate the Rafales and Super Etendard.

In France, the British U-turn drew wide press coverage, headlining a missed chance for interoperability between the two fleet air arms.

The afternoon daily Le Monde gave full-page coverage to the F-35 fighter program, and quoted from point 9 of the 2010 Lancaster House defense cooperation treaty, which referred to the capability to deploy an integrated Anglo-French naval aviation attack force.

For the French Navy, a British carrier offering cross-deck operations held out the hope of flying a handful of Rafale fighters from the HMS Prince of Wales while the Charles de Gaulle went into dry dock for its periodic six-month overhaul.

And closer cooperation with a British carrier force would have balanced the close ties with the U.S. Navy, where French Navy pilots are sent for carrier training.

One of the questions hanging over cross-deck flights was whether the British Navy F-35C would have been too heavy to land on the Charles de Gaulle. Now, that question seems purely academic.

buglerbilly

12-05-12, 12:10 PM

CDS explains reasons for changes to Joint Strike Fighter capability

An Equipment and Logistics news article

11 May 12

Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir David Richards has written in today's Daily Telegraph why the MOD's decision to use the short take-off and vertical landing variant of the Joint Strike Fighter to deliver the UK's Carrier Strike capability is the right one. Here follows the full article.

A short take-off and vertical landing B-Variant of the Joint Strike Fighter hovers over the deck of US amphibious assault ship the USS Wasp during trials (stock image)
[Picture: Lockheed Martin]

Military command is about taking difficult decisions in changing and challenging circumstances. Over the 40 years I have had the honour to serve in the Armed Forces, I have consistently found that such decisions demand both vision and courage. The change of course over our carrier programme announced this week certainly required both. It was not easy, but it is right.

It is worth explaining why I, and my fellow military chiefs, proposed this move. Carriers are expensive - there is no way around that. But they offer a capability that few can match: an independent, flexible, sovereign base, not tied to other countries' wishes, that can operate around the world.

By choosing the short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) model of the Joint Strike Fighter over the Carrier Variant that we had previously ordered for our two new aircraft carriers, the UK is significantly shortening the time it will take to deploy our maritime air power.

For me, this is the key factor. We are getting an exceptional military tool that is capable of projecting power, deterring our enemies and supporting our friends. In an uncertain world, this is a capability that I know we all wish to have sooner rather than later.

General Sir David Richards
[Picture: Harland Quarrington, Crown Copyright/MOD 2010]

It is worth understanding why this change is necessary. Two years ago, we looked at the facts we had, and made our decisions. They were right at the time, and based on the best information available. But since the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), some important things have changed.

The more cutting-edge aspects of the carrier jet programme proved very difficult to cost accurately. What we were told in 2010 has changed.

We had an opportunity to put this right, and it has been taken.

Contrary to the criticism levelled at the Ministry of Defence in the past, when the facts changed, our decisions did too.

The reasons why it was right to do this are clear. First, the improvements to the STOVL aircraft since the SDSR are impressive. Once a troubled project on probation, it has now demonstrated its capabilities, flying more than 900 hours. This reduces the danger of complications and cost increases that we feared in 2010.

Second, we could not operate the previous aircraft from a British carrier before 2023 at the earliest. By choosing STOVL aircraft, we have removed the risk of further delays, giving the UK a powerful carrier strike capability years earlier than would otherwise be possible.

Afterburner blazes as a short take-off and vertical landing B-Variant of the Joint Strike Fighter practises full-power take-offs (stock image)
[Picture: Lockheed Martin]

Stretching the gap in carrier capability any further is neither desirable nor necessary.

Third, the costs of converting carriers to operate the Carrier Variant have increased by over £1bn, and may rise further. This raised the prospect of this vital capability being unaffordable - or of having to take money from other key programmes.

Whilst it is true that the Carrier Variant offered greater range, this is not a crucial advantage - given our major investment in air-to-air refuelling - when weighed against the greater time to bring it into service, and the increasing cost. The balance has tipped back in favour of STOVL, which has distinct advantages of its own, such as versatility and agility.

Switching to STOVL means we are getting an outstanding capability sooner, for less financial and technical risk. It also gives us the ability to operate two carriers if we choose, a decision that the next SDSR will review.

Managing the Carrier Strike programme is as complex and demanding as the maritime and air environments in which these ships operate. They are not just mobile flight decks, but among the most capable intelligence and targeting tools in the world.

A short take-off and vertical landing B-Variant of the Joint Strike Fighter takes off from the USS Wasp during trials (stock image)
[Picture: Lockheed Martin]

Both the Carrier Variant and the STOVL aircraft represent a generational shift from the jets that we use today. Through their computer technology, stealth and communications they are more capable than their ship- or land-based predecessors. They are cutting-edge, multi-role platforms fit for the battlespace of the 21st century.

They can both carry the full range of weapons we intend to buy.

The bedrock of successful combat capabilities is Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance. This allows us to understand, track, strike and remain poised to react to the unexpected. It is this capability that ensured our success in Libya.

The Joint Strike Fighter increases it immeasurably.

This fifth-generation aircraft is a weapons system unmatched by our rivals, and will be an integral part of the package we offer our friends and allies - not least the French, with whom we have developed such a close relationship, and the Americans, who have been and will continue to be essential partners in developing our new capability.

Yesterday's decision guarantees that we will have a hard-hitting carrier capability up to five years sooner than looked likely. The advice of the Chiefs of Staff is clear: this is the right decision for the Armed Forces, and the right decision for Britain.

pdf27

12-05-12, 01:31 PM

The decision places France in a more interesting place. As noted elsewhere on the site, Charles De Gaulle is getting older, and previously co-operation had been built on the idea of jointly providing CTOL carriers working in a more co-operative manner. The French will now have to consider not only how they source a future carrier, but more importantly work out in the medium term what will fly from it? At some point soon work will need to begin to identify Rafales successor. It seems fair to suggest that no country, not even the USA, could afford the costs of building a national carrier strike aircraft alone. The decision today means that the French will need to consider in the medium term how their carrier force is going to work. Already the French are a part time carrier navy, and this availability is only going to get worse as CDG gets older. The loss of a UK CTOL platform is going to place huge pressure on the French defence budget to source a new hull, and successor aircraft in a similar time frame to when the SSBN replacement is likely to be due. There will be difficult decisions ahead for Paris.
http://thinpinstripedline.blogspot.co.uk/

The chap who writes that is a civil servant working in the MoD and so gets to see a great deal of this stuff from the inside. He does have a fair point about CdeG - it's been afloat for nearly 20 years now, and the Rafale won't be around for ever.

ADMk2

12-05-12, 03:54 PM

Er, the Super Hornet was built by America alone wasn't it? Which part of the F-35C isn't being designed in the US and couldn't be produced there if necessary?

pdf27

12-05-12, 04:04 PM

I think he's saying the costs are getting so high that it wouldn't happen, rather than it being impossible. F-35C is being cross-subsidised by other countries plus the US air force.

India has also come out with a naval version of the LCA IIRC, so it certainly isn't impossible. Whether the French can afford to produce a suitably advanced carrier aircraft by themselves is pretty doubtful though...

buglerbilly

12-05-12, 04:13 PM

Via UK Armed Forces Commentary..............

http://ukarmedforcescommentary.blogspot.com.au/

Type 26: propulsion and mission bay

The by-now well known 2012 design for the Type 26 had caused debate on this blog already from the release of the first, very short, video, when we noticed the two large doors for boats on a side of the superstructure, an uncommon arrangement that immediately caught the eye.

The suspect, that appears to be confirmed, albeit not officially, is that the mission bay of the frigate has been relocated amidship, into the superstructure, in an arrangement adjacent to the helicopter hangar.

This is probably due to the reduction in sizes of the vessel, which started as a well over 6000 tons giant of roughly 150 meters and went down to 5500 tons and 141 meters.

The difference might not seem dramatic at first, but it is very significant, and it is likely to have made complex, if not impossible, to fit a meaningful mission bay in the hull, under the flight deck. The presence of the mission bay in a shorter hull was likely to affect the design and push the flight deck up, an undesirable development that can affect rough-weather helicopter operations.

One of the most interesting designs proposed in the Future Surface Combatant history, the FC65 frigate, which was to be capable of over 35 knots of speed among other things, had a mission deck 40 meters long and 12 wide, with stern ramp, but the ship was around 150 meters long and 6600 tons. It is clear that, if the ship goes smaller, solutions have to be different.

So the Type 26 is now likely not to have a stern ramp for boats, but will instead probably fitted with the "grabber" arm used on the Type 45.

HMS Daring's "grabber" crane

The mission bay in the superstructure is not a new concept either. It appeared already during the endless effort for the Future Surface Combatant programme, and was an important part of the Thales C2 concept and of the F2020 frigate design they showed in 2006/07.

Online, not much material is left of that stage and design proposal, but thankfully, the excellent Navy Matters website comes to our aid, and thanks to Richard Beedall's hard work, we still have this very interesting graphic:

Image courtesy of Navy Matters - we miss you and your wonderful work, Navy Matters!

This modular mission bay space, adjacent to the helicopter hangar, goes probably very close to the concept behind the current Type 26 design shown by BAE.

We can only estimate sizes of the reconfigurable space, and try to guess its configuration. From the BAE videos, knowing that the current Type 26 lenght is 141 meters, i've tried making a few rough estimates.

The mission bay is likely to be a prosecution of the hangar, and could stretch over 26 meters in lenght past it, at least on the starboard side, where there's two boat doors. On Port side, the bay could be shorter, and stop at 14 meters or so past the hangar. The presence of the funnel means that the mission bay is not full width for all its lenght, but for probably around 14 meters or so past the end of the hangar.

The hangar has probably two storage/maintenance areas to its sides, which can be considered part of the mission bay. I've drawn a quick sketch schematics to depict the (possible) general outline of this important part of the vessel.

Quick and awful sketch showing the possible general outline and arrangement of spaces in the hangar / mission bay

Regarding the propulsion, barring dramatic changes that for now are not on the horizon, the CODLOG configuration seems by now the chosen path, with 4 High Speed Diesel engines connected to two electric motors driving the 2 shafts while cruising at up to 18 knots speed, with a single gas turbine in direct drive, used for sprints of speed over 26 knots.

I had been earlier wondering what gas turbine would eventually be fitted: WR-21 like on the Type 45, or MT30 like on CVF, LCS and Zumwalth DDG-1000?

According to Warship Technology, the answer is probably MT30: Rolls Royce is working on its top-class gas turbine to design a "compact" variant, which is seen as a leading contender for the propulsion of Type 26, in addition to being a Rolls Royce instrument for gaining an even greater foothold on the international market, beating General Electrics competition. The MT30 compact, in fact, is smaller (although over 30 tons in weight) and fits in the same spaces of the GE LM2500 turbine which powers ships such as the FREMM frigates: a clear attempt of Rolls Royce to further erode GE's market share.

MT30 package, mechanical drive configuration. - Rolls Royce

The MT30 produces 36 MW of power at 38° C and 40 MW at 15° C, while being also able to maintain efficiency even when reducing the output at 25.5 MW.

In its current form, it comes in a package weighting 27.8 tons, 8.56 meters long, 3.540 meters wide and 3.32 meters high.
The LM2500 is a bit smaller (22.7 tons, 2 meters width, 2.4 meters height) but only arrives to 35.3 MW in its latest version, and the MT30 is just at the start of its growth.

Rolls Royce aims for export successes by qualifying the MT30 Compact to civilian standards so to avoid export regulations, particularly US ones. Japan and the US themselves, for the Arleigh Burke destroyers of the future Flight III and eventual future batches, are seen as possible customers.

The Type 26 could get a propulsion package with MTU high speed diesels and the Rolls Royce gas turbine, offering excellent performances and some commonality with the CVF's own propulsion plant.

buglerbilly

14-05-12, 10:28 PM

U.K. May Overhaul Management of Carrier Program

Change Would Follow Return to STOVL F-35

May. 14, 2012 - 09:35AM

By ANDREW CHUTER

The lower block of a Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier is assembled. (BAE Systems)

LONDON — Britain’s Ministry of Defence is considering changes to the way the construction of the Royal Navy’s 65,000-ton aircraft carriers is run, according to defense sources.

An independent team of senior executives and others appointed by the Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) arm of the MoD have been working for months on recommendations to sharpen the focus in the way the 5 billion-pound ($8 billion) program is managed once the integration and test phases get underway, they said.

The indication of possible changes comes days after the government reverted to an earlier plan to operate F-35B short-takeoff, vertical-landing variants of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter on the carriers and abandoned its 2010 decision to use the catapult-launched F-35C.

The source said the changes being contemplated by DE&S bosses are primarily aimed at management structure requirements as the program moves from bolting the carrier modules together to requirements for controlling costs and schedules as the warships enter the integration and test phases.

The program to build the two biggest warships ever constructed in Britain is being run by a joint industry/MoD team known as the Aircraft Carrier Alliance (ACA).

BAE Systems, Babcock, Thales UK and DE&S are members of ACA and provide high-level executives to the alliance management board.

Creation of the innovative alliance strategy was announced in 2003, with the aim of exploiting the resources and strengths of the participants to agree on performance targets. Part of the arrangement means the partners will share in the benefits if they reduce costs.

It is unclear at this stage just what changes are being recommended, but it is believed they do not advocate a fundamental overhaul of program management.

An MoD spokeswoman said the work is a “routine internal review of the procurement and project control processes in place on the [Queen Elizabeth]-class project to ensure they are suitably efficient and robust to allow us to deliver this complex project on time and to cost.”

An increasing number of the modules that make up the warships, many weighing thousands of tons, are arriving at Babcock’s Rosyth yard in Scotland from shipyards around the British coast.

By the end of this year, virtually all of the modules for the first of the two Queen Elizabeth-class warships will be available for assembly at Rosyth.

The first warship is expected to be handed over to the Royal Navy in early 2017 for sea trials, with flying expected to begin in 2018 and an initial operating capability in 2020.

Switching Planes

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond told Parliament on May 10 that the plan to purchase the F-35C had been axed due to what he said was unacceptable cost growth, and delays in the plan to convert one of the two carriers to be able to operate the catapult-launched variant of the fighter.

The previous Labour government originally opted to purchase the STOVL version of the aircraft to fly off the carriers. But that decision was overturned in favor of the F-35C by the new government in a rapidly assembled defense and security review in late 2010, months after it entered office.

Hammond said the estimates for converting one carrier had doubled from the original figure of nearly 1 billion pounds to 2 billion pounds.

A senior defense source said part of the cost growth came from a decision that the electromagnetic aircraft launch and recovery system (EMALS) be purchased through a government-to-government foreign military sale rather than directly from U.S. manufacturer General Atomics, which is what the government preferred. That accounted for around “150 million pounds, about 7 percent” of the increase in conversion costs, the source said.

The source added that sticking with the F-35C would have delayed getting the carrier strike force into service for at least three years, to 2023.

An MoD spokeswoman said the delay was sparked by a number of issues, including EMALS’ complexity and the extent of the reconfiguration needed to accept the system.

Hammond said the MoD had spent around 40 million pounds conducting design work to convert a carrier to operate the electromagnetic system to launch the F-35C.

Total costs of the now aborted move to the F-35C, including some payments to General Atomics, will approach 100 million pounds, Hammond said.

The government has been criticized for rushing the decision in 2010 before it had sufficient data on the likely cost and time implications of switching jet variants.

Hammond, in justifying the move back to STOVL, said the facts had changed since the 2010 decision.

Those include the U.K.’s greater confidence in the F-35B, to be used by the U.S. Marine Corps, because it has been taken off probation by the Pentagon and risks were reducing.

Without the switch back to STOVL, other defense capabilities would have had to be cut to accommodate budget constraints, he said.

The government also said in 2010 it would forgo having the ability for a continuous presence at sea, and on cost grounds it would convert only one carrier to use the catapult and arresting gear required to launch F-35Cs, mothballing or selling off the second warship.

Now, with no conversion costs for cats and traps, the country is holding out the prospect of having a continuous presence, with the second carrier providing capability while the first vessel is in maintenance.

The MoD admits there is no decision on budgeting for the crew or support for a second carrier, and said the next strategic defense and security review planned for 2015 would decide the issue.

Doug Barrie, the senior air analyst at the International Institute of Strategic Studies here, said the move smacked of short-term financial expediency.

“The return to the B-model appears financially driven, with the U.K. willing to trade the better range and payload performance of the F-35C to avoid the increasing cost of modifying a carrier with cats and traps,” he said.

The shift, 18 months after selecting the F-35C, raises questions as to how the 2010 decision was reached, and how quickly some of the assumptions have proved to be “wrong,” Barrie said.

“The ability to introduce the second carrier into service is obviously welcome though, at present, this is only an ambition, and will be dependent on [the] 2015 [review],” he said.