Shipyards, including Ferguson Marine in Port Glasgow, have been contracted for steelwork fabrication for a limited number of units to support the delivery of the Type 26 programme.
The Type 26 frigate project is creating significant work opportunities across British shipyards.
On May 19, a tender was issued, signalling plans to award a £500,000 contract for the sea transport of blocks and units related to the Type 26 programme. The delivery contract is slated to begin in October 2023 and will continue until May 2024.
“BAEs Naval Ships are outsourcing a scope of steelwork fabrication to build yards across the UK. These will range from three single units to a consolidated block. Due to the size and weight of these, seaborne transportation will be required. BAEs Naval Ships are looking to hear from any transportation subcontractor’s that would be interested in undertaking this scope of work. The three single units will be transported to a quayside where they will then be required to be loaded out to a suitable vessel prior to onwards shipping to BAEs Naval Ship’s Govan site. The units will then be required to be discharged at the Govan site.
The consolidated block will be built in a number of build cradles. It will require transportation to the quayside via SPMTs. The block will be required to be loaded out to a suitably sized barge and then be secured for onwards transportation to BAEs Naval Ship’s Govan site. Upon arrival, the block will be required to be loaded in at Govan and transported to its final location within the yard.
The Supplier is to provide the assets, suitably qualified labour, supervision, inspection engineering and project management to undertake the transportation scope as detailed above. The supplier is expected to be able to work flexibly, proactively and innovatively, recognising opportunity to improve efficiency and re-prioritise where appropriate. This includes particularly close working with a number of stakeholders.”
The tender announcement revealed that BAE Systems is engaging several local shipyards for steelwork fabrication. The work parcels range from constructing three individual units to a consolidated block. Due to the sheer size and weight of these fabricated sections, transportation to the Govan site is only possible via sea routes.
Below is an image of a section being delivered from the Tyne via ‘crane ship’.
Image taken last month at Govan shows a section for a Type 26 Frigate being delivered from A&P Group on the Tyne. Additionally, sections are to be delivered from Ferguson Marine in Port Glasgow. pic.twitter.com/8t4Fx1mMpV
— George Allison (@geoallison) June 23, 2023
BAE Systems told me:
“We have outsourced steelwork fabrication for a limited number of units to support delivery of the Type 26 programme. While the majority of the steelwork is manufactured in Glasgow, in this instance A&P Group and Ferguson Marine Engineering Ltd have been contracted to supply a total of seven units. This is typical for a programme of this scale and offers an opportunity for UK companies to play their part on this national endeavour.
For transportation, the successful bidder will provide seaborne transportation services to carry these units to Govan, Glasgow. The tender will also give us competitive pricing detail for any future shipping transportation contracts required to support the programme, and ensure we continue to deliver value for money.”
You can read more about the work being done by other shipyards here.
I think it’s called the snowball effect. Certainly very good news for UK shipbuilding. I do hope the SNP embrace just how beneficial this business is for Scotland’s economy.
With any luck the SNP are consigned to the political dustbin after all their scandals.
No one gives a crap about the SNP anymore. Everyone has realised just how full of shit they are, it is a Scottish version of the Tory’s and Brexit, hopefully all coming to and end soon.
Come on Jim, it’s wishful thinking to think the SNP is much diminished. It will still hold a significant number of votes at the next general election and the indy is only delayed not consigned to the bin. I’d like to see a spiritual reunification between all UK nations, which has been somewhat torn apart by politics in recent decades.
Lol yeah great get Labour back in and re-join the EU, great idea.
Love to see a 9th T26 while good value at sub £1bn and strengthen RN’s ASW further. Still lots of money but it wouldn’t be wasted. Rule of 3, 6 can be out and about at a pinch. More availability for CSG too. And an extra full fat T31!
Quentin agreed, I would like and additional T-31 for the same reasons. The next thing then would be plans to restructure of the frigate refit facility at Devonport to be able to accommodate the new larger frigates.
Hi Paul, yes, an incremental increase up to 20-24 and then if the 6*T32s ever come the RN might even get to 30. Here’s hoping!
The latter point of the Future Surface Combatant plan calling for 10 C1 high-end ‘full fat’ frigates, 8 C2 simpler ‘patrol frigates’ and a dozen or more C3 corvette sized vessels to replace the OPV, MCM and survey fleets was very suited to the Royal Navy’s needs until the 2010 SDSR and subsequent austerity utterly butched any long-term plans.
I’d still happily take 10 T26 and 8 T31 instead of pursuing whatever the T32 becomes as a resurrected form of the above.
🖕
A dozen corvettes! Is that still the thinking?
Not sure if it is still in the pipeline but why not. I was looking at the South African Valour Class light frigate/corvettes based on the MEKO A200. A reasonable ship, well kitted out and cost about £120 million each in 2006. Which could be a good option for UK home waters, Baltic and Med operations. Trans Atlantic convoys escort would also be a good tasking for this type of ship. This would free up the T26s/T45s to carry out blue water operations which is what they are designed for.
Agree with a lot of that.
I see the Valour is described variously as a multi- purpose light frigate or as a small guided missile frigate. I wonder if something like it wasn’t considered for T31.
I’m not sure the RN does green water ‘ light ( 3750 tons 120m ) multi-purpose’ frigates. It chose the Arrowhead 140 – blue water, nigh on 6000 tons, global, GP now to have Mk41 vls. Also T31 crew requirement looks to be about 1/3rd less than Valour.
As things have turned out the 12 corvettes idea has become 3 River batch 1 fisheries and 5 River batch 2…nice reliable, global OPVs.
Guchi RR frigate mission bay as mothership for mine countermeasures seems to have given way to the cheaper, more pragmatic option of buying a few surplus North Sea underwater support vessels and painting them grey.
So where does that leave us? My take is that T32 needs to be optimised for (Atlantic) ASW and given the NSBS needs to be designed and built in UK. Can be done using Arrowhead or stretching the River 2 hull? I don’t know. The thing is T26 doesn’t replace T23 like for like. It’s overkill for the ASW shortfall.
Totally agree and that is the issue. Th UK does not do Green Water operations but uses high end blue water ships for green and brown water ops. An example is a T45 going to the Caribbean for anti piracy patrols.
I like the Batch 2 OPVs, I just wish that they would have a containerised RUAV, possibly two RUAVs. Very useful vessels for policing duties in the Caribbean, Pacific Islands etc. The Batch 1 ships are good in the Fisheries role.
However the T26 does confuse me, its main task is ASW; yet they are to escort the carriers and support ships that will sail in a carrier group. That is a lot of noise, so do they really need a very quiet hull, not sure on that. They are designed for silence. If the T26 stays in close escort for the carrier then it cannot hunt submarines. If they go and sprint of somewhere then either the carrier group has to slow down say to 15 knots as the frigate sprints at 28 knots for several hours to get ahead and sweep. This also means that the carrier and RFA support ships have a reduced escort.
So what next. Possibly have as you suggest the T32 designed for Atlantic Operations as an ASW platform. Or a diffrent idea would be to have the T32 as a GP frigate with ASW capabilities to work with the carriers and leave the T26 to do what they are designed for, blue water submarine hunter.
This still means the use of blue water ships for green water ops. So the small frigate/corvette 3,500-4,000 tons, 30 days endurance, still has a place in the fleet. They would operate as in areas such as the Celtic Sea, North Sea, Norwegian Sea, English Channel, Batlicand Med.
Agree, but this does mean that T32 is more like Arrowhead 120 than Arrowhead 140. I wonder if that’s why BAe proposed the 117m stretched River hull Leander for T31.
While a larger fleet is the longterm solution we do need to do something in the short term. I agree we should look at getting more out of River 2; and the just laid up Echo and Enterprise; and the Waves.
For example; how much effort would it be to convert a couple River 2s to corvettes to do T23 GP duties? Add a 40mm gun, a telescopic hangar, containers, a handful of Ceptor cells?
Is it feasible to convert a couple of GP Type 23s to ASW?
Could a stripped down Echo and Enterprise do the Falklands and Caribbean jobs? Could you lean crew these ships with R2 sized crews?
I don’t know; just asking.
No, i was referring to pre 2010 when it was envisioned that the OPV, MCM and survey fleets could be replaced with a class of 2-3,000 ton vessels using modular payloads of autonomous kit.
It sort of morphed into to the MHPC (mine hunter patrol capability) study but never really went anywhere due to dithering, a lack of funds and then the picture being fudged by ordering the batch 2 River’s
The current plan is to procure a hodgepodge of 4-5 commercial vessels to act at MCM mother-ships. The future of hydrographic survey is still very much up in the air.
Right, thx for the MHPC reminder. I had forgotten that.
Weren’t the Archers meant to attract undergraduates into the RN…University naval squadrons or something? Teach basic seamanship skills? I think a couple of them are used for force protection in Faslane.
Did you not read the subcommittee minutes?? The Navy has been stealing money from the other services to pay for budget overspend!!
what goes up…..
T-26 program(me) apparently progressing well, but privately wish the programme had been authorized earlier and had progressed further and faster, in order that it could have qualified participated in the USN FFG selection competition. Can’t prove this, but believe full and open completion tends to improve/sharpen everyone’s game, via the ‘invisible hand’ postulated by A. Smith. Oh well…🙃
… qualified to participate…🙄
Crumbs from the Scottish ship building table of plenty for an English shipyard.
This may be a stupid question but why aren’t we seeing more catamaran and trimaran ships?
I thought they were supposed to have loads of advantages? I know the US has had to scrap the freedom class due to them being a bit pants but is the entire idea for 2 and 3 hulled warships dead?
They look so cool which I realise isn’t a great reason to choose a design of warship.
You’ve answered your own question 🙄
There were loads of arguments in 80’s and 90’s about short fat and long thin.
Basically it was to do with stability for gunfire and radars.
That is not very important now that naval radars can digitally correct, in real time, for pitch and yaw. Likewise gun servo mounts have moved a long way from hydraulic compensators on large guns and basic gyro on small guns. Gyro still has a place.
Missile systems no longer beam ride or have ship mounted directors so that requirement has fallen away.
Also catamarans and trimarans are dreadful in high sea states.
Thanks for the great explanation :-).
Pleasure
None of this matters if the powers that be cannot reform procurement and get the Navy to quit taking the proverbial with budgets.
As mentioned in the recent subcommittee minutes!!
That James Cartlidge sounds like a total idiot