HMS Dauntless, a Royal Navy Type 45 destroyer, has returned home after successfully completing a deployment in the Caribbean, underscoring the success of its recent engine upgrades.
The mission, covering 28,000 nautical miles, involved intercepting drug smugglers, leading to the seizure of over £200m worth of drugs, and providing support during the hurricane season to British Overseas Territories.
The ship’s deployment also tested the Type 45’s major engine upgrades as part of the Power Improvement Programme (PIP). Commander Ben Dorrington, the Commanding Officer, expressed pride in the ship’s achievements, noting the variety of tasks undertaken during the 195-day mission.
A key aspect of this deployment was the demonstration of the PIP’s success. Three modern, highly efficient engines were installed on HMS Dauntless, enhancing reliability and electrical capacity. This upgrade allows for future advancements and has significantly increased the ship’s power output.
Lieutenant Harry Jukes, Deputy Weapon Engineering Officer, commented on the improvements, saying, “The additional resilience provided by the third diesel generator gives us increased redundancy in the ship’s electricity supply, meaning more availability of sensors to command capable of tracking contacts in excess of 200 miles.”
HMS Dauntless’s Atlantic Patrol (North) deployment has, it seems, proven the effectiveness of the PIP upgrades, positioning the ship for key roles in future deployments, including providing air defense for the Royal Navy’s aircraft carriers.
Welcome back, Dauntless and crew.
I saw that Dauntless is replaced by Trent as Medway will be going into refit. Does anyone know where? Forth went to Gib, and I wondered if that was the go to place for Atlantic-based River class refits.
What’s the refit for?
Cats and Traps is my guess……
😂😁
Because it was found that the power systems couldn’t cope with the warm seas and the electrical power need for the type 45 systems was too much the supplied generator and the whole ship would shut down leaving it vulnerable to attack. That was every type 45 and its us the tax payers have had to pick up the bill for the mistake of a US company.
No entirely accurate.
The issue was in the Recouperator circuit for the GT. It would undergo catastrophic performance degrades without warning and the computer control system would bin the GT and the ship would lose power from that GT.
Because of this the ships where not running the 2 x GTs as designed with DG emergency back up. The DGs didn’t have enough umph to power propulsion, hotel services and weapons if they lost a GT before they could get the second GT online.
TLFs are not a new thing for ships. It happens to them all and the MEO usually buys a bottle of fizz if it happens on his watch. The T45 being new …meant it was highlighted more quickly and more often.
A software mod and a recouperator mod cured most of that issue years ago but the DG issue remained with them not having enough spare Umph if something went wrong. The PIP has cured that.
Its a good job wthey went big during build and had a lot of space in one of the Machinery spaces for the third DG…it was looking rather empty in there prior to fitting it.
Hi Mate, I take it the MT30 installation includes an intercooler/recouperator for greater fuel efficiency? The assumption is that the WR21 issues were taken into consideration when design the new powerset.
Type 45 has two WR-21 gas turbines, which are intercooled and recuperated giving them about 30% better fuel consumption than a simple cycle gas turbine. The engine design was due to go into US ships as well as the T45. Unfortunately the Cold War ended and the US canned their ship design while the engine was still under development. The WR-21 was therefore put into service with a fraction of the money available to develop it. The GT was Rolls-Royce’s (derived from civil RB211 technology) while everything else including the intercooler and recuperator was developed by Northrop Grumman Marine Systems. When the US exited the program NGMS also dropped the project overnight.
So basically you’re saying the original design was crap and needed a £500 million refit to rectify . Doesn’t give much confidence in decision making on designs for our naval projects , they all seem to have some major issue requiring expensive corrections
I think in this case the Politicians overruled the Naval Experts as to what GT’s were chosen.
Think you are right, advice was ignored for reasons of saving money and/or pushing upgrading it to full potential if costly capacity down the line to be someone else’s problem. Typical UK practice some might argue.
During the course of testing, would you presume RN measured radiated levels of subsurface sound energy pre and post PIP? Three vs. two DGs, but of a more modern design. 🤔 Could envision a scenario wherein that info would be beneficial.
The intercooler was the issue.. https://www.navylookout.com/in-focus-the-power-improvement-project-for-the-royal-navys-type-45-destroyers/
intercooler-recuperator which caused the diesel generators to cut out leaving the ship powerless and defenceless.
Been in the water a few years now and the rules say they need a refit every five years or so. Work completed on HMS Forth included:
“…substantial maintenance on her hull, engines, shafts and even upgrades to weapon and communication systems. Improvements to mess decks and living quarters were also completed, improving the lived experience of the Ship’s Company.”
Merco Press
I’d assume all the RB2s will have something similar, in turn.
Cheers.
It’s due !
Medway will arrive in Gib Wed Dec 13th, she will go on refit April 24 in Gib
Interesting, a 3-4 mo. delay in beginning refit period? Necessary pre-refit work or backlog at Gib? 🤔 Medway scheduled return to Caribbean late in 2024? 2025? Possible slot open to test Daring or Dragon, post PIP mod, in similar manner to Dauntless? Believe spreading the choice deployments around the fleet would prove favorable for both morale and retention. 🤔
I last heard Daring would return to service late 2024 and Dragon maybe 2025, so there’s time for Trent’s crew to complete their Caribbean I-Spy books first.Forth spent 7 months in Gib, so Medway could be out around the same time as Daring, even with the delay.
If we want a larger vessel to work up off the coast of Guyana, probably won’t be a destroyer. St Albans might be a better bet.
🤔👍
Thank you, Les. She indeed arrived today.
Can we rush her to the Red Sea now,
Nope, not on your nelly.
HMS Duncan and HMS Diamond were just off Crete 2 days ago with RFA Argus and RFA Lyme Bay, After this latest attack maybe one of them will deploy there shortly
Went to Crete this year on holiday, a nice place overlooking Souda Bay. The hardware going in and out of that place is ridiculous, always seems to be a T45 knocking about, some big US ships coming and going a lot too. Was nice doing a bit of naval sightseeing floating in the pool!
‘including air defence‘
But oh, we should have built a few more!
Interesting comment about how the 3rd diesel generator provides increased availability of sensors.
Resilience for weapons and sensors…
It means that if you lose a GT you don’t lose everything and have to “shed” power supplies to systems.
T23 does the same thing. “Shedables” are dropped off the board to priorities other systems if there are issues. Its always a balance between available electrical power from the running DGs/GTs ( especially if not all are available for use) Vs running load. If you need more propulsion the control system will bin shedables like 50% lighting and none essential servicers whilst prioritising prop and weapons.
Thx. I recall from somewhere that the new diesels were also more powerful. No need for the blood pressure tablets now 🙂
We might as well stay there to see what happens with Venezuela situation.
I think Brazil might be more interested to be honest…….
I thought the same thing
Also HMS POW was in Florida
Dauntless would have been good company for her and a real show of force and support for an old friend Guyana
(A lot of of ships are returning to UK for Christmas)
This territorial dispute has been going for a long time
I think British troops were sent into the western part of Guyana many decades ago to deter the Venezuelans
Weren’t 4 Harriers based there at one time as a deterrent?
Nope that was Belize
OK Thanks
Guyana wanted independence and got it. Actions and consequences and all that.
Just compare Guyana with French Guiana. Says it all really.
French Guiana is technically a part of France. Guyana was only a colony. Perhaps in hindsight after independence, it should have self-governing British Protectorate.
Ark Royal sent Buccaneers to Belize when Guatamala threaten them, it was enough to put off the invasion.
Plus various regiments cycling through for jungle training.
I have many fond memories of Belize, particularly a little island off the coast only 25 minutes in a boat. Tropical island, white sand with a single bar selling the most potent white rum. Thinking about it, the Royal Navy should have got that fella to supply them and put it in the T45’s. The engines would have run at 200% with that stuff in them.
Spent some time on one of the Cayes myself. Caye Caulker.
It’s a Win Win then….. Send all the T45’s there after their PIP’s and at £200 million income per trip, it will pay for the Upgrades and still leave money for for the extra VLS….. I know, I’m a Genius at finance things.
The drugs are of course valueless.
No….. really ?
Was going through comments waiting for someone to say this. The rivers must have already covered their cost, surely
Yes and their crews are on a real high !
Am personally a fan of understated, deadpan British humor, but suggest that you cue it for others w/ an emoji. 😉
If it was such a success then why did she get towed in
So what lessons have been learnt here? Likely, absolutely nothing. Buy the cheaper stuff again next time.
Excellent, Bravo Zulu to all involved! Now, emphasis should be placed on returning HMS Daring and Dragon to the fleet ASAP. Why? Because the prospective bundling of the PIP and CAMM mods together will significantly increase the refit periods for the remaining 3 DDGs. This could coincide w/ very inconvenient maritime trends in the last half of the 2020’s. 🤔
One option to get more AAWs, would be to kit out the T31s being built, to Iver Huitfeldt standard?
Agreed, simply a matter of sufficiently increasing RN budget…🤔😳🤞👍
If Maduro’s Venezuala keeps going the way it is we might need more than 1 destroyer in Caribbean
Made a comment somewhere when they announced the design of the T45 that itt needed more than 2 Generators and some commented I was wrong. Might have been an engineer on Merchant ships but they all need electricity plenty of electricity and a reserve for added services.
The original design had a more powerful backup generators. That was overruled by the civil service on budget grounds. A false economy I’d say.
It shows the stupidity of the original engine specification when it’s being celebrated that Dauntless’s new wheels didn’t break down.
Only in the UK you will find spending near a billion will you see people celebrating that it didn’t break down when reliability should be a given.
2025 Deployment alongside HMS Prince of Wales springs to mind..