Many media outlets have reported that the Type 45 Destroyer fleet is to have their engines replaced, despite this being announced in November.
Many news media outlets have reported the engineering problems with the Royal Navy’s warships, the Type 45’s. The papers say that the ships will have to be refitted at a cost of tens of millions of pounds because they keep breaking down.
Problems with the Type 45 destroyer’s specially-built advanced generators have plagued the ships since they were first commissioned in 2009.
The Ministry of Defence had this to say:
“The Type 45 destroyers are hugely capable ships and have consistently made a difference to our safety and security, including HMS Defender’s support to US carrier operations against Daesh in the Gulf. In our defence review last year we committed to improving the Type 45’s power and propulsion system through a series of machinery upgrades during planned maintenance, which will ensure increased availability and resilience over the life of the ships.”
The six ships which cost the taxpayer £1bn each are among the most advanced destroyers in the world.
World worst kept state secret.
I dont understand why they’ve done nothing for 7yrs to resolve the problem. Madness
Money?
If it was due to money incredibly risky and dangerous thing to do. Putting lives of our service personnel at risk.
I’m sure BAe will foot the bill………………………………..cough.
Since they were supplied by the MoD as GFX why should they
Still have to wait another 3yrs till the repairs begin.
I don’t know why everyone is making a big deal, it was in the SDSR, and it was a known fact.
A known a fact since 2009 and the repair work is not due to begin till 2019. Its ridiculous 10yrs.
Well it’s obviously not that bad, and tbh with all this stuff going on with Isis we don’t have the resources to do it now
are the new carrrier,s fitted with the same design???
Its because they have been investigating the problems & wanted to fix them properly rather than just doing a patch work job. The media should check their facts properly before going off on one which they frequently do & get it wrong. One of the many reasons why I don’t buy newspapers anymore
10 years to fix the problem?? It’s a joke
Thank you Martin, I toatally agree.
Maybe it wasn’t just money that stopped the fitted-for-but-not-with MK41 VLS being installed on the T45s but also not wanting to add extra load to an already unreliable power system. An extended refit period for each ship plus substantial updates to the power systems might be the ideal opportunity to get the MK41s finally fitted.
It’s also worrying that elements of the same project management team originally involved, then joined Network Rail and subsequently left further projects in difficulties. Now they are working on the HS2 rail project!
The hand in glove relationship between The MoD Officers, uniformed and civil servamnts, and the Infamous BAE is the root of the problems. Relentless rubber stamping of cost overruns has proved unhealthy to the extreme. Buy 8 ships, pay for 16, with a 10 year delay In Service Date and now a further 5 years replacing the engines. Again at MoD cost! The ships are not of merchantable quality – repairs must be at BAE expences. Too many Vice Directorships for the good and the great — that cash should be recovered to pay for this hideous situation. “MoD Revolving… Read more »
We can only hope that any fix to the IEP systems on the type 45 class have been included on the QE class carriers during the build or the head line writers will have a field day if problems arise.
If the media articles are true and the vessels were suffering from total power cuts, it makes them pretty useless for their primary role of air defence, where you have seconds to react and you get unlucky with a power cut.
It’s pretty lucky we haven’t had any naval based wars in the last few years.
Bright side they will have the fix before the carriers are ready to be used.
Good Evening,
A rather sad state of affairs our Navy is in it seems.
Those responsible the Government,Political Parties, Ministry of Defence etc should have a wake up call! It is time to stop passing the buck and accept responsibility the defence of the UK is paramount! Nothing else will or should be accepted!
I respectfully suggest Mr Cameron The Cold War has returned. Please do something to amend the Defence cuts! The 2015 SDR was a step but far from enough! Mr Putin will not wait!……. Dont be the next Chamberlin
Wasn’t one of these ships commissioned with a bent propshaft also? Doesn’t seem to be mentioned anywhere!
Thank God for the 10 year rule.
None of the articles specify if the fault is with the gas turbine or diesel generators !
….And the manufacturers and Mod wonder why we are unable to sell warships to other countries,
Remember their predecessors, the type 42s, which required substantial external longitudinal hull strengthening to prevent them breaking in half!
Regardless of the mixed reporting does anyone know if copper data cabling is being replaced by fibre optic dual routing data handling capability?
….err, whilst I realise the engines are not of the same type as on the type45, I hope the Diesel engines / Turbofans / COGOG system of QE and PoW has been / will be thoroughly checked through to make sure we haven’t got another vastly expensive turkey.
Love the politician speak
Perfectly true that it “will ensure increased availability” but gives the impression that the ships will have an improvement over their intended availability.
I can’t imagine the specifications for the ship included ‘breaking down’ lol