Super carrier care

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Babcock's Charlie Forrester turns the spotlight onto the HMS Illustrious refit, and how the project is being collaboratively delivered on time and to budget…

The Royal Navy flagship HMS Illustrious is undergoing a maintenance and upgrade programme at Rosyth, in a project that sees Babcock, the MoD and the Royal Navy working closely together to ensure the carrier can continue in service until the new aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, is in service.

'Lusty', as she is affectionately known in the Royal Navy, arrived in February for the 13 month docking period, the fifth refit to be undertaken by Babcock on the Invincible class aircraft carriers (CVS), and second on Illustrious. Many of the team have been involved in all four previous CVS refit contracts, bringing a wealth of valuable platform knowledge and experience.

The programme involves both upgrades and essential maintenance. Following a large number of capability upgrades during her last refit at Rosyth in 2005, further installations during this upkeep period will include the Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) enabling sharing of information and collaborative working across platforms, and reverse osmosis plants for improved shipboard fresh water production.

The workscope also includes major repairs to both funnels, and a full Lloyd's Register structural survey, as well as application of 540,000 litres of foul-release paint on the keel, which provides improved fuel efficiency and speed through the water. High pressure air and salt water systems will also be overhauled, as will all 200 underwater valves. Additionally the flight deck and hangar deck paint coatings will be renewed, and work undertaken to the diesel generators. In total, some 500 metres of pipework, 650 valves and all eight exhausts will be replaced.

Habitability upgrades for the 682 crew and 366 aircrew will include revitalising the mess decks, as well as galley equipment upgrades for improved catering facilities, and the chilled water and air conditioning plants will also be overhauled.

Importantly, close working between industry, the MoD and Royal Navy has enabled knowledge and experience to be applied to establish a work package that will ensure Illustrious returns to the fleet in optimum condition within the budget parameters, to deliver maximum value for money to the MoD and Royal Navy. Various measures have been implemented to maximise efficiency and minimise cost and time in dock.

Babcock (charged by the MoD to deliver the vessel), local MoD Clyde Director Rosyth (the on-site project management and assurance team with delegated financial authority) and the ship's company (with maintenance to be undertaken during the period as well as some setting to work of equipment, and assisting the MoD with their assurance role) are working together at all levels under a partnering ethos, to a common goal. An open book policy allows all three partners to understand the financial health of the project, and all have a say in how work is undertaken. The partnering forum also includes the Capital Ships project team, and BAE Systems who will shortly take on the role of CVS Class Output Manager (COM) and manage the platform through life beyond the last docking period.

The tripartite project management is aided by regular meetings with all levels, covering various aspects. The Upkeep Management Board (UMB), comprising the senior refit team plus Capital Ships and COM members, reviews refit progress, financial and contractual performance, risk, health and safety, material procurement and quality, meeting every two weeks, with local UMB members meeting between these more formal sessions. Further, the production managers allocated to each of the three zones of responsibility (hull, electrical and weapons, and mechanical) meet bi-weekly to discuss these issues at working level (involving Babcock, RN and CD(R)) – a key driver in successful project delivery.

This partnering ethos is central to success. All three parties are keen to work closely to complete the upkeep project against challenging budget and programme requirements, and deliver the carrier back to the fleet on time, and in the best possible material condition, fully capable and fighting fit as one of the key elements of the Royal Navy's continued Carrier Strike development. HMS Illustrious will sail from Rosyth in spring 2011 for sea trials.

Comment: Royal Navy Spokesperson, HM Naval Base Clyde

"This is an essential period of maintenance and upgrading, which will see HMS Illustrious in active service through to the end of a very 'illustrious career'.

She'll get 500 metres of new pipe work, 650 new valves, all eight exhausts replaced. Half a million litres of paint will make her more fuel-efficient. Her crew will get more comfortable living space.

But the most important thing is that she will be able to deliver for the fleet those tasks that are more important than ever – that is a platform that can deliver troops or air cover anywhere in the world.

Carriers remain of vital importance to our 'Defence of the Realm' because they remove from government the need to ask a foreign state for any kind of permission – they are stand-alone units of sovereign force projection.

The work at Babcock will see Illustrious through until the commissioning of the new super carriers – which will indeed be an exciting time for the Royal Navy – but we should not underestimate the service given by Illustrious and her sister ships, Ark Royal and Invincible.

They are flexible, strategic assets, capable of taking part in military operations anywhere around the globe. They can deliver troops, launch aircraft, provide air support to those troops, or provide disaster relief and humanitarian aid.

This generation of aircraft carriers will be dwarfed by the next – but they will be remembered very fondly by any service men and women who served on them."

HAVE YOUR SAY

ILLUSTRIOUS REFIT: LEGITIMATE AND ADEQUATE UPGRADING OF THIS VESSEL's HUGELY DANGEROUS CAPABILITIES' DEFICIENCIES??

1) Does not having anti airborne threat missile systems put the RN's aircraft carriers, their service personnel and the UK's interests generally- at high risk?

2) Why are the aircraft carriers of other countries' navy's- such as the US, France, Italy, Japan, India and EVEN BRAZIL fitted at build-completion and/or re-fitted with technologically up-to-date anti airborne threat missile systems?:

"Refitted Sao Paulo returns to sea":
http://www.janes.com/news/defence/naval/idr/idr100108_1_n.shtml -

..."(As a result of the refit, the Sao Paulo has) three new twin-Mistral surface-to-air missile launchers "...

http://www.military-today.com/navy/improved_nimitz_class.htm :

"... These (US Navy Nimitz class supercarriers) were completed with Kevlar armour over their vital areas and have improved hull protection arrangements...

"The Kevlar armour has been retrofitted to the earlier carriers, as have many of the advanced systems built into the newer ships..."

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/uss-theodore-roosevelt-headed-into-midlife-overhaul-02810/ http://www.news.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=4200&tid=400&ct=4

http://www.navy.mil/local/lhd8/ -
http://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=4200&ct=4&tid=400 -
http://www.fas.org/programs/ssp/man/uswpns/navy/amphibiousassault/lhd1Wasp.html
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/navy/lhd-8.htm
http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/cvn-21/
http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/cvn-21/cvn-213.html
http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/cvn-21/cvn-214.html
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/cvn-78-specs.htm
http://www.defensetech.org/archives/003686.html :

"... The Hyuga... will carry an Aegis-type air defense system, with the U.S.-developed AN/SPY-1 multi-function radar; her principal "weapons" armament will be 64 advanced ESSM-type missiles... "

"... She will also be fitted with two 20-mm Phalanx (radar guided) "Gatling" guns for close-in defense against anti-ship missiles, and she will have six tubes for anti-submarine torpedoes...."

http://defense-update.com/products/h/hyuga_250409.html -

"... Hyuga is equipped with 16 Mk41 VLS (Vertical Launch System) cells (each cell carries and can launch 4 ESSM-type missiles- rvl) for anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles and accommodates two 20mm Phalanx (radar guided) anti-missile cannon and two triple 12.75-inch torpedo mounts for self defense...."

3) what are the dangers posed to surface combatants such as aircraft carriers by modern anti-ship cruise missiles (such as the widely marketed SS-N-27 'sizzler' and its clones) as well as moderately up-to-date and the newest aircraft??

- "Soviet/Russian Cruise Missiles":
http://www.ausairpower.net/APA-Rus-Cruise-Missiles.html

- "Missile Survey: Ballistic and Cruise Missiles of Selected Foreign Countries", 26_07-2005:
http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/RL30427_20050726.pdf :

"One significant trend is the increasing number of missile production and development facilities... Fifteen countries are known to produce ballistic missiles: the United States, France, Russia, China, ... and Argentina."

"Argentina gets first Russian defense deal", 26_04-2010:
http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2010/04/26/Argentina-gets-first-Russian-defense-deal/UPI-64361272276060/

"The deal also comes amid designs by Russia and Argentina to bolster relations in nuclear power development... and share use of the Russian Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS)"... (in case the US ever cuts off Argentina access to the GPS system?????)

4) Considering that ALL of the UK's currently in-service Frigates and Destroyers are either fitted with

a) obsolescent/not-technologically-capable anti airborne threat missile systems (Type 22 and 23 Frigates, and Type-42 Destroyers)

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200001/cmselect/cmpubacc/136/1011503.htm
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200001/cmselect/cmpubacc/136/1011504.htm
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200001/cmselect/cmpubacc/136/1011505.htm
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200001/cmselect/cmpubacc/136/1011506.htm
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200001/cmselect/cmpubacc/136/1011507.htm
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200001/cmselect/cmpubacc/136/1011508.htm
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200001/cmselect/cmpubacc/136/1011509.htm ; or

b) are fitted with non-working anti airborne threat systems (Type-45 Destroyers)- why don't the UK's current aircraft carriers have any anti airborne threat missile systems:

http://www.janes.com/news/defence/jmr/jmr100104_1_n.shtml
http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/newshome/Royal-Navy-destroyers-at-sea.5889279.jp
http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/agenda/Navy-destroyers-face-further-worries.5990942.jp :

"... The navy is planning to put (25-year-old, used) old weapons onto its new destroyers as it struggles to get them ready, The News can reveal..."

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/07/dauntless_sea_viper_progress/

.... WHY AREN'T UP-TO-DATE ANTI AIRBORNE THREAT MISSILE SYSTEMS PLANNED TO BE FITTED TO THE UK'S CURRENTLY IN-SERVICE CARRIERS ASAP???;

5) Why were the obsolescent Sea Dart anti airborne threat missile systems not replaced with up-to-date systems when the Sea Dart systems were removed from the Royal Navy's (then 3, now only 2) aircraft carriers in the late 1990's- a time when the existence and highly lethal capabilities of the then new SS-N-27 were well known among the MoD and senior govt officials??

6) Why haven't the obsolescent Sea Dart anti airborne threat missile systems that were removed from the RN's aircraft carriers in the late 1990's been replaced with technologically up-to-date systems 2000-2010??

7) Why is Illustrious's refit not including instalation of technologically-capable anti airborne threat missile system(s) and the radars required to operate these weapons??

8) Can anyone say for sure where Illustrious- and her sister ships-Invincible and Ark Royal and HMS Ocean may be assigned duties during the coming six to 10-years??
Roderick V. Louis - Vancouver, BC, Canada

ILLUSTRIOUS REFIT: LEGITIMATE AND
ADEQUATE UPGRADING OF THIS VESSEL's HUGELY DANGEROUS CAPABILITIES' DEFICIENCIES??

PART 2:

9) why are the UK's new 'big deck' aircraft carriers designed and being constructed without anti airborne threat missile systems and the types of radars required to operate these weapons??

10) considering that anti airborne threat missile systems are integral to aircraft carriers belonging to ALL other countries' navy's world-wide, why are the UK's new carriers not being fitted with these weapons and the (costly) radars required to operate them?

( "MBDA'S SAAM-FR NAVAL AIR DEFENCE SYSTEM SUCCESSFULLY CARRIES OUT FIRST SALVO FIRING", 30_05-2005:

( http://www.mbda-systems.com/mbda/site/ref/scripts/newsFO_complet.php?lang=IT&news_id=138

(note:
(a) the above Aster-15 missile test firing was from France's Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier; AND

(b) the UK's presently in-service aircraft carriers were stripped of their obsolescent 'Sea Dart' anti airborne threat (AAW) missile systems in the late 1990's; AND

(c) the UK Labour govt refused to fund a replacement AAW system to be fitted 1998-2010; AND

(d) in order to save money, the planned aircraft carriers won't have any anti airborne threat missile systems whatsoever...

11) why are the UK's new 'big deck' aircraft carriers designed and being built without aircraft-launch catapults??

12) why are the UK's new 'big deck' aircraft carriers designed and being built WITHOUT ARMOUR and WITHOUT ARMOURED BULKHEADS?

TO SAVE MONEY THE UK's PLANNED NEW AIRCRAFT CARRIERS ARE BEING BUILT WITHOUT ARMOUR, ARMOURED BULKHEADS, AIRCRAFT-LAUNCH CATAPULTS AND WITHOUT THE MISSILE-BASED WEAPONS & SENSORS REQUIRED FOR SHIP SELF-DEFENCE AGAINST ANTI-SHIP CRUISE MISSILES (ASCM's) & AIRCRAFT:

Catapults are necessary for aircraft carriers to be able to embark, launch & recover a variety of the most versatile & capable types of fixed-wing aircraft, such as Airborne Early Warning & Control (AWACS) types:

E-2D Hawkeye: The (U.S.) Navy's New AWACS-

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/e-2d-hawkeye-the-navys-new-awacs-03443/

The RN's new 'big deck' aircraft carriers will be restricted to Harrier type (short/vertical take off & land) fixed-wing aircraft & helicopters- that can not duplicate even remotely the function of modern, fixed-wing AWACS...

http://www.janes.com/news/defence/systems/jni/jni091020_1_n.shtml
http://www.janes.com/news/defence/idr/idr080611_1_n.shtml :

"... In 1982 the Falklands conflict provided a stark reminder of the vulnerability of surface forces operating in a hostile air environment without (AWACS) AEW support... The absence of such a capability in the face of sustained air attack gave the UK Royal Navy (RN) insufficient warning to counter threats at long range, & directly contributed to the loss of several ships...."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1100714/The-4billion-Airfix-Kit-Behind-scenes-Britains-biggest-warships.html :

"... Money has also been saved in side armour protection, though Knight insists this was a strategic rather than a budgetary issue. The CVF's first line of defence is the frigates and the new Type 45 destroyers around us,' he adds. 'Our only self-defence is close-in weapons systems and small guns.

"Instead, what you have on the ship is 36 of the most lethal aircraft*** ever made.'..."

*** aircraft whose designed-capabilities DO NOT include protecting warships from incoming anti-ship missiles...

http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/cvf/ :

".... A number of protective measures such as side armour and armoured bulkheads proposed by industrial bid teams have been deleted from the design in order to comply with cost limitations...."

13) Should tax-payer funds go towards the building of and re-fitting of aircraft carriers, Destroyers and other classes of front-line surface and subsurface combatants and support vessels for the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary that are fitted and equipped to operate as impotent, incompetent, grievously vulnerable duds, in effect- tax-payer-funded 'make-work-project' schemes'??... or

14) should tax-payer funds go towards the building of and re-fitting of aircraft carriers, Destroyers and other classes of front-line surface and subsurface combatants and support vessels for the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary that are fitted and equipped in such a manner to enable the vessels' competent performance against modern types of known and to-be-expected types of threats and to enable the RN and the UK to continue its/their leading, respected roles on the world stage in the coming decades??
Roderick V. Louis - Vancouver, BC, Canada