Photos show HMS Glasgow, the first of eight Type 26 Frigates, being moved from land onto a submersible barge before being floated off downriver.
BAE Systems say that over the coming days, the ship, currently weighing nearly 6,000 tonnes, will undertake a series of complex manoeuvres that will move her from BAE Systems’ Govan shipyard, onto a barge before being towed downriver to a deep-water location in the West of Scotland and lowered into the water. The frigate will then be brought back upriver to Scotstoun to continue fitting out.
Not quite a conventional launch, but a launch nonetheless.
Here are a couple of videos. pic.twitter.com/R7dM89dgnV
— George Allison (@geoallison) November 25, 2022
“Once in position, the float off will involve the base of the barge being slowly submerged over a number of hours until HMS GLASGOW fully enters the water. She will then return to BAE Systems’ Scotstoun shipyard further along the Clyde, where she will undergo the next stages of outfit before test and commissioning.”
I went to gather photos of the first part of the move before having to leave to head elsewhere for personal reasons but don’t worry, I’ll return soon to collect more imagery and video once the ship is fully secured to the barge.
Ben Wallace, Secretary of State for Defence, said:
“HMS GLASGOW entering the water for the first time marks a major milestone for the Type 26 programme which supports thousands of highly skilled jobs in Scotland and more across the wider UK supply chain. We’re continuing to invest in the British shipbuilding industry to maintain the Royal Navy’s cutting-edge ability to defend our nation, while strengthening our partnership with allies.”
David Shepherd, Type 26 Programme Director, BAE Systems, said:
“Seeing HMS GLASGOW in the water for the first time will be a proud and exciting moment for the thousands of people involved in this great endeavour. She will soon transfer to our Scotstoun yard in Glasgow where we look forward to installing her complex systems and bringing her to life.”
For those wondering how they moved the ship, little wheeled vehicles under the vessel shown below.
The submersible barge was tested last month ahead of the upcoming launch of the new warship.
According to Malin Group, the barge will initially be used to transport and ‘launch’ the Type 26 Frigates being built by BAE Systems for the Royal Navy and then berthed on the Clyde and made available to industry as required, “catalysing further opportunities for the wider supply chain in fields including shipbuilding, civil construction and renewable energy”.
I went along to watch the barge arrive. Here’s the video.
The 137m long 'CD01', a semi-submersible barge operated by Malin Augustea, has arrived at the BAE shipyard in Govan. Type 26 Frigate HMS Glasgow will later be moved onto the barge which will then move to deep water before submerging and allowing HMs Glasgow to float off. pic.twitter.com/aZ5ALff8OJ
— George Allison (@geoallison) September 8, 2022
John MacSween, Managing Director of the Malin Group, said:
“Securing this piece of equipment marks another positive step forward in the reawakening of the shipping and large-scale marine manufacturing industry in Scotland. This versatile asset, based on the West Coast of Scotland, can be used for launching and bringing ships ashore, docking vessels locally or at remote locations as well as being used to relocate large structures around the UK and further afield.
We are delighted to continue our long-standing relationship with the internationally renowned tug and barge owner specialists Augustea, as well as work with Hat-San who are bringing years of shipbuilding experience to the conversion. We are also extremely grateful for the support we have had from Scottish Enterprise in making this project a reality.”
The barge is a joint venture between the Malin Abram and Augustea and, now modified, represents one of the largest in Europe – it can submerge to load vessels and cargo with draughts of up to 12m and over 137m in length.
It will be based on the Clyde between projects.
These are going to be good looking ships (MRINA Rtd)
They look epic 👍
I take it, it’s too shallow to use the ramp that’s there😎
I don’t think it’s to shallow. Did the type 45 launch down the ramp?
It’s probably more controlled launch using barge. The river isn’t that wide either so probably just in case. These are guesses really
The T45 ships did launch down the slipway, I believe.
They did. The fun part was ensuring they stopped before running into the quay on the opposite bank of the river.
Puts a lot of unnecessary stress on a ship launching it like that.
Ideally in precision environment you want the thing built on a level base. Many shipbuilders will tell you of the mistakes the unwary made aided by a common spirit level……
And I feel their pain, number of times I’ve watched an apprentice use a spirit level on a mobile unit Is astounding, knowing it’s just cost hours or days to fix is then mildly infuriating/depressing. If my apprentice tried to use one it got sledgehammered!!!
Other major annoyance is fitters welding onto steel conduits filled with cables and melting through the looms.
Ah, yes the old steel conduit trick….that really annoyed me when you had a section tested out and some clot trashed it. Pointless extra work caused, usually, by pure laziness
Now George, before our SNP friends arrive, are you sure it’s the first of eight and not five or three and it is on the Clyde.😉.A powerful, good looking ship.
You can’t ask him to risk life and limb by stating the obvious that way. Real manufacturing jobs in Scotland are far too contentious!
They will probably claim that the video is clearly showing a scene on the Isle of White or even worse Spain where we all know the Supply ships are being designed, built and operated with Spanish crews out of Cadiz.
That’s the advantage of the barge. They can sail it to Spain for future RN shipbuilding.
It’s only one ship. Everyone’s talking nonsense. 13 were promised not 1😂😂😂
Ah…so you say, but 13 is an unlucky number so 🙃
And where are the guns and missiles ? Where’s the radar ? It’s a disgrace.
Where’s the superfiring 15” gun turrets? Only useful for constabulary duties 😉😆
Unlike Canadian constabulary OPVs, it isn’t even ice-strengthened, yet when the Gulf stream dies, Scotland will have the same climate as Labrador. Why, oh why won’t the MOD think ahead!
Except by that stage due to the general warming of the planet, the South of England will have a tropical climate and Scotland will even be warm enough to be habitable by then 😆
A tip of the cap for successful multi- targeting. 😉
The 57mm BAE Bofors on the new T31 is a great system with many uses, just too light for a frigate main gun IMO c.f. the 4.5 or 5″. For surface work(ship to ship or NGS) the weight of shell hitting is hugely different. Just c.6lb for 57mm c.f. 46lb for the 4.5″ or 70lb for the 5″.
Well both the RN and USN have chosen it for their newest frigates, partly I suspect for the versatility in the range of munitions it can fire.
(I think if ships are firing guns at each then both sides have clearly cocked-up badly…)
As for NGS, I think even the Americans have abandoned that concept for the time-being after the Zumwalt experience. Land attack will be the preserve of missiles until rail-guns become a reality.
Yes it is the first of eight and it is Clyde built
I think you might have missed the joke there Brian.
Handsome ship 👏
So how did they get the ship on the barge? The ship was on the land, and the barge is in the water. Did someone just give it a shove!
You can see the ship mover underneath it.
Like this, show how they move blocks for the QE build same principle.
https://youtu.be/m-6z6c1A4pI
Similar vehicles to those used by SpaceX by the look of it.
Now all thats needed is this soundtrack
F.A.B.
Will be refreshing my screen every ten minutes to make sure I don’t miss it bob-bob-bobbing downstream. (I hope they remember the Erskine Bridge this time!)
I’m sure Farouk will have a Thunderbird rescue video handy if not 🙏
Range is only 8 or 10km. Heavyweight torpedoes are outranging that by 4 or 5 times. Helicopters are better than ship launched for sub hunting, VLS is probably next best but afaik only Japan currently has a vertical launched ASW torp and I don’t think we’ll be getting them anytime soon.
If helicopters are better then they should have a 2 helicopter hangar.
I think we will be looking for something much longer range than a deck mounted stingray. ASROC with stingray mounting in the mk41 atleast.
Or perhaps, Stingray’s successor, which has been surfaced (😉) on occasion? 🤔
So, the moving equipment is visible under the ship, I understand that engineering. My question is: Does that “mover get submerged with the barge, or is the ship secured onto the framework visible and the mover driven back onto land?
cheers
Hey that was my question 😂😂
I think once the ship and its frame is secured on the track like support structure on the barge it can be hydraulically lowered enough to be withdrawn. Indeed you can see the process in Expat’s video.
The ship with its supports will be lowered onto the supporting framework on the barge, the movers driven off back onto the quay, then the ship supports will be temporarily welded to the barge framework for the trip down the Clyde.
Cheers Robin
Good to see her on her way to launch, wondering how long it will be until we see HMS Cardiff there.
You can see some of it through those big doors.
No amount of reality will penetrate the minds made up about the ‘lies’.
Congratulations to all the workforce and keep them coming! ‘Made on the Clyde‘ indeed!
So this one is being rolled out, they have already started on the next type 26?
Work started on HMS Cardiff in August 2019, and HMS Belfast in June 2021
Two others have been under construction since 2019 and 2020 respectively, due to COVID-19 I’d imagine they’re behind schedule a little. However, hopefully after the completion of Glasgow construction time will start reducing up until eventually we should be getting them every 2 years.
then the batch 2 every 1.5 years
She will have to go into dry dock to fit the Bow mounted sonar. A good sign of things to come and now there is no reason now why her sisters cannot be launched on a regular drum beat of about 5 years per vessel.
😳😳😁
Why is the forward part of the underwater hull painted red and the aft portion black? Have they simply not got round to putting on the last coat in full? Surely easier to do before the ship is launched….. or whatever the right term is these days.
The bloke promised to turn up on wednesday to finish but his transit broke down and then he had a rush job in Swindon. So he’ll be round Tuesday definite. Maybe. 😁
The Black parts are Anachoic (?) Tiles, the same as what is fitted to our Submarines to reduce radiated noise from the Machinery spaces.
Is that new? Don’t think I have seen it on previous AS frigates.
AFAIK it is a new thing, Type 23’s never had it.
Well spotted David. I’d not noticed that. Paul T may have the answer.
I bet blood pressures were a bit high whilst all the moving was going on.
I once had the SBMTs (crawler vehicles) conk out when a rather expensive module was only half way on a barge on the Tyne. We bought time to sort it out by using the barge ballast system to keep everything level despite a rising tide but it was twitchy-bum time!
The first ship launch at my old yard(down the slipay, old school), the tugs both snapped their lines & in high wind the tanker crashed into a trawler moored on alongside here we were supposed to be repairing! Happy days!
Please, you gotta finish this one–trawler sink? Anyone flogged? Praise and promotion for those judged to be at fault? 😳
The trawler survived, just got a dent in the stern, probably broken welds internally. Only hit at 1 or 2 knots. It stopped the tanker (high in the water at launch weight, strong westerly wind blowing right down the harbour) & the inept tugs finally got tow lines back on board. I never heard of any repercussions. The tugboat skippers presumably got a rollicking.
After launch the tanker sat across the harbour square to the wind, which blew her down harbour-Upstream tug skipper goes “oh no, I’d better stop that!” & instead of manouvering gently to take up the strain(from slack tow line), he tears up the harbour as fast as he can-so line suddenly snaps as soon as it tightens, way too fast. Second tugboat skipper attached to the stern sees the tanker drifting past him down stream & repeats the other skippers’ manoeuvre & his tow line snaps pronto too.
I was just a lowly labourer watching gobsmacked on the quayside(right next to the poor trawler). I bet the explanation to the trawler skipper was priceless. The next 4 launches I witnessed there went fine.
Priceless! Today tere would be at least a dozen cellphone videos to memorialize event. 😳😁
…there…
Undoubtedly. It was c.Feb 1989 I think.
I hope they make a speeded up video of it going from the land to the barge when it’s finished.
It’s a pretty neat process. I’ve attached a video of how Canada’s AOPV class of ships are launched from the Irving Shipyard in Halifax using the same technique. This one is from the first of class, HMCS Harry DeWolf, in 2018. There have been two others since, and the fourth is scheduled for this weekend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jP5f7z-SMA
HMCS Harry DeWolf? No disrespect to our Canadian cousins but that is a funny name for a ship.
He is a famous naval commander from ww2. Remember many Canadians are French ancestry so DeWolf rather than Wolf.
Thanks for info Jim. And of course we shouldn’t mention General James Wolfe!!
Well, at least it isn’t Hairy Wolf. 🙄
I know there are some very knowledgable folks in this group so can someone kindly explain why it hasn’t been welded together on the Slipway and launched the old fashioned way.
This shipyard launched a T45 on that very same slipway and when it was Fairfield’s managed HMS Howe, so why go for what looks like a very awkward and convoluted process.
Just asking ?
Control. Less strain on the ship, the modern way to launch. Those multi wheeled carts are just incredible.
I rather think you can calculate all you want but at the moment the chocks are bashed out and the ship rolls down the slipway, it’s in the lap of the gods…
Look what happened to The Great Eastern,
AA
Because there will be no strain on the hallway when it goes into the North Atlantic.
Fair point, but the Exchecquer’s check should have cleared by that point.
Thank you gor posting this information. When does it sail down the river past Bowling. Would love to see it
Drat! I’m going away for a few days to Newcastle and think I’m going to miss her being transported down the Clyde.
Just home from work, I think a beer is in order and not to England, but, HMS Glasgow. Congratulations young lady!
How they install the bow sonar after it’s launched?
In a period of Dry Docking.
Seems redundant when it’s already out of the water
Not if you look at the ground clearance in the photos above
I imagine our Australian and Canadian cousins will be interested to see this latest milestone. Also perhaps the USN?? 🤞🤞. Lets hope she doesn’t do something embarrassing like sink 😂😂😂
Have the Australians started building there Franken-frigates yet? Only joking I hope the design modifications work out for them.
I really hope Canada gets the frigates it needs. The way the costs were put together makes them look super expensive. I don’t think Canada has anytime to cancel. It’s ships need replaced. It’s subs are getting a bit long in the tooth as well.
Perhaps they could join up for the T83 program.
Off topic a bit, but does anyone know when they are cutting first steel on Bulldog, the second T31?
Do we have any expected dates for the 2022 Integrated Defence Review update to the 2021 Review? With the news the Japan-Tempest deal is expected to be signed in December im half expecting they will co-ordinate to the same day.
David Williams, the Permanent Secretary told the Public Accounts Committee “I would expect the report in the first part of 2023”.
Originally requested to be completed by year end, but deferred until “first part of 2023.”
Suspect delay due to large number of pieces on chessboard and Mad Vlad’s opening gambit, serious consideration is being given to next moves.
Not to be a scenic or anything. But why all the faff? How come the ship isn’t built in a covered dry dock? Why get it rica watertight stage then send it to Scotstoun for fitting out?
I know the answers are due to politics! BAe wanted the Government to pay for the dockyard upgrade and refurbishment: But were told to do one. Scotstoun was kept open to keep everyone in Glasgow happy.
Yet we see what could have been done, by seeing what Babcock are doing at Rosyth. What a wasted opportunity.
OK rant over. Well done everyone for getting her ready for launch.