Feature 2 | AUXILIARIES
BMT’s design for the MARS programme is based on its Aegir concept.
been built in the UK if the contract had been awarded to an Italian shipbuilding firm. Giuseppe Bono, CEO of Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri is said to have written to UK Defence Secretary Philip Hammond, telling him that the company had begun discussions with BAE Systems to build the second tanker in the UK. Te discussions were, he said, at ‘executive
level’ and gained BAE’s support ‘subject to MoD approval.’ Bono is also understood to have offered to discuss “further work-share to match capacity availability.”
the world, DSME emerged as the preferred bidder. Te DSME solution offers the best operational capability for the Royal Navy at the lowest whole-life cost,” says Gray. “A foreign build offers best value for money.” When it is awarded, the contract will
be worth approximately £452 million, with a significant proportion going to sub-contractors and partners. As part of the RFA’s fleet, the MARS tankers will offer logistical support to the Royal Navy by providing fuel, food and fresh water to naval vessels at sea. Te vessels will each be just over 200m in length, with a 28m beam and have a displacement of in excess of 37,000tonnes. Tey are due to enter service with the RFA from 2016 onwards.
AEGIR platform Designed to comply with international maritime legislation, the MARS concept from BMT provides a bespoke, double- hull tanker design that meets both the economic and flexibility requirements of the UK MoD, and is derived from a BMT-generated concept called AEGIR, a tailorable platform design created to satisfy the requirements common to many of the world’s navies. Te vessels will carry cargo, have tanks
for diesel oil, aviation fuel and fresh water, and carry lube oil stored in drums. Tey will provide stowage for containers and have a flight deck for a medium-size helicopter, along with a maintenance hangar for the aircraſt and the ability to conduct in-flight refuelling. Te underway replenishment capability
takes the form of three abeam replenishment at sea (RAS) stations for diesel oil, aviation fuel and fresh water, with solid RAS reception of up to 2tonnes. Te vessels will have a crew of 63.
22 Following the announcement that
DSME was the preferred bidder to build the MARS tankers, the UK’s Shipbuilders and Shiprepairers Association (SSA) said it would like to reiterate its position that the tanker contract should have been awarded to a UK yard, to preserve local jobs. “Our shipyards have the capability and
capacity to build these tankers in the UK and the Ministry of Defence has been
“The DSME solution offers the best operational
capability for the Royal Navy at the lowest whole-life cost”
short sighted in awarding the contracts to a Korean yard, without giving serious consideration to tenders from British shipyards,” says Ash Sinha, Director of the SSA.
UK employment opportunities “The decision, that the £452 million contract to build the vessels in Korea offers the best value for taxpayers’ money, does not take into account the number of jobs that could have been secured and the employment opportunities for our workforces. Te decision is also against the government’s pledge to support the manufacturing sector,” he adds. It has subsequently emerged that at least one of the tankers might have
Preservation of skills “I consider it of paramount importance to build the MARS tankers in Europe, for the sake of preserving complex naval shipbuilding skills within the EU, and to attract valuable tax benefits during a prolonged period of industrial decline,” Bono is said to have written; although it is unclear whether the letter pre-dates the government’s February announcement. Sources say the three final bidders in the programme were Fincantieri, DSME and another Korean yard, Hyundai Heavy Industries. Hugh Scullion, general secretary of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions (CSEU), says the contract was “a bitter blow for UK shipbuilding.” UK Secretary of State for Defence
Philip Hammond responded to criticism that the contract was not been awarded to a UK company, or a company that would build the vessels in the UK, by sending a letter to the Daily Mail newspaper which was subsequently published by the MoD. “No British firm put in a bid and the
Italian company [Fincantieri] never indicated during the two-year bid process that they would build any of the tankers in the UK. “When we are building complex
warships or highly sophisticated weapons, of course we must protect Britain’s industrial base. But when it comes to non-military type equipment, I am clear that my responsibility is to get the best deal for the UK taxpayer and plough the savings back into the front line. “In this case, the choice we were faced with
was to buy South Korean and save hundreds of millions of pounds for the taxpayer, or let the work to an Italian shipyard. I believe we made the right choice.” WT
Warship Technology May 2012
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