Feature 1 | UK ROYAL NAVY


Budget cuts could put paid to new naval programmes


Te UK Royal Navy has embarked on a number of strategically important programmes in recent years but the massive budget deficit facing the new UK government, the need to make cuts to reduce the deficit and the prospect of a Strategic Defence Review makes the future of several programmes uncertain.


combatants and 48 submarines in 1960 to four carriers, 49 surface combatants and 31 submarines when the Cold War ended in 1991. Under the last Strategic Defence Review


T


in 1998 the Royal Navy was supposed to have two carriers, 32 surface combatants and 14 nuclear submarines including four Vanguard class ballistic missile ships. It has the two carriers but only 24 surface combatants and 12 submarines including the four Vanguard class. There is a real fear that the new


government’s Strategic Defence Review and plans to slash government spending could see even this inadequate force reduced further. The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) recently announced that it expects the final defence budget will include cuts of 12% over the next six years, with the Royal Navy reduced from 57 major vessels (carriers, submarines, surface combatants and amphibious warfare vessels) to about 45. As if this were not worrying enough,


the Royal Navy has suffered severely from the last government’s cost-cutting with the Daring (Type 45) class halved to six ships and the in-service dates of the two Queen Elizabeth class carriers slipping from 2012 to 2015 and 2018, a decision which has actually increased public expenditure. It is also worth noting that even by


the summer of 2010, when two Darings had joined the fleet, neither was fully operational due to interface difficulties with their combat system and the Aster surface-to-air missiles, the latter requiring modification. Before it lost


16


he Royal Navy has steadily contracted in the past 50 years from nine carriers, 145 surface


The in-service dates for the Queen Elizabeth carriers have slipped from 2012 to 2015 and 2018.


office the last government authorised £300 million (US$436.4 million) to procure long-lead items for another two Astute-class fleet submarines, but there is a strong feeling that the cynics’ name for the seventh ship, HMS Abandoned, will prove prophetic. Te jewel in the Royal Navy’s crown


remains the two fleet carriers which are supposed to carry a balanced air group of 50 fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft whose cadre will be up to 36 Lockheed F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Aircraſt. Although being built as Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) ships they have been designed to accept conventional carrier systems later in their lives. Tey will have two ‘islands’; the forward


one for navigation and the stern one for air operations, and will be powered by Rolls-Royce Marine MT 30 gas turbines. Tey are being built in modules all over the country and assembled by Babcock at Rosyth.


Te Darings have been developed to


provide an anti-air warfare shield for the carriers but in 2006 the Ministry of Defence and industry examined other surface combatants for the fleet in the Sustained Surface Combatant Capability. Tis concluded the following year that the way forward was a family of new ships known as the Future Surface Combatant (FSC) with shared systems, equipment and open-architecture technologies to reduce through-life costs. It was initially envisaged that there


would be three FSC types, and that FSC C1 would be a high-capability multi-mission anti-submarine warfare and land-attack vessel to replace the Duke (Type 23) and Broadsword (Type 22) class frigates. FSC C2 would be a lower capability combatant using the same 6000tonne hull as the FSC C1, and FSC C3 would be a 2000tonne ocean-capable patrol vessel. BAE Systems’ Surface Ships was


selected earlier this year to be lead contractor and systems integrator for


Warship Technology July/August 2010


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40