Sailing into new territory

HMS Daring, the first of eight new Royal Navy Type 45 class anti-air warfare destroyers, will be launched this week (1 February) from the BAE Systems shipyard at Scotstoun, on the Clyde.

At approximately 7,350 tonnes and 152.4m in length, the Type 45 is larger than the Type 42 it replaces, making it the largest surface combatant built for the Navy since World War II. Designed for missions of up to 45 days, the destroyer will be able to travel 7,000 nautical miles at 18 knots, reaching a maximum of 27 knots.

BAE Systems said the Type 45 has seen changes to the way ships are designed and built here. The warship design was undertaken at a number of sites throughout the UK, predominantly at the Type 45 Prime Contract Office in Filton, the BAE Systems Type 45 Platform Design Centre in Scotstoun and VT Shipbuilding in Portsmouth and Southampton.

The detailed spatial integration, using the CADDS5 computer-aided design tool, has resulted in a comprehensive 3D electronic model within which every piece of physical structure — pipework, ducting, machinery, equipment and ship furniture — has been defined in fine detail.

Daring has been assembled from large pre-outfitted ‘megablock’ modules to drive down construction man-hours. The aft blocks were built at BAE Systems’ yard in Govan and floated downriver to Scotstoun, the mid-sections in Scotstoun and bow by VT in Portsmouth before being floated along the west coast and up the Clyde.

BAE Systems said the new method of constructing ships will be applied, at a larger scale, to the construction of the Navy’s two new aircraft carriers.