Change of scenery

23 March 2011 | By David Downs

The view from the office window in Rosyth has now markedly changed!  At the end of the newly refurbished and widened dry dock in which the two aircraft carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales will be assembled there is now a ship with a very large “goliath” crane on board.  This crane which is the largest in the UK in terms of lift capacity, has recently arrived from China and attracted quite a lot of coverage in the press as it squeezed under the Forth Bridges with only a couple of metres to spare. When the current spate of high winds has passed, work is going to start in erecting the towers that will be used to lift the main crane beam up to its working height and reassembling the lower section of the legs to the uppers. The crane will then be wheeled ashore onto its crane rails and commissioned ready for its first large lift of an upper block of the aircraft carrier structure in September.

The strong winds are also giving the barge transporting the second shipment of block 01, the bow of the aircraft carrier, a good buffeting as it completes its journey from the shipyard at Appledore in Devon where it was constructed.  The weather conditions a week ago when the barge departed Appledore could hardly have been more different, bright sunshine and calm; you can’t beat the British weather for variety! This shipment comprises the bow of the ship from just above the waterline right up to the flight deck in four parts, and when off loaded at Rosyth the complete forward end structure of HMS Queen Elizabeth will be on the dockside.  The load out and shipment of the structure at Appledore went extremely well, building on the lessons learnt from the first shipment at Easter time last year, and is a good dress rehearsal for the first really big shipment of Lower Block 03 (LB03),the mid hull section of the aircraft carrier which weighs in at around 9,500 tonnes when fully outfitted, at Govan on the River Clyde which will happen during the summer.  Preparations for this transportation are well advanced and by September LB03 will be the first block in the assembly dock at Rosyth.

LB03 has also made the press recently, when ring L the aftermost ring of the block, which has been constructed separately from the remaining rings, was moved out of the build hall and aligned with the remainder of the block and is now being consolidated. This will make LB03 structurally complete and with Compartment Completion Inspections on the block underway it is progressing well.  When LB03 is transported to Rosyth it will be at a very advanced state of completion with many of the compartments fully outfitted, and inspected.

Lower Block 02 comprising the forward machinery spaces and compartments above is also now nearing structural completion at Portsmouth with connection of the first two rings F and G due to be completed shortly.

Back in Govan the largest of the blocks Lower Block 04 is also progressing.  The first of the Advanced Induction Propulsion Motors manufactured by Converteam in Rugby arrived at Govan in February and is now installed onto its seat within LB04. At about the same time the two main diesel generators from Wartsilla arrived at Govan by ship and these have also been successful installed onto their seats, which made for some great pictures.  These operations went extremely smoothly building on the lessons learned from the installation of the forward diesel generators at Portsmouth.  With all these ship movements the AIS (Automatic Identification System) has proved great value, so that we can monitor the progress of ships carrying cranes or diesel generators and tugs towing barges from our laptops in the office or even at home.

Looking forward, at the end of March, we shall be holding a supplier conference at the historic dockyard at Portsmouth.  This is an important opportunity for the Aircraft Carrier Alliance to get together with the wider supply chain who are supplying the millions of parts, equipment and systems that together make up the entire aircraft carrier.  This is an excellent opportunity to get representatives of all the companies contributing to this huge enterprise together to share experiences and best practice. This is especially important for the ACA due to the wide variety and numerous locations which make up the base of our supply chain. With a project of this size it is vital that every link in the supply chain has the strength and capacity to make the best contribution possible in delivering these ships. So far we have found that suppliers right across the programme are delivering well and having the opportunity to bring them all together en masse gives us the chance to identify any potential issues before they become problems. This support to our contractors helps each and every one of them delivers their part of the work share to the highest possible standard and more importantly as part of a successful UK PLC team.