At 65,000t and almost 300m in overall length, the two QUEEN ELIZABETH-class (QEC) aircraft carriers being built for the Royal Navy are the largest naval vessels ever built in Britain. They are also the most capable.
The real power of these vessels lies not in their physical size, but in their capabilities. Even aircraft carriers have to be multi-mission capable in these times of constrained defence budgets and the capabilities of the carriers lend themselves to a full range of naval warfare, amphibious/land operations support, humanitarian and disaster relief missions and more. The flight operations capability, for example, is sufficient to control the entire airspace around London, if you could get her up the Thames. She has the capacity for generating 110MW of electrical power which, to put it in perspective, would power an entire city of over 200,000 people.
During a recent visit to the shipyard at Rosyth, MT saw HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH as it continues the fitting out process, having been floated and named last year, while HMS PRINCE OF WALES is still in the construction dock, with major units or ‘blocks’ scheduled to be mated to the growing hull in coming months. The size of the undertaking is reflected in the fact that the programme has absorbed “almost all the shipbuilding capacity in the country” for the last two years and that some 80,000 tonnes of steel has had to be sourced for the two vessels, according to Ian Booth, Managing Director of prime contractor Aircraft Carrier Alliance.
The Alliance, a consortium that includes BAE Systems, Babcock, Thales, and the Ministry of Defence (MoD), brings “the orchestration of the whole of defence to support this programme,” in Booth’s words. Three times larger than any other vessel in current naval shipbuilding experience in the United Kingdom, the two QEC vessels are being built only two years apart. Major ‘blocks’ – some of which weigh in at over 10,000t – are fabricated in BAE Systems Naval Ships shipyards at Govan and Scotstoun and then sailed round the country (north or south, depending on weather conditions) to Rosyth for assembly and mating. The logistics management process supporting the construction programme is mammoth – and is informing the company’s approach to naval shipbuilding in general, with many lessons learned translating to the forthcoming Type 26 Global Combat Ship construction programme of up to 13 vessels for the Royal Navy.
HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH is planned to be commissioned early in 2017, with HMS PRINCE OF WALES being launched the same year and commissioned in 2020. Each carrier will have the capacity to operate an air wing of 40 fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, along with an appropriate mix of embarked troops, equipment and mission specialists. Interestingly, the vessel’s complement will be less than 700 crew, with air wing and embarked personnel bringing the total to around 1,600. By comparison, a US Navy carrier has a total complement of around 4-4,500.
Perhaps the strongest impression resulting from the visit, however, is the way in which BAE Systems Naval Ships is using both the QEC programme and the construction of three Ocean Patrol Vessels for the Royal Navy (steel was cut on the first of these late last year) to test innovative process improvements aimed at making naval construction more efficient and cost-effective. Improvements in workflow management, wholesale outsourcing of the entire logistics process and the replacement of a ‘quality inspection’ with a ‘quality coaching’ regime have already resulted in defect reduction of 75% between the first and second carriers under construction.
BAE Systems will cut steel in 2016 on the first of the Type 26 Global Combat Ships, a class of 13 of which is currently planned for the Royal Navy. Arguably the most modern surface combatant design of its class on the market today, the Type 26 will benefit from the production enhancements being trialled on the Clyde today. With average life expectancies for this type of vessel extending beyond 25 years (and the QEC carriers have a life approaching double that) the issue of efficiencies and state-of-the-art production environments will have a dramatic effect on through-life management of assets which, though small in number, remain powerful components of a nation’s security and foreign policies.
I used to have a poster in my office showing a US Navy aircraft carrier with the strapline “four and a half acres of sovereignty.” British carriers are smaller, of course, and the flight deck area of the QEC is a mere four acres. Oh well!
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| QUEEN ELIZABETH-class (QEC) aircraft carrier being built for the Royal Navy (All photos via author) |
The real power of these vessels lies not in their physical size, but in their capabilities. Even aircraft carriers have to be multi-mission capable in these times of constrained defence budgets and the capabilities of the carriers lend themselves to a full range of naval warfare, amphibious/land operations support, humanitarian and disaster relief missions and more. The flight operations capability, for example, is sufficient to control the entire airspace around London, if you could get her up the Thames. She has the capacity for generating 110MW of electrical power which, to put it in perspective, would power an entire city of over 200,000 people.
During a recent visit to the shipyard at Rosyth, MT saw HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH as it continues the fitting out process, having been floated and named last year, while HMS PRINCE OF WALES is still in the construction dock, with major units or ‘blocks’ scheduled to be mated to the growing hull in coming months. The size of the undertaking is reflected in the fact that the programme has absorbed “almost all the shipbuilding capacity in the country” for the last two years and that some 80,000 tonnes of steel has had to be sourced for the two vessels, according to Ian Booth, Managing Director of prime contractor Aircraft Carrier Alliance.
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| HMS PRINCE OF WALES is still in the Rosyth construction dock. |
The Alliance, a consortium that includes BAE Systems, Babcock, Thales, and the Ministry of Defence (MoD), brings “the orchestration of the whole of defence to support this programme,” in Booth’s words. Three times larger than any other vessel in current naval shipbuilding experience in the United Kingdom, the two QEC vessels are being built only two years apart. Major ‘blocks’ – some of which weigh in at over 10,000t – are fabricated in BAE Systems Naval Ships shipyards at Govan and Scotstoun and then sailed round the country (north or south, depending on weather conditions) to Rosyth for assembly and mating. The logistics management process supporting the construction programme is mammoth – and is informing the company’s approach to naval shipbuilding in general, with many lessons learned translating to the forthcoming Type 26 Global Combat Ship construction programme of up to 13 vessels for the Royal Navy.
HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH is planned to be commissioned early in 2017, with HMS PRINCE OF WALES being launched the same year and commissioned in 2020. Each carrier will have the capacity to operate an air wing of 40 fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, along with an appropriate mix of embarked troops, equipment and mission specialists. Interestingly, the vessel’s complement will be less than 700 crew, with air wing and embarked personnel bringing the total to around 1,600. By comparison, a US Navy carrier has a total complement of around 4-4,500.
Perhaps the strongest impression resulting from the visit, however, is the way in which BAE Systems Naval Ships is using both the QEC programme and the construction of three Ocean Patrol Vessels for the Royal Navy (steel was cut on the first of these late last year) to test innovative process improvements aimed at making naval construction more efficient and cost-effective. Improvements in workflow management, wholesale outsourcing of the entire logistics process and the replacement of a ‘quality inspection’ with a ‘quality coaching’ regime have already resulted in defect reduction of 75% between the first and second carriers under construction.
BAE Systems will cut steel in 2016 on the first of the Type 26 Global Combat Ships, a class of 13 of which is currently planned for the Royal Navy. Arguably the most modern surface combatant design of its class on the market today, the Type 26 will benefit from the production enhancements being trialled on the Clyde today. With average life expectancies for this type of vessel extending beyond 25 years (and the QEC carriers have a life approaching double that) the issue of efficiencies and state-of-the-art production environments will have a dramatic effect on through-life management of assets which, though small in number, remain powerful components of a nation’s security and foreign policies.
I used to have a poster in my office showing a US Navy aircraft carrier with the strapline “four and a half acres of sovereignty.” British carriers are smaller, of course, and the flight deck area of the QEC is a mere four acres. Oh well!
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| Tim Mahon on HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH |
Tim Mahon
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