Welcome to MSW’s Scuttlebutt! Here’s the news for the day.
Changes to Royal Navy's Surface Fleet Announced
Source: U.K. Ministry of Defense
Changes to the Royal Navy's surface fleet, including the withdrawal from service of HMS Illustrious and the four remaining Type 22 frigates, have been announced today by Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox.
The changes follow announcements regarding the Royal Navy's surface fleet in the White Paper 'Securing Britain in an Age of Uncertainty: The Strategic Defence and Security Review' published on 19 October.
In a written ministerial statement to parliament today, Dr Fox said that HMS Illustrious will be withdrawn from service in 2014 and HMS Ocean will be retained to provide the landing platform helicopter capability for the longer term.
Four frigates are also to be withdrawn from service. These are the remaining Type 22s: HMS Chatham, Campbeltown, Cumberland and Cornwall.
Chatham will be withdrawn from service at the end of January 2011, Campbeltown and Cumberland will follow on 1 April, and Cornwall at the end of April.
HMS Ark Royal will be finally withdrawn from service at the end of this year.
The Bay Class amphibious support ship to be withdrawn from service will be RFA Largs Bay, in April 2011. The Auxiliary Oiler RFA Bayleaf and the Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment vessel RFA Fort George will also be withdrawn from service in April next year.
October's White Paper explained the Government's intention to make certain changes to the Armed Forces in order to deliver the force structure we require for the future and to help address the legacy of unaffordability in the Defence Budget.
Today's written ministerial statement explains in more detail those changes that affect the Royal Navy's surface fleet.
HMS Ark Royal, Ocean and Illustrious
The White Paper announced that the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal would be decommissioned, and, accordingly, she will finally be withdrawn from service at the end of this month.
It also announced that either her sister ship HMS Illustrious or the Landing Platform Helicopter ship HMS Ocean would be withdrawn from service following a short study into which of these two ships was better able to provide the capability we require over the next few years.
This work has now been completed and it has been decided that HMS Ocean should be retained to provide our landing platform helicopter capability for the longer term.
HMS Illustrious will be withdrawn from service in 2014, once Ocean has emerged from a planned refit and been returned to a fully operational state. This will ensure that we retain the ability to deliver an amphibious intervention force from the sea and maintain an experienced crew to support the later introduction into service of the new Queen Elizabeth Class carrier.
HMS Chatham, Campbeltown, Cumberland and Cornwall
The White Paper explained that four frigates would be withdrawn from service in 2011. These are the remaining Type 22 frigates HMS Chatham, Campbeltown, Cumberland and Cornwall.
Chatham will be withdrawn from service at the end of January 2011 and Campbeltown and Cumberland will follow on 1 April.
HMS Cornwall will be withdrawn at the end of April once she has returned from her current operational deployment to the Indian Ocean.
Amphibious Ships
Other changes affect the Navy's amphibious ships. One of the two Landing Platform Dock ships will in future be placed at extended readiness while the other is held at high readiness for operations.
From November 2011, the high-readiness ship will be HMS Bulwark, and on current plans this will change to HMS Albion in late 2016 when Bulwark enters a refit period.
Royal Fleet Auxiliary
The final changes affect the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. The White Paper said that there would be a fleet of resupply and refuelling vessels scaled to meet the Royal Navy's requirements.
With a smaller surface fleet these requirements are correspondingly lower, and hence we have decided to withdraw from service the Auxiliary Oiler RFA Bayleaf and the Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment vessel RFA Fort George from April 2011.
Additionally the Bay-Class amphibious support ship RFA Largs Bay will be withdrawn from service in April 2011.
DCNS Cuts First Plate for Third FREMM Frigate for French Navy
Source: DCNS
LORIENT, France --- On 15 December, DCNS cut plate for the Provence, the third FREMM multimission frigate for the French Navy. The ‘first-cut’ ceremony was attended by Admiral Pierre-François Forissier, Chief of Staff of the French Navy, and Patrick Boissier, Chairman & CEO of DCNS. The ship is scheduled for delivery in 2015.
Over 400 people attended the ceremony at DCNS’s Lorient centre, home of excellence in French surface combatant construction for almost 400 years. The start of work on the new ship is in line with the programme schedule to accommodate the orders received for 11 FREMMs for the French Navy and one for the Royal Moroccan Navy. Deliveries will start in 2012 and continue until 2022.
With work under way on four FREMMs and one Gowind OPV (being built under a self-funded programme), the Group has five surface combatants under construction at once.
Patrick Boissier, Chairman and CEO of DCNS, commented: “DCNS is proud to provide the French Navy with new-generation warships that will enable it to carry out its missions.”
FREMM frigates are among the most technologically advanced and competitively priced on the world market. They are designed to deal with all types of threats from air, sea or land. To meet the current and emerging needs of the world’s navies, DCNS has combined innovation, versatility, modularity and evolvability.
The DCNS-designed FREMM combat system uses advanced technologies combined with state-of-the-art weapons, subsystems and equipment. These highly automated warships require a complement of just 108, or less than half the number required to man earlier generation vessels with comparable capabilities.
The hybrid propulsion system uses both electric motors and a gas turbine to achieve excellent endurance and a range in excess of 6,000 nautical miles. In electric propulsion mode, these vessels offer a level of acoustic discretion approaching that of a conventional-propulsion submarine. FREMM frigates also combine operational versatility with excellent interoperability for missions with joint and allied forces.
An unprecedented industrial challenge in Europe
France has ordered 11 FREMMs. The contract for the first eight vessels was signed in November 2005 and another for three more on 30 September 2009. Italy plans to acquire ten and has placed firm orders for six. The Royal Moroccan Navy has also ordered one FREMM frigate giving DCNS its first international sales success for this product and bringing the total number on order to 12.
The French FREMM programme represents an unprecedented industrial challenge in European naval shipbuilding calling for the delivery of one vessel every ten months. Note that even at this rate, DCNS has the resources to accommodate new orders from international customers without additional delay. The first-of-class Aquitaine is scheduled for delivery in mid-2012.
Overall, the French FREMM programme will provide 50 million hours of work. From the start of the design cycle to commissioning, each ship represents over 3 million hours of work. Half of the workload, corresponding to some 600 jobs, goes to DCNS; the other half to subcontractors.
Brief technical data
--Length overall: 142 m
--Beam: 20 m
--Displacement: 6,000 tonnes
--Max. speed: 27 knots
--Complement: 108 (including helicopter crew)
--Accommodation: 145 men and women
--Range: 6,000 nm (at 15 knots)
Dive – A Submariner’s Story
Today’s website is Dive – A Submariner’s Story. Enjoy.
This Day in U.S. Naval History
1861 - Congress declares Naval personnel eligible for the Medal of Honor, the Nation's highest award.
1943 - USS Grayling (SS 208) sinks its fourth Japanese ship in three days.
1951 - The first helicopter landing aboard a hospital ship takes place aboard USS Consolation (AH 15).
1968 - Apollo 8 is launched with Capt. James A. Lovell Jr. as Command Module Pilot. During the mission, Lovell becomes one of the first three people to see the far side of the moon. The mission lasted 6 days and 3 hours, including 10 moon orbits. Helicopters from USS Yorktown (CVS 10) take care of the recovery.
Photo of the Day
The HMS Monmouth at the Plymouth Naval Days in 2006.
Gator
