HMS/M Dreadnought SSN101

New UK Frigate Proposals Coming Together

BAE Systems is finishing proposals to build a new generation of frigates for the Royal Navy and has begun delivering details of the bid to the British Defence Ministry ahead of a decision expected by the end of the year, company officials said.

 

The Royal Navy is looking to acquire 13 of the Type 26 frigates for a total of roughly £4 billion (US $6.6 billion), with the first of the warships expected to be delivered starting late 2021 to provide what will eventually become the backbone of the fleet out to around 2060.

The warships will replace the Royal Navy’s aging Type 23 fleet.

 

“Initial documents to support the business case for Type 26 have been submitted. The process is underway but not finalized yet. We expect that to be complete by the end of the summer,” a BAE spokeswoman said.

BAE is concluding a four-year, £150 million assessment phase on the Type 26 this year and hopes to get the development and build phase approved in order to start cutting metal in 2016.

 

The 6,000-ton Type 26 is primarily intended for anti-submarine warfare, but the design gives the Royal Navy the versatility that is essential given its small number of surface combatants — 13 Type 23 frigates and six Type 45 destroyers.

 

“We are planning for a class of 13 ships, but this will be confirmed at the main investment decision, which is expected towards the end of 2014,” an MoD spokeswoman said.

 

BAE’s proposals are based on a 13-ship fleet, but Jeff Searle, the company’s program director, told reporters on June 3 that he “expected a phased commitment” by the MoD.

 

During a parliamentary debate in December, defense procurement minister Philip Dunne said there would be an initial order for eight Type 26s, but the MoD spokeswoman last week would not comment on whether that remained the case.

 

Dunne told Defense News in a recent interview that getting the Type 26 build program under contract was one of his priorities ahead of the general election in May 2015.

That’s a view BAE would echo, industry executives said.

 

The Type 26 deal is one of several planned major defense equipment investments that the government is attempting to get approved ahead of the election, a strategic defense review and potentially further defense spending reductions all threatening to impact the sector next year.

 

More immediately, though, is the question of exactly what effect, if any, an upcoming Scottish independence referendum vote might have on naval construction programs here.

 

Opinion polls are showing a majority in favor of remaining part of the UK, but a “yes” vote on Sept. 18 can’t be ruled out.

 

Independence would likely seriously impact the timing of approval and number of hulls for a Type 26 program, which is slated to be built at BAE’s surface warship yards in Glasgow, Scotland.

 

The British government has consistently said Royal Navy warships have to be built in the UK.

 

That point was reiterated Aug. 12 when Britain’s new Defence Secretary Micheal Fallon announced that a £348 million deal with BAE for three ocean-going patrol vessels would continue in Scotland only if voters reject independence.

 

“UK warships are only built in UK shipyards,” Fallon said in a statement.

 

The government options to build surface warships elsewhere appear somewhat limited. BAE is in the throes of closing its other UK surface warship yard at Portsmouth, southern England, as part of a major downsizing in build capacity.

 

That leaves BAE’s nuclear submarine building facility at Barrow-in-Furniss and a small yard run by Babcock International as the only two operations working on naval orders south of the border.

 

Babcock’s Appledore yard in southwest England is building the second of two 90-meter offshore patrol vessels ordered by the Irish Naval Service.

 

BAE is proposing updating its Scottish shipbuilding capabilities, but that also depends on the outcome of the referendum.

 

The favored option is a £200 million investment in the Scotstoun yard on the Clyde and closure of the nearby Govan facility, but a dual-yard approach is also on the table.

 

The BAE spokeswoman said a decision on the investment proposal is expected toward the end of the year, with the update work beginning next year.

 

The first of the new 90-meter patrol vessels will be delivered to the Royal Navy in 2017, with all three warships handed over by the end of 2018.

 

The warships are destined to undertake operations in home waters as well as globally in roles conducted by frigates and other larger vessels such as anti-piracy, counterterrorism and anti-smuggling.

 

The intent to purchase the warships was announced by the British government in November.

 

In part, the patrol vessels are being constructed to fill the gap in work between completion of two aircraft carriers now being built for the Royal Navy and the start of the Type 26 program.

 

Under an earlier business agreement with BAE, the government would have had to pay for shipyard workers to effectively sit around do

ing nothing until the Type 26 program gathered construction momentum later in the decade.

 

The future of the three relatively new River-class offshore patrol vessels that the new patrol warships will replace will be decided by next year’s strategic defense and security review.

 

Larger than the River-class vessels deployed by the Royal Navy for fisheries protection and other duties in home waters, the new warships will be capable of landing AgustaWestland’s Merlin helicopters and have more room for embarking personnel.

 

BAE said the new warships, adapted from a design already in service with the Brazilian and Thai navies, will have a range of 5,500 nautical miles, be globally deployable and capable of ocean patrol.

 

Britain's High-Tech New Plan to Rule the Waves

The Royal Navy is in the midst of a radical reboot—and that’s on top of the secret edge they’ve got on every other fleet.

 

After too many years of hearing senior U.S. Navy officers gripe about budget cuts and political interference, it’s refreshing to hear a flag officer sounding optimistic.

 

Britain’s First Sea Lord—the Royal Navy’s senior officer—is Sir George Zambellas, educated as an aeronautical engineer, a helicopter pilot by specialty and a confessed “antisubmarine warfare guy.” He was in Washington late last month, in part, on a mission to boost the Royal Navy’s capabilities, which former defense secretary Bob Gates had casually trashed in a British radio interview this year.

The Royal Navy, Zambellas said, “is seeing signs of expansion—which is a really weird place to be.”

 

Including its new aircraft carriers, the evolving Type 26 Global Combat Ship—a Swiss Army knife of a warship for antisubmarine warfare and a multitide of other missions—and a forthcoming replacement for its ballistic missile submarines, the navy will have half of the U.K. military’s procurement budget for buying weapons by the early 2020s. The Royal Navy has been through much deeper cuts than any U.S. service—only now, Zambellas warns, is the U.S. Navy facing a switch from “outcome-led to resource-led” planning. That’s a polite way of saying that the U.S. military is going to have to live in the budgetary climate that other nations have had to deal with for the past decade or two.

 

As noted here a few weeks ago, U.S. leadership in military technology is no longer taken for granted worldwide. One of Zambellas’ most interesting comments was a personal observation from a U.S. Navy commander following an exercise with one of Britain’s new Astute nuclear attack submarines—“the most advanced in the world,” according to Zambellas.

 

“How the hell did you do that again?” the American officer said. “That’s really annoying.”

“That,” in this context, almost certainly refers to the achievement of a new level of stealth. The Cold War-era catchphrase among antisubmarine warfare (ASW) operators was: “If you can’t hear anything, it’s either a diesel-electric or a British nuke.” Key technologies like pumpjet propulsion (which slashes noise at high speed) came out of the U.K. in the 1980s and did not reach the U.S. fleet until the late 1990s.

 

Zambellas stresses cooperation rather than competition. It is a point of pride that the U.S. and U.K. are teamed on the development of the Common Missile Compartment for the next generation of ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs). At an operational level, an increased emphasis on interoperability that started some years ago, in the Persian Gulf, is producing results: One of the Royal Navy’s newest surface combatants, a Type 45 anti-air-warfare destroyer, “is operating as an integral part of the U.S. carrier task force,” Zambellas says, noting the significance of the fact that the U.S. Navy “is comfortable enough to allow its premier asset to be protected by a U.K. ship.”

 

The Type 45 is also the vehicle for the U.K.’s contribution to ballistic missile defense, which has hitherto been a wide-open gap in national capability. Zambellas confirmed that HMS Daring, the first-of-class Type 45, took part in BMD exercises in the Pacific early this year, with a focus on looking at the economics of the operation. “You have to be very careful not to create the most expensive weapon in the world” to counter simple missiles, he said.

 

The new carriers are primarily designed to join coalition operations, Zambellas says. (The near-unanimous view in the Royal Navy is that next year’s defense review will set a date for the second carrier to join the active fleet.) Together with SSBNs and BMD, carriers are the navy’s strategic assets that belong under national control, Zambellas said.

 

Zambellas has one major strategic concern: In just over a month, on Sept. 18, Scotland will vote on independence. “If you ever find yourselves with a naval attaché from Scotland, you’re in serious trouble,” he joked to the Washington audience. Asked about contingency planning for a Yes vote, he responded: “I feel the hand of a parliamentarian on my shoulder—so, no, we’re not doing any contingency planning and it isn’t going to happen.” But he adds seriously and carefully: “The Royal Navy and Marines are closely matched to their current strategic tasks, with no spare capacity.” The loss of Scottish bases would have “a disproportionate” impact on efficiency, he said. 

 

The R.N. has critical assets in Scotland: the SSBNs are based at Faslane and their missiles and nuclear warheads are handled and loaded at Coulport, close by. The carriers are being assembled at Rosyth, which has the only naval dry dock in the U.K. that can accommodate them for repairs or maintenance. Also in the Navy’s sphere: if the Royal Air Force, as expected, restores its maritime patrol capability, its most northerly base in England is more than 200 miles from the North Atlantic than RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland.

 

Sea warfare and land warfare are interdependent, as a study of Nelson’s wars will tell you: Nelson and his fellow admirals fought many battles to take control of seaports or neutralize forts that threatened their movement. The Scottish referendum could underline that lesson.

 

 

After an exercise with one of Britain’s new nuclear attack submarines, a U.S. Navy commander had a simple question: “How the hell did you do that?”

BAE Systems' Artisan radar installed on frigate - Artisan, a new 3D radar system from BAE Systems, is being installed on Royal Navy Type 23 frigates.

BAE Systems is singing the praises of its medium-range 3D surveillance radar that can monitor more than 800 objects simultaneously.

 

The system is called Artisan and was developed for Britain's Type 23 frigates but can be used on other Royal Navy vessels as well. It has now been installed on the frigate HMS Iron Duke as part of a scheduled refit.

 

"We are playing a key role in helping the fleets of the future evolve to meet the ever-changing demands of the battlespace, creating technology solutions that are quicker, lighter, more resilient and easier to implement than ever before," said Rory Fisher, managing director of BAE Systems Maritime Services.

 

"We are tremendously excited by the successful installation of Artisan on HMS Iron Duke, which marks a significant milestone in the wider program and we're proud of our continuing partnership with the Royal Navy and the role we are playing in delivering first-class radar performance."

 

BAE Systems says Artisan can detect an object as small as a tennis ball travelling at three times the speed of sound from more than 15 miles away. It is made out of lightweight carbon glass fiber materials and can be fitted onto a vessel in three weeks.

Nuclear submarine to get new core after test reactor problem

Low levels of radioactivity have been discovered in the cooling waters of a nuclear submarine test reactor at Dounreay, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has said.

Mr Hammond told MPs that no leak had occurred and said there were no safety implications for staff working on the site, or risks to the environment.

But, as a result, HMS Vanguard is to be refuelled with a new nuclear core at a cost of £120m.

The problem was discovered in 2012.

Labour criticised the government for not announcing the information earlier, calling it a matter of "national importance".

'Below scale'

Although the news is only being made public now, the Ministry of Defence says the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the defence nuclear inspectorate were kept informed.

Mr Hammond said the Vulcan Naval Reactor Test Establishment ran at higher levels of intensity than those on Britain's fleet of nuclear submarines and was designed to pre-empt any similar problems with the reactors on board those vessels.

The defence secretary said: "These low levels of radioactivity are a normal product of a nuclear reaction that takes place within the fuel but they would not normally enter the cooling water.

"This water is contained within the sealed reactor circuit and I can reassure the House there has been no detectable radiation leak from that sealed circuit.

"Indeed, against the International Atomic Energy Agency's measurement scale for nuclear-related events this issue is classed Level 0, described as 'below scale - no safety significance'."

The refuelling of HMS Vanguard - the UK's oldest nuclear submarine - will take place during its next scheduled "deep maintenance period", due to last three and a half years from 2015.

'National security'

Mr Hammond said: "This is the responsible option: replacing the core on a precautionary basis at the next opportunity, rather than waiting to see if the core needs to be replaced at a later date which would mean returning Vanguard for a period of unscheduled deep maintenance, potentially putting at risk the resilience of our ballistic missile submarine operations."

Mr Hammond said a decision on refuelling the next-oldest submarine, HMS Victorious, would not need to be taken until 2018.

New submarines for the Trident replacement programme, known as the Successor submarines, will not be affected by the problem, he added.

For Labour, shadow defence secretary Vernon Coaker said the government should have told the Commons earlier about the fault.

He added: "There must be public confidence in the government to be open and transparent on these matters.

"A fault, however small, that develops in a nuclear reactor is something that the British people and this House should have been told about. This is an issue of national security and national importance."

 

The Poseidon adventure: China's secret salvage of Britain's sunken submarine

A new book details how Mao's navy raised the wreck of HMS Poseidon, which went down with the loss of 21 lives in 1931

 

When the British submarine HMS Poseidon sank off China's east coast 82 years ago after colliding with a cargo ship, the dramatic underwater escape by five of its crew members made headlines around the world.

 

But the episode was soon overshadowed by the communist insurgency already raging on the mainland, the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, and eventually the outbreak of the second world war. The world moved on, the wreck of the Poseidon lay 30 metres beneath the sea, lost to history.

 

Until now. A new book reveals that China secretly salvaged the submarine in 1972, perhaps to abet its then-incipient nuclear submarine programme.

 

Steven Schwankert, an American author and diving-company owner in Beijing, spent six years obsessively piecing together the submarine's story; his book about the experience, Poseidon: China's Secret Salvage of Britain's Lost Submarine, was released this month.

 

"When you start something like this, you say I'm going to start at point A and end at point B. Then suddenly you realise that point B doesn't exist, so you have to go to point C," said Schwankert. "The challenge wasn't to find the submarine per se, but to prove that the story of the salvage was correct."

 

Although Schwankert never found the exact reasons behind the salvage, he has a few guesses: perhaps fishing nets were getting caught on its periscope, or China, then deep into the Cultural Revolution, simply needed the scrap metal. Or perhaps the Chinese navy's underwater special forces salvaged the wreck as practice.

"In 1972, China's nuclear submarine programme was just getting started," he said. "If you have that kind of a programme, one of the first things you need to know is: if we lose this thing, can we recover it?"

 

On 9 June 1931, HMS Poseidon – one of the Royal Navy's state-of-the-art submarines – was conducting routine drills near a leased British navy base off the coast of Shandong province when it collided with a Chinese cargo ship, tearing a hole in its starboard side.

 

Although 31 of its crew members managed to scramble off before the submarine went down, 26 were trapped on board. Eight were stuck in the submarine's torpedo room, and over the next hour, they used a predecessor to modern scuba equipment to reach the surface – the first time submariners had used breathing apparatus to escape a stricken boat; until then, crew members had been taught to simply wait for help. Five of the men survived.

 

The incident made the front page of the New York Times, inspired a feature film, and changed maritime practice – the Royal Navy began adding escape chambers to submarines and expanded its research into treatment of decompression.

 

Schwankert first learned about the Poseidon while planning an underwater expedition to wrecks from the 1884-85 Sino-Japanese war.

 

He was fascinated by the vague descriptions of the Poseidon and sepia photographs that he found online, and set out to learn more, believing that the wreck remained on the seabed near Weihai, a port city in Shandong province. After a year of investigating, he began to have his doubts.

 

By combing through Chinese-language Google search results, Schwankert began to find online articles mentioning the salvage, including one on the website of the Shanghai salvage bureau. On one online forum, he found testimony from a man who allegedly saw the wreck being hauled on to the shore while swimming in the ocean.

 

China's foreign ministry confirmed later that the submarine had been salvaged, but refused to provide any details. "Some people have suggested that I go out there and look at the site anyway. I said how can you do that? How can you prove a negative?" Schwankert said. "Every indication is that they brought up the whole thing."

Faslane nuclear submarine jetty trial ‘a success’

The Royal Navy has successfully trialled a new state-of-the-art floating jetty at its submarine base on the Clyde.

The Valiant Jetty is designed to move with the tide and will be used to berth nuclear subs at Faslane. A Trafalgar-class sub was berthed on Saturday, followed on Monday by one of the Navy's new Astute-class subs.

 

The 200m-long jetty is vital to operations at HM Naval Base Clyde, according to the Navy.

Commander Nick King said: "The Valiant Jetty is world class: the most modern facility for berthing nuclear submarines in the world.

 

"Previous submarine berths were static whereas the Valiant Jetty moves with the tide. This provides a huge advantage to the submarines alongside as there is no longer the regular need to adjust lines and cables with tidal movement. Both vessel and jetty move together which means a much neater, efficient and safer layout.

 

"The Valiant Jetty is already attracting the attention of navies around the world who are looking to utilise the technology for berthing their own submarines."

 

The 44,000-tonne jetty has six berths and is designed to serve the Navy for the next 50 years.

Warship for sale - Britain seeks buyer for old aircraft carrier

Fancy an aircraft carrier for Christmas?

Britain's cash-strapped military on Tuesday launched a search for buyers for its sole remaining aircraft carrier, saying it would entertain bids from companies, charities and trusts.

 

The ageing, battle-worn HMS Illustrious - 210 metres long and 22,000 tonnes - is one of the Royal Navy's best-known symbols. It has ferried equipment during the Gulf War and supported evacuations of British nationals from Sierra Leone over the past 32 years.

 

Bidders do not need to be British but the buyer has to keep all or part of the ship in Britain for heritage purposes, a Ministry of Defence spokeswoman said on Tuesday. It did not define how big a "part" of the ship must be.

 

The Royal Navy's treatment of Illustrious contrasts with that of the ship's sister carriers, the HMS Ark Royal and HMS Invincible, which were auctioned off in 2011 and later sold for scrap.

 

An industry day to discuss the proposals submitted for the ship's future use will be held next year, and a final decision made after the aircraft carrier is retired in late-2014.

 

The ship is one of the Invincible class built in the 1970s and 1980s. Two new Queen Elizabeth-class carriers are being built by a BAE Systems-led consortium, and the first will begin sea trials in 2017. Britain will have no aircraft carriers at sea in the meantime.

 

Amid major cuts in defence spending, the replacement of carriers has stirred controversy. The previous Labour government gave the green light in 2007 for the two new ships but the programme has been plagued by cost overruns and delays.

The £3m Clyde defence contract, the faked documents and the company boss who risks jail

A SCOTTISH defence contractor has been accused of contempt of court after admitting it faked evidence in a legal row over the Royal Navy's new Type-45 destroyers.

Multimillion-pound marine engineering firm Ticon Insulation will go to Scotland's highest court today for a hearing in a rare civil action that, if successful, could result in its managing director being jailed for up to two years.

The company, highlighted by the anti-independence Better Together campaign as a big winner from lucrative UK Ministry of Defence contracts, denies contempt of court but acknowledges fabricating a vital court document.

The admission comes after a bitter legal dispute with former business partners Deck-Rite, which worked with Ticon on a £3 million contract on the Type-45 vessels when they were being built on the Clyde.

It thrusts Ticon, based in Stepps, North Lanarkshire, and its managing director, Tom Stark, into the centre of the highest-profile case of its kind since former No 10 spin doctor and ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson was charged with lying during the Tommy Sheridan trial.

Ticon and Mr Stark are both cited in a minute of contempt lodged by Deck-Rite's lawyers at the Court of Session in Edinburgh to be heard today by Lord Woolman.

Deck-Rite hopes the judge will now order a rare civil proof of contempt, most likely to take place in the autumn.

Its contempt of court action, which has been cleared by the Lord Advocate, is civil. But any punishments for Ticon or Mr Stark would be criminal.

Deck-Rite, which is based in Bishopbriggs, East Dunbartonshire, is already suing Ticon in a dispute over £750,000 it believes it is due for work it carried out insulating the decks of the six hi-tech Type-45s.

Ticon disputes that it owes the money. As part of its defence, it claimed the contract with Deck-Rite came after it invited two other companies to tender.

The company produced a tender letter from one of those firms. However, Ticon has since admitted this letter, crucial to the commercial dispute and supposedly nearly a decade old, was fake.

In a minute lodged by lawyers for Deck-Rite, Ticon and Mr Stark are accused of "a premeditated and sophisticated scheme to procure and present a fabricated document with the intention of deceiving the court and thereby interfering with the proper administration of justice and subverting a fair trial".

The document added: "It is criminal at common law. The false evidence given by Mr Stark on oath at the open commission amounts separately to an offence."

In formal documents lodged with the court, lawyers on behalf of Ticon said: "The purported tender dated April 14, 2004, was a fabrication."

But they claimed the fake was the result of a "gross misconception" on the part of Mr Stark, who said he was merely trying to recreate a document he insists once existed.

The lawyers said: "Mr Stark's conduct did not involve wilful defiance of, or disrespect towards, the court."

It is rare for contempt of court allegations to arise during civil or commercial cases in Scotland. But such allegations are taken seriously.

Contempt of court at the Court of Session, if proved or admitted, would be punishable by a up to two years in jail, a fine or both.

Ticon is nominally Scottish but a fully owned subsidiary of Norwegian multinational Wilh Wilhelmsen.

It is working on a £57m deal to insulate the two new aircraft carriers being partly built on the Clyde.
The contract was earlier this year cited by Dunfermline and West Fife Labour MP Thomas Docherty as evidence for the "Union dividend" secured by Clydeside defence contractors from Navy projects such as the carriers.

No-one was available for comment at Ticon yesterday.

Comment is free Reducing Britain's nuclear capability would be a grave mistake

The Cabinet Office will this month publish its review into alternatives to like-for-like replacement of the UK's Trident nuclear deterrent – or, more specifically, the Vanguard class of Royal Navy submarines that currently carries the Trident D5 ballistic missile. While the review will shy away from making firm policy choices (for intra-coalition political reasons), we know that alternatives to a replacement Trident system will be presented as "compelling" options, but exposed as both less capable and more costly, and therefore unlikely to be pursued.

The move towards a reduced deterrent posture, however, is likely to come in the form of a suggestion that only building two or three boats in the new Trident-carrying submarine class would be a plausible option – a concession dear to senior Liberal Democrat defence figures, and one that may be tempting to other leaders in search of savings – in the place of the four outgoing Vanguards. Such a choice would be a grave mistake. Regardless of where one sits on the left/right political spectrum, if Britain is to possess a nuclear arsenal at all – as all three of the major parties still think we should – then it must be configured to promote caution rather than aggression in international crises.

Moving from four ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) to only two or three would end the Royal Navy's ability to keep one boat of the class permanently deployed at sea, as the then First Sea Lord made clear in 2009. This posture – known as continuous at-sea deterrence, or "kaz-dee" (CASD) – has been maintained without interruption since 1968. The rationale behind CASD is that if at least one submarine is always deployed, then Britain's ability to retaliate against nuclear aggression would be assured even if the UK – including the Royal Navy's bases – was attacked with little or no warning. In short, a continually-deployed SSBN provides a "secure second-strike" retaliatory capability.

The great thing about secure second-strike nuclear arsenals is that they stop there being rewards for aggression, thereby helping to stabilise international diplomatic and military crises. An opponent does not have an incentive to strike you first, because doing so does not diminish your ability to inflict devastating retaliation – a potent deterrent to potential aggressors. A submarine tied up alongside HM Naval Base Clyde, by contrast, is not a deterrent – it's a "target". A potential aggressor contemplating an attack on Britain would face powerful incentives to destroy it before it left port.

Faced with this reality, the government would have a terrible choice to make at the beginning of any international dispute with another nuclear power. Do they send the submarine to sea, a tremendously escalatory move that would turn a mere dispute into an acute crisis, not to mention the incentive faced by an opponent to target the submarine before it was safe in the open ocean? Or do they leave it in port, in which case, we are not only failing to generate deterrence, but are also incentivising our opponent to target Faslane? Part of the problem here is linguistic: nuclear weapons are not themselves "the deterrent"; rather, they "produce" deterrence when deployed correctly. Deployed incorrectly, they produce aggression incentives, crisis escalation, and elevated nuclear danger.

If the Liberal Democrat wing of the government wants to make the case for complete unilateral disarmament, that is their prerogative: the wisdom of such a policy recommendation should be contested vigorously, but it should at least be an internally coherent argument. The argument that the world is dangerous enough to still necessitate keeping a residual nuclear arsenal, yet not dangerous enough for deterrence to be worth doing properly, by contrast, does not make sense.

If the government believes that the future is threatening enough for a nuclear deterrent to be worth preserving, as it should, then it is worth an extra £5bn – less than the cost of a year's operations in Afghanistan – on the cost of procuring a new submarine class to buy the four boats necessary to ensure that the arsenal is survivable, deterrence credible, and Britain's future international crisis response capability stable.

Making Sailors Sharper Shooters

The U.K.is testing a new simulator as it investigates techniques to improve the accuracy of sailors using machine guns on naval and auxiliary vessels.

Simulation specialist NSC pulled together a deactivated weapon, projectors and software and delivered the completed system to the U.K.’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), according to NSC head of business development Steve Yates. It also built an instructor operating station that will allow DSTL to gather information from the system.

The simulator is based around the General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG), an elderly but much-loved 7.62mm weapon used widely in the U.K. armed forces.

The GPMG is frequently shipped on simple mountings around warships and used to provide close-in fire; it was widely used in this role against attacking Argentinian aircraft during the Falklands conflict.

Like the U.S. and other western navies, the U.K. Royal Navy is concerned by the prospect of Iranian swarm attacks by small speedboats in the Arabian Gulf. The new simulator can replicating scenarios that include defending against small, fast-moving vessels, supporting anti-piracy missions, and protecting ports and vessels within them.

DSTL awarded NSC the contract to develop the new simulator for use in trials of “novel training methods” for Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) personnel. The RFA is a civilian-manned fleet owned by the U.K. Ministry of Defence (MoD) that supports Royal Navy ships with fuel, ammunition and supplies.

The simulator is the first in the U.K. to use the newest version of Bohemia Interactive Simulations’ Virtual Battlespace 2. It puts users’ fingers on the trigger of a deactivated GPMG as the action unfolds on an almost seven-foot-tall, 180-degree curved screen.

Compressed air provides recoil feedback from the deactivated GPMG, while hidden electronics track the weapon’s movements, allowing operators to tackle engagements in an immersive environment.

The simulator does not include motion, but the projected image can reproduce varying factors such as sea states, solar glare, surface reflections and sea spray.

“The U.K. MoD is a big user of the earlier VBS2 1.6,” said Yates. VBS 2 2.0 had a number of improvements in visual reproduction, “particularly in areas such as reflections on the sea and visualisation of objects at long distances.”

The DSTL is collaborating with sports psychologists from Exeter University for the trials testing this method of training. In a written statement, the DSTL said that the NSC synthetic environment “provides specific performance data on the accuracy of the participants, allowing the researchers to compare two training approaches: traditional mechanical instructions, in comparison to instructions relating to the participant’s eye movements during the task.

The DSTL also noted that successful eye movement training could introduce a way of increasing skills development and reducing the time spent in synthetic environments during training, but declined to give further details.

Control tower lowered on to UK's biggest aircraft carrier

The UK's biggest aircraft carrier has moved a step closer to completion after its 750-tonne control tower was lowered on to the deck.

The aft island of HMS Queen Elizabeth was built in a yard on the River Clyde in Glasgow and sailed on a barge to Rosyth, Fife, last week to join the other parts of the ship.

It took workers in Scotstoun nearly two years to build the section which will serve as the centre of on-board flight operations.

A huge crane lifted it into place, and it was then lowered on to the deck yesterday in a ceremony with representatives from the armed forces in attendance.

A plaque with the badges of the Royal Navy, the Army and the RAF was placed under the aft island before it was lowered the final few feet into position.

Part of the plaque will remain visible and reads: "Embedded within are the emblems of the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force and the British Army, the three services which together protect the United Kingdom, her overseas territories and crown dependencies across the globe."

Two apprentices, Gordon Currie and Chris McArthur, sounded airhorns to signal the start of the lowering.

HMS Queen Elizabeth and another aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, are the largest warships ever constructed for the Royal Navy. The first is due to be launched in 2016. They are being built by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, a partnership of BAE Systems, Babcock, Thales and the Ministry of Defence.

Captain Simon Petitt, senior naval officer, HMS Queen Elizabeth, said: "This is a very significant moment in the making of the ship, particularly as it's an aircraft carrier, because the guys working in the aft island will be operating and controlling all of the aviation activity on this flight deck.

"It's a massive UK project, it's going to be the most automated and advanced aircraft carrier in the world and it's being built in this country and all of those involved should be rightly proud."

Harrier For Sale On eBay

A Canadian businessman says he doesn't have the time to enjoy it so he's selling his Sea Harrier jump jet on eBay. Ian Cotton, of Red Deer, Alberta, is hoping to get $1.5 million for the ex-Royal Navy aircraft. He bought the fighter from the British government four years ago and imported it to Canada with an eye to getting it into taxiing condition. To that end he bought another fuselage for spare parts and a flight-worthy Pegasus engine. He said the aircraft is in excellent condition and needs only a few parts to fly but it's being sold as a static display aircraft only. "I can provide an itemized list of the parts needed," he said in an interview with AVweb.

Cotton, who has taken a few lessons but is not a pilot, has five other ex-military jets but he says his natural gas transmission and power generating business keeps him too busy to spend any time with them. He's considering selling off his Hawker Hunters and Lightning fighters but he may keep the Strikemaster trainer/light attack aircraft and get it into flying condition. Cotton said he's so far had a lot of inquiries from the eBay listing but no bids. The Harrier is well known to the people of Red Deer, a resource and farming city about 100 miles north of Calgary. When Cotton first bought the aircraft, he had it parked in his driveway.

HMS Iron Duke leaves Portsmouth on return to service

A Royal Navy frigate has returned to active service following a 16-month upgrade.

HMS Iron Duke left Portsmouth earlier to begin an intensive few months of sea trials.

The Type 23 frigate is now fitted with a 3D radar called Artisan which experts claim is five times better than the version it has replaced.

Artisan is to be fitted to all of the Navy's Type 23 frigates and two future aircraft carriers in a £100m upgrade.

The radar can spot an item as small as a cricket or tennis ball travelling at three times the speed of sound more than 15 miles (25km) away.

Built out of the same lightweight carbon glass fibre materials found on Formula 1 racing cars, it weighs just 700kg and can track up to 800 targets simultaneously at distances up to 125 miles (200km) away.

Royal Navy gets new spy drone in £30m deal

The Royal Navy is to get unmanned reconnaissance aircraft designed specifically for the maritime environment as part of a £30m deal, the Ministry of Defence has announced.

ScanEagle, which can be launched from both Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships, can be used at day or night to gather intelligence.

The aircraft, which is launched using a pneumatic catapult, will be commanded by a specialist team on board ships.

Built by Insitu, part of Boeing Defence UK, it can fly at 60 knots, with a wingspan of just over three meters and a weight of 22kg.

Captain Ian Annett, who's been involved with the project, said: "ScanEagle represents an important addition to the Royal Navy's intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability.

"Its ability to deploy during the day and night coupled with the technology it uses, will give commanders a clearer picture of the operational situation whenever it's required."

Defence minister Philip Dunne added: "ScanEagle provides the Royal Navy with proven surveillance capability that has already been used on operations by other nations, so we know we are getting top quality equipment. The technology is off-the-shelf and will be available to the Royal Navy as soon as possible.

"Our continued investment in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems is essential to keeping our armed forces up to date with the latest capabilities and this will be a central part of the MoD's investment in new equipment over the next 10 years."

Queen Elizabeth Aircraft Carrier section completed

The final section of the Queen Elizabeth Aircraft Carrier was completed at BAE Systems in Scotstoun in Glasgow yesterday. 

The Aft Island section of the carrier will be loaded onto a barge before being transported to Rosyth where the rest of the ship is being constructed. 

Six UK shipyards are involved in building various parts of the ship. The vessel will not be finished until 2016 at the earliest, and may not be ready for active service until 2020, when it will be based in Portsmouth.

The navy is expected to have no aircraft carriers between 2014, when HMS Illustrious is taken out of service, and 2016, when HMS Queen Elizabeth is completed. The government decided to retire the HMS Ark Royal and its fleet of Harrier jump jets in 2011, five years early.

Constructed by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, the Queen Elizabeth will be the Royal Navy’s largest ever warship.

Thales awarded milestone Royal Navy services contract

Thales UK has today signed a 10-year contract with the Ministry of Defence (MOD), worth up to £600M, for the in-service support of the Royal Navy’s major sensor systems. 

The new Sensors Support Optimisation Project (SSOP) builds on the proven success of Thales’s Contractor Logistics Support contract, originally signed in 2003, which has provided support to the Royal Navy’s sonar and electronic warfare systems for the past 10 years.

Under the terms of SSOP, the in-service support contract has now been extended to include all of the Royal Navy’s submarine visual systems, including periscopes for the Vanguard and Trafalgar Class submarines and the non-hull-penetrating optronic masts for the Astute Class submarines, previously supported under separate contract arrangements with Thales UK’s optronics business in Glasgow.

This means Thales is now providing significant in-service support to the ‘eyes and ears’ of the submarine fleet, as well as across the major surface sonar and electronic warfare systems.

The contract will be run through the Equipment Support Delivery Team, which is a joint MOD/Thales UK team based in Abbey Wood, Bristol. This team is augmented by several Thales and J+S Ltd waterfront engineers in the Royal Navy’s three naval bases (Portsmouth, Plymouth and Faslane), who together ensure that specialist technical advice and support is delivered whenever it is needed to ensure the continued availability of the sensor systems, both at home and overseas.

Philip Dunne, Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology, signed the contract during a visit to Thales’s facility in Crawley today.  He said: “This contract is good news for the Ministry of Defence and UK industry. Not only will it secure a number of jobs across the UK whilst delivering savings but will also provide essential support for the combat equipment that helps give the Royal Navy’s fleet of ships and submarines a vital technological edge wherever they are based in the world.”

Victor Chavez, CEO of Thales UK, said: “This contract recognises the value that can be achieved and the savings that can be delivered through a long-term services agreement. It also reflects the successful way in which Thales UK has delivered the required outputs over the past ten years. This project refines that approach to optimise performance over the next ten years, and reinforces our positive well-established relationship with the Royal Navy.”  

During the previous support contract, the levels of equipment availability have improved significantly and substantial overall savings in the cost of support have been achieved. The new SSOP contract builds on this experience and success, from the outset delivering further savings to the MOD whilst continuing to deliver high levels of available and serviceable equipment.

The new contract secures employment for 230 Thales employees and a further 300 people within the extended supply chain across the UK.

Major suppliers to Thales include J+S Ltd (Barnstaple, Devon), MacTaggart Scott (Loanhead, Scotland), Atlas Elektronik UK (Newport, South Wales and Winfrith, Dorset), Parkburn Ltd (Telford, Shropshire), AB Precision (Poole) Ltd (Dorset), and Defence Support Group (Sealand, Flintshire).

Thales UK will support the project from its sites in Templecombe, Cheadle Heath, Glasgow and Crawley, where ongoing development of these important systems will enable yet further improvements to be made in the levels of capability and availability.

Trident UK’s best option, says review

Britain will have to continue with the submarine-launched Trident weapons system, the long-awaited Whitehall review into the UK’s deterrent has concluded after officials rejected other options.

Other radical proposals – with missiles launched from land, air or multipurpose submarines – are either more expensive or more impractical than the current system, the Alternatives Review, to be published next month, has found.

The finding threatens to provoke a showdown in the cabinet because the Liberal Democrats have long proposed a cheaper alternative to Trident.

HMS Daring bound for the Far East

THE first of the Royal Navy’s Type 45 destroyers is heading to sea again for a nine-month deployment.

HMS Daring is gearing up for another deployment this month which will take her ship’s company to the Far East and beyond.

The warship will stretch her sea legs on the deployment with port visits, exercises and celebrations.
She will contribute to maritime security in the Asia Pacific, and conduct science and technology trials in the Pacific.

The ship will also represent the UK in Exercise Bersama Lima, part of an annual programme of exercises in the region involving Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Singapore.

Commander Angus Essenhigh is the commanding officer of HMS Daring and said: ‘This exciting deployment will do much to build on existing alliances, establish and strengthen new relationships and contribute to maritime security in the Asia Pacific, a region in which Britain has historic trade and security links.

‘We will also remain ready to react to contingent operations should they arise.’

HMS Daring and her 190-strong crew will also take part in celebrations marking the 100th 
anniversary of the Royal Australian Navy.

In between all of these events will be a series of port visits.

HMS Daring left for her maiden deployment in January last year.

As reported in The News, she played a major role co-ordinating dozens of strike sorties in Afghanistan alongside the US Navy during her first operational time at sea.

The 7,500-tonne warship, which is the first of six new Type 45s built for the navy by BAE Systems, boasts the latest in maritime technology and is billed as the Royal Navy’s largest and most powerful destroyer ever.

Her prime role is air defence and her state-of-the-art radar systems can track all flights in a 200-mile radius.

She also packs the new Sea Viper missiles which can hit multiple targets at the same time and knock them out of the sky from up to 70 miles away.

The ship is due to leave Portsmouth on May 27.

The six Type 45s, all of which are based in Portsmouth, are due to serve until 2040.

Elsewhere, HMS Dragon is in the middle of her maiden deployment to the Middle East.

Six ships and more than 600 sailors of the Royal Navy have been taking part in a fortnight-long test of their minehunting capabilities in the Gulf region.

Portsmouth-based minehunters HMS Quorn and HMS Atherstone have been taking part in the exercise along with HMS Dragon.

Its aim is to show that mines pose a real and present danger to the safe passage of shipping in the region.

A recent demonstration was in 2011 off the coast of Libya, where pro-Gaddafi forces tried to block the port of Misrata with mines, which Portsmouth-based minehunter HMS Brocklesby found and dealt with.

Commodore Simon Ancona leads the International Maritime Exercise Force. He said: ‘Mine countermeasures are about the freedom of the seas, the arteries along which the life blood of global commerce and energy flows.’

Atute’s trials draw to a close as new boat prepares for front-line duties

Britain's first new hunter-killer submarine in a generation is preparing to take her place on the front line as her final trials come to an end in the USA.

Faslane-based HMS Astute has been carrying out warm water and other trials in the Bahamas and off the Eastern Seaboard as she gears up for her first operational patrol towards the end of this year.

It’s the second stint of trials in the region for the first of seven nuclear-powered boats in the Astute-class; over the winter of 2011-12 the submarine was tested extensively in these same waters, including sparring with the USS New Mexico – a near-counterpart in the US Navy’s Silent Service.

This time around, Astute has focused on warm weather tests – sea temperatures of 25˚C, rather than the more usual 10˚C on the Clyde – and other capability trials ahead of her operational handover.

The submarine has been making use of AUTEC – the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Centre on Andros Island in the Bahamas – the principal proving ground of sub-surface warfare on the world’s oceans.

The ranges off Andros Island – south-west of Nassau – are centred on a 6,000ft deep natural phenomenon, the Tongue of the Ocean, a huge deep-water bowl carved out of coral reef, which resembles the Rolling Stones’ famous tongue logo.

To this natural wonder is added humanity’s ingenuity: the tongue is crammed with sensors and hydrophones to record reams of data on how well a submarine is performing.

Despite long days and equally long nights during the testing on the Bahamian ranges, Astute was able to give small groups of her 98-strong crew ashore for some rest and relaxation on Andros and couldn’t resist a traditional hands to bathe allowing the submariners to take a dip in the crystal clear waters.

After a good month’s testing at AUTEC, Astute made for Kings Bay in Georgia – home of the US Navy’s Atlantic-based ballistic missile submarines – to prepare for the final series of trials and stock up ready for her return to the Clyde.

The boat’s Commanding Officer Cdr Stephen Walker presented newly-qualified submariners with their Dolphins, served in a traditional tot of rum and accompanied with the time-honoured cap tally: HM Submarines.

Throughout the stay at Kings Bay, the Britons were hosted by the crew of the USS Wyoming, an American ballistic missile boat. On a hot afternoon the visitors challenged them to a five-a-side football competition, ultimately won by Astute’s weapon engineers.

With bags full of ‘gizzits’ (presents for home) and more than a few stories to spin the crew mustered for a final photograph on their boat’s casing under the Georgia sun before resuming their trials.

So far, says Cdr Walker, both Astute and her crew have been tested thoroughly by these latest trials.

“Both the boat and my team have made me proud to be their captain.”

“My ship’s company have been working hard during our time away and have been striving in support of a fantastic new capability hosted in this magnificent submarine.

“It has meant many long days focused on the task in hand – and then evenings catching up on the domestics and engineering aspects of keeping a boat at sea.”

Once the trials in the western Atlantic are completed, Astute is due to return home to Faslane. Following a period of operational sea training – required of any Royal Navy ship or submarine preparing to deploy – after which she will be available for front-line duties.