New gantry cranes were delivered to the Govan shipyard today, marking a major milestone in the construction of the new state-of-the-art shipbuilding hall.
The cranes arrived by boat on the River Clyde and were craned into the new facility this morning.
The shipbuilding hall at Govan, which measures 170 metres in length and 80 metres in width, is rapidly taking shape. This new hall is designed to accommodate the simultaneous construction of two Type 26 frigates.
This video, filmed this morning by the UK Defence Journal, shows the first being offloaded. pic.twitter.com/J0bdUGLOWA
— UK Defence Journal (@UKDefJournal) August 7, 2024
The building will be equipped with two 100-tonne cranes, which arrived this week, and two further 20-tonne cranes.
The shipyard’s new facility is part of a £300 million modernisation and digitalisation project by BAE Systems at Govan and Scotstoun. This project includes infrastructure upgrades and the introduction of digital technology to streamline processes.
The new hall will be constructed using more than 6,000 tonnes of steel and 20,000 cubic metres of concrete. It will accommodate up to 500 workers per shift and provide a controlled environment that shields the shipbuilding process from adverse weather conditions, ensuring uninterrupted progress.
The facility is expected to significantly impact the Glasgow skyline and will likely become the largest building by enclosed volume in the city, if not in Scotland. Paul Sweeney, Glasgow Labour Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) and former BAE shipyard employee, commented that the new hall will enhance Glasgow’s reputation for high-quality shipbuilding.
“This new hall will probably become the largest building by enclosed volume in Glasgow, if not Scotland, and will make a dramatic impact on the Clydeside skyline. I hope that the competitive advantages it brings will help to reassert Glasgow’s global reputation for having shipbuilding capabilities that are of the highest quality.”
The image below shows how it will look.
The Type 26 frigates are designed for anti-submarine warfare, high-intensity air defence, and can be adapted for roles such as humanitarian aid and medical support. The new facility and cranes will ensure that these ships are built efficiently and to the highest standards, and a bit quicker too.
The investment in the new shipbuilding hall is expected to sustain approximately 1,700 jobs in Scotland and 2,300 jobs across the wider UK supply chain, contributing to both the local and national economy.
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It’s very impressive and combined with all the other significant infrastructure investments at Rosyth, Barrow, Derby, Devonport, Faslane and Sheffield its a real boost to U.K PLC.
Thanks George I may even have a reason to smile 🤔
But at only 170 metres in length, it does sort of limit any future T83 build given what the Chinese are churning out. I do wonder at times just who is the head of forward planning ?
Were never going to be able to build something to Match China though, always going to be on a smaller scale. Plus the Type is only around 150 meters so id argue weve got plenty of room.
Their Type 055 is 180 metres long, it’s also reputed to be between 1100 and 1300 tons. You might just want to take another look.
We should be and probably are actively looking to counter these ships, If not then we are not looking at the possible threats these ships might just present.
Sorry Hugo but this is real and my comments about the Shed length is real too.
For some reason Type “45” got cut out. Which is what I was meaning to say. Course we’re going to look at it but our budget has hardly got better since the 45. If we make practically cruisers then we won’t get 6 ships let alone more.
Not sure what you’re going on about real. I know the Shed it only 170, so well have to build a ship to that size otherwise we’ll constantly be paying for infrastructure
To be honest I don’t think we need to be matching stroke for stroke the tonnage of the type 055…13,000 tonnes is a big ship and maybe more than we need. These are true cruisers and task force flag ships not just escorts..they have it’s seems significant fleet and taskforce command and control…which ups their tonnage…it goes with the fact the PLAN in any future conflict will be pushing out surface action groups beyond the second chain in the pacific as well as into the western Indian Ocean…from an RN point of view if they are involved in combating the… Read more »
Isn’t it the width that is relevant here. The cranes look to me like they span the width of the shed and run the entire length on the supports at the side. Or am I missing something.
Looks like it to me.which makes sense on balance.
The new Italian Destroyers will be a little longer than this shed and between 11000 and 13000 tons, we aren’t going to build anything bigger than those I reckon and in all honesty if we build something of that scale they can still be built in the shed with at worst the final bow section added poking out if they don’t add a temporary extension which seems entirely plausible. Don’t think it would be a deal breaker when compared to what’s happening with the 1st two T-26s. But bigger, while desirable will hit the point of diminishing returns at some… Read more »
150m or 180m it all sinks the same if targeted by a sub. The answer is the astutes and the class beyond that.
Subs are doing worse than the surface fleet right now, and with the delays there will be to start Aukus production SSN numbers will dip again.
It’s a depressing picture having just read the NL article
I agree.
It is a bit of good new in amongst the T23 doom and gloom and the manning crisis in both RFA and RN.
Only good news for the future though.
It is good this is being built…but these should have been build well before steel was cut on the first T26…and this goes with the whole question of why the hell did we not have new frigates in the water in 2015/16, SSNs replaced in a timely way or even the dry docks for the SSNs to be maintained in….it’s good to see but the whole lot is really a shitshow…considering the fact from 2010 we were looking at an unstable world…and from 2014 a new cold war.
Doesn’t exactly gives you faith in our leader’s decision making capacity does it. Too much on a reliance on the US umbrella I think .
It’s a shame that they will move out of the new hall down to Scotstoun for completion and sit in an open drydock , kind of defeats the purpose of building in a controlled environment .
Lipstick on a pig sort of thing.
I mean tbf alot of the fit out is internal work. It’s putting the blocks together that absolutely needs to happen internally, course it would help if it was all internal but in the UK we seem to do alot of make do with the space we have lol
God bless them and all that hangs from them. God save the King. Jolly good show.
In the 1880’s there was a lot of ‘building individual ships that were individually better than the French [or whoever]) without any regard to tactics and use. Simply building bigger ships just because the Chinks have them is not the answer. A T45 with some re-arrangemenr would provide all the capacity you would want. I mean…just how .any launchers DO you need? Just because the :chinks have 13000 tons…do we need 13500 tons?? 14000 tons??? How big a signature does a 14000 ton ship create? How difficult is it to suppress noise/heat/ radar cross section/ wave production signatures on a… Read more »
We need more than 48 vls and we need more ASW platforms, needs a new design
I agree, the Ukrainians have sunk many tons of putins grand fleet and there fleet is measured in kilo’s. God bless them 🇺🇦🇬🇧
Why not just say Chinese
Let’s hope that they are not white elephants and a steady flow of orders follow
At best theyll get T83 some time next decade, maybe additional T26s for Norway sooner than that.
Doescanybody know where these cranes were built? UK I hope.
Kone is a Finnish company that has manufacturing in the UKbir I suspect these were made abroad.
The vast majority of the steel being used on the T26 is foreign I’m afraid.