MoD signs £3bn aircraft carriers contract

The MoD has signed contracts with industry to build the two future aircraft carriers (CVF). The contracts in the region of £3bn, were signed with the newly-formed British shipbuilding company BVT Surface Fleet and the Aircraft Carrier Alliance onboard HMS Ark Royal. Glasgow-based Thales secured £425m for design and engineering; BVT Surface Fleet secured £1.325m for construction of both ships at Govan and Portsmouth; Babcock Marine taking £675m for bow section and final assembly at Rosyth; BAE System has £300m for construction at Barrow-in-Furness yards and BAE Systems INSYTE has £275m for design and supply of mission systems.Commenting on the MoD announcement Alex Dorrian, CEO Thales UK, says: "This is tremendous news for Thales UK, representing the most important step forward so far in this hugely significant programme. This means that the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, of which Thales UK is a founding partner, can now begin construction of these ships. We are proud to have been involved from the very early stages in the design of what will be the Royal Navy's largest and most powerful warships.

"Within the Alliance of MoD and industry, Thales UK is responsible for leading the   platform design, power and propulsion and aviation teams. Thales is also working with BAE Systems in delivering the CVF's mission systems, including the development and manufacture of the communications element. In the longer term, the company is committed to playing a full role in supporting the carriers in service.”

"The Thales UK-led CVF design and procurement teams are based in Bristol. Our Crawley-based naval communications business will be responsible for the communications aspects.  The carriers will provide our front-line forces with the modern, world-class capabilities they will need over the coming decades. The work on the carriers will create or sustain 10,000 jobs across UK at the peak of its production." 

The CVF design breaks new ground in the specialised area of aircraft carrier design, in which only three western countries, USA, UK and France have expertise. A number of innovations have been incorporated:

The adaptable design is based on the selection of the Joint Strike Fighter STOVL variant to be embarked, but great care has been taken to ensure that CVF could be adapted for conventional carrier aircraft. Fitted with ski-jump to operate STOVL aircraft on build, each ship can be altered later in its service life to accommodate catapults and arrestor gear to fly conventional aircraft. This ‘adaptable’ design provides a measure of ‘future proofing’ for the vessels’ in-service life of up to 50 years.

High levels of built-in automation have been incorporated to help the RN’s drive for lean-manning. Extensive modelling and analysis has been undertaken to determine manning requirements (the most significant cost) - design features such as the highly mechanised weapons handling system allows significant manpower reductions and reduces whole life cost.

Likewise a high degree of machinery automation has been achieved through Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS), designed to minimise marine engineering complement and optimise plant operation. Unique twin-island layout enables much better visibility of flight-deck than conventional designs.This design innovation formed part of a radical re-examination of flight deck operations with a focus on maximising sortie rate and operational effectiveness. This involved careful modeling of aircraft landing, take-off and parking requirements for both ski-jump and catapult/arrestor gear operations, lift positioning, deck park safety zones etc.

Ship power & propulsion systems utilise ‘Integrated Electric Propulsion’ (IEP) as in most modern cruise vessels and recent warships although CVF will be the largest and most powerful IEP warship in the world.These will be the first UK capital warships to be designed & built to Lloyd’s naval ship rules. Noteworthy design features include carrier’s novel hullform,designed using extensive modeling to ensure achievement of speed, seakeeping and manoevring requirements, but with continuing focus on ease of fabrication.

Better design includes better conditions for crew in mind - eg.no crew sleeping under flight-deck, all cabin configurations, dedicated recreation spaces, maximum use of IT, dedicated pipe and cable passageways and pipe ducts to ease integration issues and reduce cost compared with a traditional warship.

The first fully integrated waste management system in a warship is designed in from start to meet projected future environmental standards. The design enables the operation of more than twice as many larger and heavier aircraft compared with existing Invincible class – but carrying the same sized crew – and with increased strategic capability. The design displaces about three times as much as an Invincible-class ship, has four times the internal hull volume, carries 70% more ship and aircraft fuel, has 75% more unrefuelled range.MoD signs £3bn aircraft carriers contract

Source: http://www.thalesgroup.com/uk/index.html
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