The Ministry of Defence want to replace current “obsolete and incapable” training simulators and replace them with ones able to reflect changes made during the Type 45’s power improvement programme.
According to a ‘Prior Information Notice’ issued by the Ministry of Defence to notify industry of an upcoming contract:
“The Authority intends to run a competition to design a Training Simulator to enable training of Royal Navy Engineers assigned to Type 45 Destroyers.
The current Simulation solution is outdated, obsolete and incapable of supporting the new requirements from the Napier power improvement programme. The requirement is to design a training simulator to train personnel on the use of the Platform Management System (PMS) integral to the T45.
The competition is for procurement of a solution only. When procurement is complete, the enduring maintenance of the Training Simulator will be managed by another Department.”
The Ministry of Defence say that they intend to issue a contract notice by the end of November/Early December 2021.
What is Project Napier?
In 2015, the Ministry of Defence acknowledged that the vessels propulsion system, specifically, the Northrup Grumman intercooler was experiencing reliability issues, previously reported as nothing more than “teething troubles”.
A staggered refit was also announced, which will involve cutting into the ships’ hulls and fitting additional diesel generation capacity, this has become known as Project Napier.
According to the Royal Institute of Naval Architects:
“Project Napier was established in 2014 with two core work strands. The first of these, known as the Equipment Improvement Plan (EIP), is continuing efforts to enhance system reliability and to meet the original design intent in the near term. The second component of Project Napier is a longer term Power Improvement Plan (PIP), intended to improve overall system resilience by adding upgraded diesel generators to provide the electrical generation capacity required to meet the overwhelming majority of propulsion and ship power requirements without reliance on WR-21.”
Project Napier will cost £280 million.
The reliability issues with the intercooler lead to occasional near-complete power generation failures, temporarily disabling not only propulsion, but power generation for weapons, navigational systems, and other purposes, leaving the ships vulnerable to “total electric failure”.
The Ministry of Defence have confirmed that all Type 45 Destroyers will have received upgrades to their power systems by the mid-2020s, you can read more about that here.
Are we sure the Type 26 and 31’s have the right engines? I’m sure this was a one off ‘B***’s up, and I hope a sober reminder that the crews of these ships deserve better.
T31 are proven design 4 MTU diesels.
Type 26 has MT30, dervived from the RR Trent – already in service on QEs,US Freedom class Littoral Combat Ships and Zumwalt destroyer and well as with the Italian (Trieste) Japanese (Mogamis) and Korean (Daegus) navies.
Its a shame the timelines of Type 45 design and construction and MT 30 availability didn’t match up – if they had MT 30 they would be nigh on perfect,and there would have been fewer discussions on here about it 😀😎
To be fair, the pair of intercooled-recuperated WR-21 was a better fit for the T45 design, and has benefits in terms of efficiency and reduced IR signature, especially when compared with the likely alternative at the time – the LM2500.
The trouble is that, at least as far as the non-RR parts are concerned, it didn’t perform to spec. Had it done so, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
The T-26’s have the same GTA as the carriers and other than QE blowing through some ducting on the west coast of the States I’ve not heard any mention of other reliability issues with them.
The T-31… Do they even have a Gas Turbine. Someone else might be more definitive but so far I only see mention of diesel generator sets. Those look to be the same as on the QE class as well made by RR/MTU
Type 31 is Diesel only, CODAD i think is the correct term.
Type 31 has four 8mw MTU diesels driving two shafts in a CODAD (combined diesel and diesel) arrangement with variable pitch props, and four additional 1mw MTU generators. CODAD means it can cruise or sprint on its diesels. Power is uplifted from the Iver Huifeld, which only has the four 8mw diesels, presumably to allow more electrical systems growth. Marine diesels have come a long way from the 1960s when GTs were first introduced – these ships can make 30 knots. Type 26 has a CODLOG (combined diesel-electric or gas) powertrain and also has four 3mw MTU generators alongside the… Read more »
Seems T26 could be ‘significantly’ in excess of 26 knots, then. But appreciate the hotel loads are what extends sensor and weapon flexibility, though.
Yes MOD always understates performance in public statements. They will be 30 knot + vessels.
T23 can shift the electrical power around automatically to where its needed. If you have a high hotel load and then also need propulsion the “shedables” drop off so things like 240v power , 50% lighting can drop off until more generators come on line.
Excellent.
Rather as you would hope it would work in a rational design.
Like the human circulatory system the essentials get priority!
Although I would guess with LED lighting retrofitted (guess) that it would reduce the utility of a 50% lighting regime. I could also see how that would reduce the chilled water system loading too.
QEC also have full IEP – with lessons learned baked in. I think the Albions are also IEP? So it isn’t like IEP can’t work properly. The issue with T45 was more the very steep cliff edge between working fine and thermal runaway to failure. Which left little time for active load shedding. Most of the work around(s) were, apparently, in the software to shed hotel load and limit speed/power in certain thermal regimes. Hence why there have been massively reduced instances of power failure. What happened with T45 on CSG21 was the full failure of a turbine and not… Read more »
There is a T26 engine set in action in one of the LEP T23’s.
So it will be well test IRL.
It one of the lessons learned.
I am, (not) surprised, that nobody shut up one of the ill informed idiot MP on the Defence Select Committee with that one simple fact.
Because it’s not true?
“In addition to PGMU and PIP, very similar DG sets are also being fitted to the T26 Frigates. The occurrence of three RN platforms using modern DG sets from the same family marks a turning point for the Royal Navy, where it has moved firmly into the 21st century with regards to diesel electric power generation, and the changes in operating and maintenance procedures that this brings with it.”
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335659443_T23_Frigate_Power_Generation_and_Machinery_Controls_Update_PGMU_-_Let_the_trials_commence
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/hms-richmond-emerges-from-refit-as-most-advanced-frigate/
HMS Richmond has the diesel generator/engine setup the T26s are due to have. Slightly dodgy source admittedly 🤣
It has taken far far to long to sort this major issue out. Should have retained a few T42’s whilst the T45’s were sorted. Great weapons system but power? Rubbish and not happy ships really either as very poorly but together. Role on the replacement which will I hope WORK when wanted.
Keeping some Type 42’s in service longer would have been a waste of time and money i think – Sea Dart was basically OOS so apart from the 4.5,Phalanx and 30mm they couldn’t contribute much to any tasking.
They cancelled the improved Sea Dart. Even then, it wouldn’t have been as capability as the Aster missile is! From what I remember the Type 909 had a minor update and then was going to be updated with a new antenna and pre-amp to boost range.
But a ship at sea is better than not and T45’s have been more alongside in Portsmouth than any other class in recent times. T42’s were still in good condition and all systems still worked, Seadart like harpoon could have been extended if required. The T45’s power issue should have been sorted years ago not half way through the class’ life. T45 weapons as said are the tops in Air Defence but contributed little else as no sonar and when they have no power then they contribute nothing to defence. Served on a couple T45’s and T42’s too and I… Read more »
Defender seems to have done ok? Also, not sure Diamond’s issues are related to PIP unless you know different?
Good point Angus , I doubt any T45 on fountain lake Jetty could engage any Threat should of kept a Couple of Batch 2 T42s going .At least those old girls could carry out the 3 key points of a Warship Float,Fight,Move T45s seem too only manage 2out of 3 occasionally 1 out of 3 .Could the Navy say wholeheartedly that T45s could manage 3 out of 3 100% of the time ?
Post 2010 the RN was caught between a rock and a hard place. Not enough money for crewing or maintenance – the only way to get that was to loose more ships, which after the disasterous 2010 SDSR they sucessfully resisted. The RN introduced a new crewing model (iniitally on Montrose and then the OPVs) to maintain ships on station, and retained the Batch 1 OPVs. As 2SL Radakin reorganised and rationalised a lot of shore jobs and cut a few admirals (and the support coy from 40 cdo) to address crewing. He also acellerated the departure of the oldest… Read more »
The carriers have IEP too, and its pretty common on cruise liners. There must be a way to get it right, so it does not automatically shut down if one of the turbines fails? I imagine a lot is software as well as making sure there is a larger margin of back up diesel generated power if one WR21 goes. Unfortunately, the WR21 will always be problematic until they are replaced so they will need to be overpowered to nurse those engines. This is not new – some ship designs don’t work out as planned. The battleships Rodney and Nelson… Read more »
Yep that was in the era of Washington Naval treaty. They tried to fit too much into too little displacement.
Sorry I replied to you on the above thread!
My bad.
We’re going to put T31s to see with almost as little..12 Sea Ceptors and an air pistol…
Really, really, really T42 could not have been extended.
They cost fortunes to run, huge crew and very fuel inefficient.
The Sea Dart computer system was getting impossible to maintain as it was ancient. Nobody was around who designed the thing.
You would have been better off relying on Sea Ceptor than Sea Dart in terms of real world performance. Aster is in another league altogether never mind with Sampson.
That’s not what the crews informed us at the time of decommissioning as hulls and machinery were still working. Aster is good but no good if the hull its in is not at sea is it. Both France and Italy used a modded well known power plant on their hulls with no such issues. Cost to run, well what does not cost to run. T42’s were very reliable with many of the hulls doing back to back trips without issues, can’t say that about T45’s. It;s no fun going from 30 knots to zero because you have no power and… Read more »
Errr… What?
T42s where knackered. They where cash cows eating FTSP cash for fun.
Accom was rubbish… Unless as a PO you liked living in a mess 3 bunks high with 20 plus other people, When everyone else has 6 berth cabins in the Fleet.
Fire fighting… So no emergency fire pump then…Carp… No Desmi’s?
Everyone else has TLFs… T23 and LPDs especially…you learn to work around it and carry on keeping the ship going.
(Former NBCDQ by the way…)
Where was it the last time they remember having it?
😂
I think RR have got this one. There’s youtube videos of just such devices they’ve got running already so given they’re somewhat in the power business this would look like a job right up their street.
What do people think the cause of the T45s problems are – poor relationships between the RN and Contractor, multinational design, shoddy workmanship, inexperience….
None of those. WR21 is an experimental design, it was also insufficiently bench tested. BAe advised MOD not to go with it, as too high risk, but the then Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon overuled the advice, as it seemed to offer some benefits in terms of fuel consumption and reduced emissions. The Power Improvment Programme has moved slowly, but presumably because of the usual first-in-class issues. Cammel Laird and Rolls Royce will be learning how to get it right with Dauntless (now on trials after PIP). Presumably they will have ironed out the installation process for the next set of… Read more »
There’s two distinct problems with the T45’s. Firstly that the WR21’s are unreliable as you state.
Secondly, the propulsion/generation system could not handle losing a WR21 without closing down the whole ship’s electrical systems.
One fault triggered the other.
By the way Hoon didn’t chose WR21 because of reduce fuel consumption, he chose it in order to preserve Labour votes in Rugby because its competitor was an American GT.
Thanks for the correction – I overstated that point.
Dauntless isn’t out doing any trials she is still stuck in Cammels basin with very little activity going on. Whilst Daring has been in the dry dock for 2 months now with zero happening. So there appears to be very little urgency in the program!
By the time all this intercooler fiasco has run its coarse T45s will be just in time for King Williams silver jubilee Spithead review then back to Fountain lake Jetty
So what is going on?
It is know that the PIP was supposed to last 6 months and there is already more than a year.
When brewing up for a Cuppa the Kettle keeps tripping the electrics probably that’s my excuse and I’m sticking too it Alex
How long has Dauntless been back afloat?
“BAe advised MOD not to go with it” Not this all over again NO JUST NO! BAe did not advise the MOD not to go with the WR21! That is simply not true! BAe did a risk study of both propulsion solutions and advised both the WR21 based solution and the GE2500 based solution could meet the performance, fuel consumption and range requirements for Type 45. The study stated that the WR21 based solution had greater risk only. It would have been a brave defence secretary at the time to go against the home solution especially when it directly affected… Read more »
Thanks for the correction – noted.
Yup, but in political speak “greater risk” = “courageous decision” = “don’t go there”
BAe are not stupid so they made it clear enough to get them off the contractual hook without preventing the minister from doing what he was always going to do.
Geoff Hoone was the problem the nearest he got too the Navy was a tot of Pussers Rum in the Commons Bar
Known to everyone as Geoff Who !
Just thank the Lord the Defence Secretary wasn’t Baron David Blunkett then it would have been a case of the Blind leading the MOD (blind) sorry for not being PC Favid
LOL
Geoff Buffoon was his usual name 😛
Whatever happened to him ! Oh never mind no one cares. LOL
Just putting this forward as a possibility, but why keep throwing good money after bad. One idea would be to see if we could use the T31 hull with a batch 2 as a AA platform as a temporary replacement for the T45s until the T82’s come into service, Yes we will only get half the service life out of the T45 hulls but we will shut down this quit embarrassing sager in the RNs illustrious history.
Had a discussion with a CL employee yesterday. Dauntless has not yet left the yard for sea trials!
Type 82 ? Bristol was the one and only .And she’s just gone Steve
Type 83
Fedaykin Type 83 at the rate we’re going after COP 26 the Navy will either be Solar powered or back under Sail thanks Greta
Yes, the Arrowhead model at DSEI seems to show the possibility of the T31 handling heavier range of radars and a much bigger VLS load. If would be good to get some visuals of possible “lite” AAW T31, even on the T26 hull. They could likely build two new AAW ships before the PIP concludes. A 8 AAW fleet would be healthier.
It Just that these PIP up-grades are taking so long and are now keeping up in price.
Because what you suggest is a waste of money. The Type 45, is generally regarded as the best air-defence destroyer afloat. It’s only issue is the crap intercooler, which they are replacing. The money spent on fixing the T45s is a fraction of what you’d spend on an inferior cobbled together replacement. You appear to want to throw away all that’s good to bodge something together based on a T31… Something that Heath Robinson would undoubtedly have even more issues – the most obvious being lower mounted radar resulting in less-range. Not to mention where to accommodate all the missiles… Read more »
Hello Sean, The Heath Robinson element comes in when you keep trying to repair something that dose not work. I agree with you that the T45’s would be an excellent bit of kit “If” they worked but they do not.
And that doesn’t describe the T45. They known what the problem is – the intercooler. They known what the fix is – stick in a couple more diesels, which they can because the T45 was built with lots of room for extra kit. Should all be fixed by mid 2920’s – it’s nearly 2022. So that it no way describes your “good money after bad” situation. If you owned a convertible Ferrar and the roof kept getting stuck on opening, you would you get the get the roof fixed. You wouldn’t scrap it and replace it with a Fiat Panda… Read more »
If I had a new car and it was faulty I would send it back, the RN was forced to accept into service the T45’s knowing they were faulty by the MoD.
The PIP program is proceeding at a snails pace this might be because they are taking out 2 diesel generators and putting back 3 so have to move other kit around as well so a simple fix ends up being yet anouther bodge-up.
Good luck sending a car back after it’s warranty period. Nobody forced the RN to accept the T45 into service, it passed the trials. Had some politician tried to ‘force’ the RN then it would have been leaked all over the newspapers. So don’t add conspiracy theories to you your lack of knowledge. The ‘snails pace’ will be completed around the middle of the decade. It’s the end if 2021 and there’s 6 ships to do, do the maths… Whereas you plan to take the budget £250m T31s and bodge together a replacement air-defence ship using odds and ends would… Read more »
The faulty engines were documented before HMS Daring was lunched (lead ship) and was seen to be even worse than suspected on her trials but the MoD insisted that the class would be completed with the faulty engines instead of rectifying the rest of the class while still on the slips and look for a remedy once the class was in service. We are now half way through the service life of the Batch 1s (Daring,Dauntless,Diamond) we have just witnessed the sterling performance of HMS Defender but on the flip side HMS Diamond was a big embarrassment for what should… Read more »
Like Kippling said ‘IF” is the middle word of “LIFE” Steve
Your right Tommo, and the governments favourite expressions are If, But and Maybe.
Like a School report “Could do Better” Steve
You goy it
👨🎓due too the PC brigade can’t find a Dunces cap emoji
They are not replacing the intercooler, it works ok, but in hot climates it can shut down and power from the WR21 can drop off catastrophically if the system is overloaded. It works the same as any intercooled system, but commerical systems don’t take the same level of stress as military systems. They are adding another 6mw of diesel generator capacity to ensure it is never so overloaded that the WR21 fails. What this means is that the T45 IEP needs a larger safety margin of power over expected demand than the T23s or new ships.
It is a bit more clumsy than that as far as I can make out. The 4 x gen sets that are going in are big enough for the whole ship to run on even if the GT goes offline. So essentially it allows the GT to be run down when it starts to get close to thermal runaway. In fact in normal use the GT won’t even be fired up. With the 4 x gensets GT won’t have to be hard loaded to run at 30kts. It really is the rough and ready solution to take the GT out… Read more »
The recuperator (not intercooler) is not being replaced in T45.
The power generation system is being augmented with the three existing diesel generators being removed and replaced with four more powerful units.
Just asking a question – would it be worthwhile testing a WR-21 in a Type 23 (as a test ship, for example the recently decommissioned HMS Monmouth)?
Off-topic I know, but a very very interesting read for most on UKDJ I think?
https://www.key.aero/article/team-tempest-takes-new-approach
Behind a paywall?
Sorry JohninMK, I don’t understand your point “Behind a paywall?”
When I link to it I see the first couple of paras then the message “Become a Premium Member to Read MoreThis is a premium article and requires an active Key.Aero subscription to view.” is displayed. This is known as a ‘paywall’.
I opted not to agree and can access it in full. I’ve done my best to sort out the paragraphs for you but it’s late! 14th April 2021 FEATURE In this exclusive look behind the scenes of Britain’s new Future Combat Air System, Jon Lake gets under the skin of an aircraft due to enter service in just 14 years’ time, and yet its configuration is still undecided. Tempest will be a ‘system of systems’ with a manned (or optionally manned) fighter aircraft at its heart – the final design, however, may differ substantially from the configuration featured in BAE Systems’… Read more »
Thank you, that’s very kind of you and much appreciated. Now to read it.
People need to relax the engine issue on the T45 is being rectified , yes the MOD screwed up but they are sorting it what else do you want them to do?
🏴🇬🇧
Got to love a bit of Ben Hill, the Goodies, the Two Ronnies and Faulty Towers and all the others that gave us many many laughs! Have to say, Boris does make me laugh at times…but you all have to live with him and his antics in the UK.
Aye indeed it’s a far cry from small boys in the park,jumpers for goalposts, isn’t it? , mmmmmm .Marvelous .
🏴🇬🇧
I would like them too speed it up and put it to Music like Benny Hill
Great news on new system if and when ,however will this not slow Type 45 down with Extra Wight
Weight sorry 🙄
So they can spend even less time at sea, probably…
Pompey dockyard may come under an AA threat and would need defending so the 45s won’t have travel far .The Navy would also save on LOA Geoffi
I wonder if the new engineering simulator ‘gracefully declines’ on hot days, then stops working…..?