NAVY NEWS, APRIL 2008 5
● HMS Somerset with elements of the NATO force in Albania. Next to her are Greece’s
HS Hydra (F452) and Turkey’s TCG Zafer (F253)
Picture: PO(Phot) Dave Gallagher
BBest laid plansest laid plans
BUMMER. You’re all set to go hunting submarines one way to skin a, er, mouse, and used her hull- Plan C, you will be relieved to hear, worked, weaponry, allowing Duke to move in for the kill.
and then your sonar packs up. And so the hunter mounted sonar rather than her towed array to go although as Somerset’s CO Cdr Rob Wilson “This exciting sonar equipment has the
becomes the hunted... in search of her prey – then send the ship’s Lynx admits, the frigate rather pushed her luck. potential to change the rules of this deadly game,
The game of cat and mouse between frigate and helicopter, Duke, in for the kill. Thanks to some top engineering work both handing the initiative back to the warship from the
submarine saw the balance tip decidedly in the An excellent Plan B. Except that Duke joined Duke and Sonar 2087 were quickly fixed by the submarine,” said Cdr Wilson.
mouse’s favour as HMS Somerset exercised with 2087 on the ‘out of order’ list. ship’s team, giving Somerset a definite advantage Somerset is attached to the Standing NATO
a NATO task force off the east coast of Sicily. Time for Plan C. Track the boat with your hull over her unnamed prey as Exercise Noble Manta Maritime Group 2 which prowls the Mediterranean
The software which drives the world’s best anti- sonar, fire torpedoes at maximum range, then run progressed. for illegal shipping and terrorist activity and is
submarine sonar, 2087, crashed. like hell and fire decoys in a bid to escape the The results were outstanding: the prey was currently commanded by Turkey’s Rear Admiral
Luckily, however, Somerset has more than torpedoes the submarine has just fired. held at bay far outside the maximum range of its Ertugrul.
● A computer graphic of a Joint Strike Fighter on fi nal approach to HMS Queen Elizabeth
Picture: Thales
Carriers’ steel deal struck
MORE multi-million-pound orders have been placed new Terminal 5 or sufficient to re-build Wembley
for the ‘jigsaw’ which will eventually make up the Stadium three times over.
Navy’s future carriers. The ships will be built in segments, like the Type
Eighty thousand tons of steel which will form the 45 destroyers, at yards in Glasgow, Barrow and
hulls of HM Ships Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Portsmouth, with the pieces of the jigsaw fitted
Wales will be supplied by works across the UK, with together in Rosyth.
a small amount coming from the continent, at a cost There’s progress on the carrier escort front, too.
of £65m. HMS Duncan is no longer just a name on paper as
Defence procurement minister Baroness Taylor the sixth of Britain’s future destroyer fl eet begins to
also announced three smaller contracts, worth around slowly take shape after the fi rst steel was cut on her.
£8m, for machinery and infrastructure to fit out the Baroness Taylor and BAE Systems Scott Ballingall
two 65,000-ton flat-tops. performed the honours at BAE’s Govan yard on the
Fife firm Brand Rex has won the £3m contract to Clyde, where four of Duncan’s sisters have been or
provide optical cabling – which will carry reams of are being built.
data between complex computer systems – for the The Type 45s are hailed as the world’s most
sisters. advanced air defence destroyer and will shield the
Rochdale-based Salt Separation Services has been fl eet from missile and air attack well into the 21st
given £1m to provide reverse osmosis plants for both Century.
ships; the plants will be capable of producing 500 Around 3,600 shipwrights, carpenters and
tons of fresh water for the ship’s company every day. electricians are working on the destroyers at BAE’s
And Fluid Transfer International in Gloucestershire two yards on the Clyde, as well as the VT Group’s
won the £4m contract for kit to fuel and ‘de-fuel’ the facility in Portsmouth where the bows and main
ships’ mix of JSF fast jets and helicopters. masts are being built.
As for the steel, Corus (the successor to British Duncan won’t see active service until next decade;
Steel) with its sites in Scunthorpe, Motherwell and the oldest of her sisters , Daring, is less than two years
Teesside, and Dent Steel Services in Bradford will away from joining the Fleet.
provide more than nine-tenths of the steel plates and HMS Daring is gearing up to resume sea trials
bulb flats. later this spring. Tests during her fi rst spell at sea
According to the boffins, the steel ordered is last summer around the Firth of Clyde exceeded
equivalent to the quantity needed to build Heathrow’s expectations.
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