Rolls-Royce has been awarded a contract to supply its Mission Bay Handling System (MBHS) for the UK Royal Navy’s next batch of Type 26 City-class frigates, according to an announcement.
The contract, signed with BAE Systems Surface Ships Limited, covers the production of five MBHS units, which will be manufactured at Rolls-Royce’s Canadian Naval Handling Centre of Excellence in Peterborough, Ontario.
This latest agreement brings the total number of MBHS units ordered for the Type 26 programme to eight, following a previous contract for three systems. The first complete system from the initial batch is expected to be delivered later this summer.
The company say that MBHS is a state-of-the-art solution designed to transform a ship’s mission bay into a versatile, multi-purpose space capable of handling a variety of tasks, from storing cargo and munitions to deploying unmanned and manned offboard craft.
The system’s hydraulic boom is engineered to operate in challenging sea conditions, up to sea state 6, ensuring safe and efficient deployment and retrieval operations.
Jessica Banks, Programme Executive for Naval Handling Systems at Rolls-Royce Defence, mentioned the significance of the contract, stating: “This is a huge win for Rolls-Royce in Canada and our team in Peterborough. Our Mission Bay Handling System is perfectly designed for modern naval operations, providing adaptable and flexible integration solutions suitable for a wide range of activities.” She added that Rolls-Royce is committed to delivering this critical capability to the UK Royal Navy.
The new contract is set to create a number of highly skilled jobs, increasing the workforce at Rolls-Royce’s Peterborough facility by 10%.
Ian Brown from Defence Equipment and Support at the Ministry of Defence, who has been closely involved with the MBHS project, expressed his enthusiasm for the programme: “We have a superb piece of equipment unique to the UK Royal Navy that will significantly strengthen our capability. There has been a lot of effort and collaboration, and the network this has brought together has been invaluable.”
Looks like a huge version of the teddy bear grabber crane at amusement arcades. On a more serious note, would the load extending from the side of the ship require some form of ballast adjustment? Or is it a case of a few tonnes versus 8000t doesn’t matter?
None of the pretty pictures I’ve seen include an obvious counterweight mechanism. We are talking about a maximum of 15 tonnes put at 16m from the centreline. That’s the equivalent of a a couple of similar containers stored near the edge of the ship, say 8 or 9m from the centreline. Is that a big issue for a large frigate? I wouldn’t have thought so.
Cheers for the insight👍
And now you’ve got me wondering just how automated ballast tanks are.
Need Gunbuster? Or Google?
You really shouldn’t need to counter balance this weight, it’s pretty minuscule in the scheme of things, and it’s relatively near the water line. And don’t forget a slight change is compensated for by the Fin Stabilisers these days not ballast tanks. Ever since the mid 19th Century Scientific method started to be applied to Naval Architecture so stability has been accurately calculated as part of initial design. The Father of Modern ship design was William Froude, he and his son Robert pretty well nailed all the tables, calculations, hull forms etc that are used to this day. Using experimentation… Read more »
“were all contained in a document known as the ISO-K book”
Fascinating mate, thanks.
What are we actually putting in these mission bays? Have we actually ordered anything?
There were a pair of nice articles a couple of years back on navylookout about the mission bays; all the options etc. As for ordering stuff I cannot say.
I think we all know the answer to ‘have we ordered stuff”?
The mission Bays at some unspecified date in the future are going to be stuffed to the gills with “agile AI enabled advanced world leading cutting edge systems” of an unspecified nature. Sorry, did I mention they would be Agile?
AA
Well the SEA boat based autonomous systems the RN is already running..make for a good starter..as do raiders for an RM contingent…or even an extra small ship flight rotor…plenty of stuff they can put in them. But since these ships are years away from commissioning…who knows what else there will be…
I wonder if it would not be better that instead of an enclosed mission, an open area would be better and more flexible for the future.
Well they want an open area for the mine hunting motherships but on the T26 at least I see why it’s enclosed, can be used as extra hangar space, and they’re mounting missiles on it too so I can see why it’s enclosed
You can mount a missile launcher in an open area, it is just a VLS box.
I just see that doors and height and it is right away a limitation of the device sizes. The top rolling crane also has impact in stability and being more limited than a tradition one. I agree it is a trade off from sea water protection but maybe different containers could have been deployed in the open deck and preserve that protection.
Can be used to scoop up the immigrants
You’re funny