First steelwork is delivered for UK’s new aircraft carriers

Richard Scott

Thursday, 10 September, 2009

The Royal Navy’s two new Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers are beginning to take shape with the shipment of the first component steelwork units from Babcock’s Appledore facility in north Devon.

Meanwhile, the Aircraft Carrier Alliance (ACA) managing the build programme has announced the latest tranche of subcontract awards for the 65,000-tonne displacement ships. Led by BVT Surface Fleet, the ACA also comprises Thales UK, Babcock, BAE Systems and the Ministry of Defence.

The first shipment of steel structures from the Appledore yard arrived at Babcock’s Rosyth yard in Fife in late August. This consisted of 11 fabricated units and two flat packs for the sponson blocks of the future HMS Queen Elizabeth.

This is the first of some 20 shipments from Appledore to Rosyth for each of the two vessels, including two shipments for the Lower Block 01 sub-blocks, 12 shipments for sponson units, and four shipments for centre block units. For the first carrier, these shipments will take place at various intervals between August 2009 and January 2012.

Each of these shipments received will allow work to start on combining the 20 to 40-tonne individual units into 300-tonne blocks. Major outfit can then commence on electrical cabling and equipments, mechanical pipe systems and equipments, ventilation ducts and equipments, furniture, and propulsion, weapon or aviation systems. This will lead to completion of the approximately 1,500 different compartments and numerous systems, prior to whole ship assembly in No.1 Dock at Rosyth.

Babcock has also announced that modifications to No.1 Dock in preparation for the final assembly and outfitting of the new carriers are now complete. Although the dock – originally built in 1916 and extended in the 1960s – is long enough to accommodate the 280m-long Queen Elizabeth class design, a programme of civil engineering works has been required to cut back the huge granite steps (known as altars) and benching out from the sides of the dock (giving it a V-shaped profile) to accommodate the flat-bottomed and slabsided designs of the modern warship, and to widen the gated entrance.

The Queen Elizabeth class build strategy, developed by the ACA, subdivides each ship into a series of build blocks, which will be manufactured and largely pre-outfitted in sites across the UK, before being transported to Rosyth for consolidation and integration.

While Babcock is taking responsibility for Lower Block 01, BVT Surface Fleet at Govan is building Lower Blocks 03 and 04, while BVT’s Portsmouth shipyard will assemble Lower Block 02 and produce units for Lower Block 05. Steel cutting at the Govan yard began in July this year.

As manufacture work gains momentum, the ACA is also continuing to award subcontracts for the two ships, with orders worth more than £850 million now placed across the supply chain. The latest tranche of orders, worth in excess of £52 million, includes: £16 million for 12,000 valves to be supplied by Score Marine; £15 million to Babcock Integrated Technology for integrated waste management systems; £14 million for watertight fire doors to be supplied by Marine Systems Technology; £3 million to McGeoch Technology for ship lighting and lighting distribution panels; and £2 million for the supply of glass reinforced epoxy pipes and fittings by Pipex.

An artist’s impression of the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carrier