The aft section of HMS Cardiff is now poking out of the build hall at BAE in Govan, Glasgow.
The Type 26 Frigate is number two of eight being built at the yard and will soon be rolled out to be joined to the forward section on the hard standing.
The aft section of HMS Cardiff is now poking out of the build hall at BAE in Govan, Glasgow. The Type 26 Frigate is number two of eight being built at the yard and will soon be rolled out to be joined to the forward section on the hard standing. pic.twitter.com/cOK2uHGiss
— George Allison (@geoallison) April 3, 2023
Recently, the stern block made the short move round to meet the aft section of the ship.
The stern block of HMS Cardiff, Second in Class, Type 26 made the short and controlled move round to meet the aft section this week. A significant milestone in readiness for roll out onto our hardstand in Glasgow later in the year. Well done teams! #26on26 #Type26 pic.twitter.com/gmUs3jviRi
— BAE Systems Maritime (@BAES_Maritime) March 26, 2023
Work is also continuing on the previous vessel, HMS Glasgow. Drone footage shows the imposing figure of HMS Glasgow, the first of eight Type 26 Frigates, as the vessel is fitted out at a BAE Systems facility in Scotstoun, Glasgow.
You get a real idea of the size of these ships when you see them out of the water like this, the people stood next to the ship are tiny…
You also realise how much difference the new construction hall is going to make. No more building the ships in two halfs, rolling out into the weather and welding them together..! The extra work involved in that process must add up to quite a cost in both time and money.
Nice to see progress, though.
Looking forward to seeing the first of the T31 rolling out at Rosyth.
Cheers CR
How many blocks are they being built in? Hopefully batch 2 can be build quicker! Ship 8 by 2035 I believe instead of potentially 2038
Not sure.
The aft-midships section (my words) consisting of the hangar was in the right hand side of the build hall waiting for the stern/flight deck section to be rolled around and joined on (which is now shown above in place). This then frees up the left hand half of the build hall for the forward section of the ship to be built. So at least three super blocks each made up of a number of smaller sub-blocks which are built in adjoining workshops I believe. I am rummaging around in the depths of my memory banks here mind 🙄 so might have it wrong.
Cheers CR
I was in Glasgow last year and I was truly shocked with how big HMS Glasgow was. I knew she was big but until you see with your own eyes it’s hard to comprehend. I would advise to people to go to the transport muesum if you are there, it offers a great view across the Clyde onto the shipyard.
Big definately has some serious advantages. Maintenance is easier with more space to move around (provided some over keen engineer hasn’t crammed in some extra kit, of course), the ship is more stable etc.
Ever seen ‘The Cruel Sea’. One of the best naval films ever made. They found one of the last operational Flower class corvettes and used her for the film. Some great shots of her in heavy weather in the North Atlantic – forward third of the ship out of the water in one shot, with quite a splash when she pitched forward again. 800tons isn’t very big and the Flower class were wet ships looking at the film. Very uncomfortable in any kind of sea, especially as you had to go out onto the main deck to get anywhere.
Yup, build ’em big with a nice internal central passageway.
Cheers CR
PS I sailed on STS Lord Nelson a few times. At 400 tons she could move about a bit as well, happy days.
They would “roll on wet grass”.
The existing sheds look a bit basic inside. Are the new sheds just going to be larger versions of what is currently available or will they be more modern and maybe better equiped i wonder.
You would hope so!
Not sure Mark,
However, the main feature of a build hall is… well a big empty space which is fundementally basic.
Having said that I would hope that there will be at least one large crane running the full length of each of the two bays. Anything else, welding machines etc, would need to be portable / movable as you would need to be able to move them around to where they are needed and I would not leave such expensive kit hanging around underneath the gantry crane when lifting big heavy loads – just in case. So once the major block is moved out or when they are between builds the space will be pretty much empty with the expensive stuff put away.
The really clever stuff is probably in the small(ish) sub block assembly buildings which would normally be adjacent to the main assembly hall(s). Laser cutting machines, welding machines and all the other equipment required to manufacture sub-blocks to the quality and accuracy required to simply drop them in place would be in those smaller spaces.
Ship building is basically one huge prototyping operation given the small numbers of each design – eight ships mass production does not make! So you will not get lots of specialist robots doing one job thousands of time a la car production lines. The machines used will be very flexible pieces of kit some fixed down on big foundations, others will be portable with most, if not all, being networked to the computer aided design and production systems.
The shed just keeps the worst of the weather off all that expensive kit… My guess is that BAE Systems will already have much of that sorted, but will likely be updating and adding to their capabilities as they know they are playing catch up with Babcock.
I am only going on what I have read mind, ship building is not my speciality, although I have worked in factories in the dim and distant past.
Hope that helps.
Cheers CR
The assertion has also been made by some that the new build hall will expedite the build/delivery schedule for T-26 Batch 2, at least at the margin.
Should the build hall coupled to Design rights sold to Australia and Canada, not to forget some common components not see build costs coming down?
(You know where I’m going with this 😉 )
If so, and personnel and manning are a problem, can we not increase the rate of production and order a Batch 3?
I’m trying to remember where I read it; but estimated cost per frigate in the future batches has reduced to £700m I believe (from £1bn?). Even if we lack the manpower I would still advocate extra hulls – gives a bit more resilience in case we lose a ship to an accident or war.
100%
That would be sensible. So I won’t hold my breath.
Even if we afford to build them, and perhaps we could, we couldn’t operate them. You know how much the Treasury loves spending money on more people!
Problem is retaining those people once they are trained.
Training is very expensive.
There has to be a cost benefit curve to pay people better to retain them in service?
That is where the conversation needs to move to. Particularly engineering / nuclear engineering trades.
To all intents and purposes if you’re young, fit, can read and write and don’t have a criminal record ie the people the armed forces are looking for. We have full employment. The only way we’ll stop the decline in numbers nevermind increase them is if we increase pay and improve conditions. A 10% across the board pay rise for uniformed personell would only cost roughly £500m p/a.