We’re a nice market for them, but they’re the 3rd largest defence company in the world with major facilities in multiple countries like the US and Sweden. HMS Audacious was an initial name of the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle, of the Audacious class. To help do that, work on the next submarine, HMS Anson, had been “paused”, though the MoD promised to “significantly improve the situation in the medium term”. If so, such a mindset hopefully needs to change and that can only be accomplished by having an alternative shipyard willing to share the work? http://www.hisutton.com/A26.html https://exoatmospheric.wordpress.com/2018/03/21/a26-the-disruptor-submarine/ (PDF) https://saab.com/globalassets/commercial/naval/submarines-and-warships/submarines/a26/saab_kockums-a26_brochure_a4_final_aw_screen.pdf. To put this in context, HMS Dauntless was reputed to have experienced the worst of the propulsion problems suffered by the class. Delays to HMS Audacious will impact the delivery of Anson, and likely Agamemnon, Agincourt and possibly even the Dreadnought programme. If there was more transparency about the issues are and how they are being addressed, there could be a little more sympathy. Isn’t that a more expensive way of doing it than VLS anyway? Monday to Thursday there’s a stampede for the time clocks at 4.15 pm you need to be careful or you’ll get run over. I’m aware existing RN Tomahawks are capsule launched, through torpedo tubes of Astutes. January 2021? As a country we are still borrowing 14,000,000 GPB every year to distribute to our former colonies, two of whom are now nuclear armed, and are among the many who vote against the U.K. in world fora with regularity. The delays to HMS Audacious risk the RN’s attack submarine force declining even further, at least temporarily, down to just 5 boats. I sat on the deck… I don’t like to see Russian subs, which outnumber our Astutes 10 to 1, floating about so close to our mainland & our bases, with what looks like near impunity; https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15402070.russians-caught-lurking-near-faslane-naval-base-to-eavesdrop-on-nuclear-submarines/. The bigger picture is that another UK shipyard is at risk of closure, & our existing subs are visibly spread too thinly. Does not this confirm that it is time for a small force of 5 to 7 SSKs based on the latest German or Swedish design. Speaking at DSEI in September, Rear Admiral Paul Halton, Commander Operations (Due to be appointed the head of the Submarine Service at end of this year) was rather cheekily asked by a BAE Systems executive about how Submarine availability could be increased, given the small number of boats. But come on! Perhaps more worrying than the delay to Audacious is the knock-on effect on the rest of the RN nuclear submarine programme. Whether the current 6-boat fleet can be maintained is now probably dependent on the oldest submarine, HMS Trenchant, being kept going beyond her planned decommissioning this year. I always had read that the HMS Audacious was lost to a mine. An elderly man came into TLC's store last Saturday and told me a different version of the tale. Add me to the list of people that would have liked to see more efficient & faster production of Astutes with more ordered. HMS Audacious: UK’s nuclear submarine capable of striking targets 745 MILES away A ROYAL Navy submarine capable of striking targets an astonishing … But the car park is full of X5s. 407270, 'Technical Issues' Push Back Delivery Of HMS Audacious. I know it won’t help speed up the Astutes, or lead to more of them, & would cost another billion or more, but is it not time to review that decision in 1992 to switch to all SSNs, & start looking at building some SSKs? I thought BAe had help from General Dynamics on training apprentices and labour etc, so are they still undermanned to maintain or improve productivity. HMS Audacious was the lead ship of the Audacious-class ironclads built for the Royal Navy in the late 1860s. Also, the Virginia’s are a lot more expensive. Technically are these boats are on a similar level to the US Virginia class, yet even with US help they have slipped massively on the delivery schedule. This is becoming well stupid. 233480. Too few it looks like. New nuclear submarines delayed by technical problems Monopolies are only viable if quality standards are maintained and project timings strictly adhered to. Company Limited by Guarantee. It may be that my contributions are rubbish, it’s of no consequence. The 33-year-old HMS Trenchant was originally scheduled to decommission this year (at least until submarine OSD dates suddenly became “sensitive” and were no longer published). Exactly what faults have caused the delay could not be disclosed by the Ministry of Defence, as doing so could jeopardise security and capability. In the space of 18 months that handover date has slipped by 17 months and the RN must manage without a vitally important boat until January 2021. How much has the fire on Audacious caused this delay? The MoD said that Audacious had required “unplanned repair and rework”. Boats 5 and 6, Anson and Agamemnon, along with a seventh Astute-class submarine, are in different stages of construction at the Barrow site. There have been a few incidents with Astutes having mishaps whilst operating in littorals which have reached the press. It seems we now won’t have 7 SSN’s again until 2026 at the earliest (running just 6 looks to be an increasingly major challenge) by which time Astute herself will be roughly 18 years old, but the Dreadnoughts won’t be anywhere near finished. Construction of HMS Audacious has fallen yet further behind schedule. A 65m Shipwreck and a technical diving 'career' hanging by a thread. Still it keeps a little town employed in the north west. The convenient secrecy surrounding the submarine programme prevents any admission about what exactly the issues may be, and more importantly, who should be held accountable for them. If they haven’t sorted themselves out after 3 something is critically wrong with the whole system. Built at an economic speed, the same program money would build more ships but the Treasury doesn’t care about that. A revised schedule for whole Astute Programme was approved as recently as March 2018 with Audacious to be handed over to the RN in August 2019. Some, correctly in my view, chose the Grouse. Normally it would be expected that price and construction times for a series of vessels would reduce over the production run but somehow the opposite has been achieved. Astute is the first program that was contracted to this ludicrous policy. At the risk of nitpicking, if Audacious isn’t going to be in service until January 2021, isn’t that a delay of a little over 15 months, not 17? It might be the 4th boat but many of the staff could be new. I suggest the above with a heavy heart, I hate the thought of loosing UK Submarine production, but if they can’t pull the rabbit out of the hat, then future contracts need to be placed with a company that can. If you look at the usa Virginia class boats they have been produced at a steady drumbeat and updated and the unit cost has come down . audacious (adj.). Of course more would need to be ordered, I’m even saying wait for block V. Perhaps existing RN stocks may be obsolete in 15 years, sure, I expect they’ll expire too if unused won’t they. HMS Audacious (CV-1943) Back to Commonwealth Ships List . Is Audacious still in the water or back out of it? Perhaps the government needs to go as far as threatening direct control, nationalization even if they can’t get their act together? The ship was sunk by a German naval mine off the northern coast of County Donegal, Ireland, early during the First World War. The thing won’t leave until mid way through next year due to industrial malpractices that have been covered up. It was followed by HMS Ambush in 2013 and HMS Artful in 2016. The Royal Navy’s fourth Astute Class submarine has sailed from the BAES shipyard in Barrow in-Furness for her new home at Her Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde Surely if they increased the size of the build site, it should improve productivity and perhaps allow to boats to be built at the same time? In February 2020, James Heappey, parliamentary under secretary of state for defence, confirmed that the in-service date for the final SSN, HMS Agincourt, had slipped to 2026. Delays to HMS Audacious will impact the delivery of Anson, and likely Agamemnon, Agincourt and possibly even the Dreadnought programme. Perhaps a collaborative effort on a future joint SSN design with the Americans, will ultimately be the only option for Barrows survival? HBR's List of Audacious Ideas for Solving the World's Problems by Robert J. Shiller , Doc Searls , Ellen Goodman , Wayne Porter , Linda A. Hill , Kent Lineback , Parag Khanna , Karan Khemka , Eric Schmidt , Bruno S. Frey , Margit Osterloh , Enric Sala , Bruce Gibney , Ken Howery , Ellen Gustafson , Arun Majumdar , Gregg Easterbrook , A26 or otherwise. No one gets sacked from barrow. On 16th October the head of the MoD Stephen Lovegrove formally approved a revised schedule for the delivery of the 4th Astute class submarine HMS Audacious. Could it be that the MOD has no option but ride, this delinquency due to this fact? Several previous vessels of the Royal Navy have borne the name. Even rubbish suggestions serve as expressions of public support. Someone needs to be held to account and heads need to role. Frankly I think it should be nationalised and run on a franchise model make bae bid every decade for the right to operate it. This is patently absurd. They were designed as second-class ironclads suitable for use on foreign stations and the ship spent the bulk of her career on the China Station.She was decommissioned in 1894 and hulked in 1902 for use as a training ship. Other problems emerged around the sophisticated drafting software used to design the class. Writing to the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee he admitted publicly for the first time that Audacious will not be handed over to the RN until January 2021. HMS Audacious (CV-1943) Back to Commonwealth Ships List . After completion in 1913, she spent her brief career assigned to the Home and Grand Fleets. This will presumably have a knock-on effect with Anson, Agamemnon and Agincourt and who know’s if the remaining Trafalgar’s can soldier on long enough to prevent numbers dropping even further. From an outsider, this just is unacceptable considering the batch 1 and 2 must be virtually 95% identical in exterior terms, and that means the redesigned interior must be at least 75% the same? At the time it was thought that Audacious had hit a floating mine disturbed by either Ajax or Centurion although a torpedo attack was not completely ruled out. A famous picture of HMS Audacious sinking after striking a mine. We are no longer a SSK nation and we will gain nothing from building them. That’s why when they said they didn’t see much of a future in the UK, the government shat itself and gave them special status to make their UK businesses more secure. The practicalities are way beyond my knowledge base, but I wonder if a yard such as Appledore, desperate for orders & under threat of closure, could be repurposed for building SSKs? The alternative is to threaten to buy Virginia class ( or SSNX) replacement boats after Dreadnaught is built. HMS Audacious (S122) The Royal Navy’s Astute-class nuclear-powered submarines are among the most sophisticated underwater vehicles ever constructed. The crew of HMS Audacious also undertake a number of defence engagement, charity and outreach tasks in the community around Barrow-in-Furness, where she was constructed. Audaciousarrived at Portsmouth from Plymouth at the end of July, 1913 to prepare for gun and torpedo trials following her full power steam trial. The massive problem is, how long does the build take and how much does the build cost? The A26 would surely be a better, safer option for SBS insertion than that ‘caravan of death’ reported here previously; https://www.navylookout.com/in-focus-royal-navy-submarine-special-forces-delivery-systems/. Build sections here and have them built in the US. BAE won the £1.2 billion contract to develop HMS Audacious in 2012. Embarrassing doesn’t cover it…..it’s an outrage! Referencing Recs comment on how the French do it. Frontline Tech: Why Does The Royal Navy Want Huge Unmanned Submarines. However, the battle-cruiser HMS Lion, completed in May 1912 with her foremast ahead of the fore funnel, showed that this was a far better arrangement than that in the Orions, where it was the other way round. Armed with Spearfish torpedoes and Tomahawk land attack missiles, the Astute class submarines are the most highly-capable submarines ever built for the Royal Navy. The British tax payer is paying for this bloody feasco ( diverting defence funds from the front line) and RN submariner’s are being forced to keep Trafalgars running on beyond their out of service date, at additional cost. The idea was to have four rows of aircraft running the length of the hangar, instead of the three in the Illustrious and Implacable classes. Captain Cecil F. Dampier was appointed to Victory for command of Audaciouson 30 May, 1913. HMS Audacious yet to begin sea trials, risking further decline in Royal Navy submarine numbers, In pictures – Royal Navy submarine, HMS Audacious sails for the first time, The future of Royal Navy attack submarines. Britain still leads the world in talking itself down. Have to agree. Wreck Dive on the HMS Audacious in Malin Head, Donegal Ireland If they carry on like this Maurice, they will unfortunately pull the rug from under their own feet. It has been said before that 12 SSN’s / SSBN’s is the optimum force to maintain a steady drumbeat of delivery every 2-3 years but it only works if the builder can actually grasp the challenge and meet the time-scales. It would be best to find a close international ally with SSN / SSBN construction expertise to redevolop the existing wasteland adjacent to Cavendish Dock Road, near the existing BAE site. Newport News is one of the largest naval shipyards on the planet and has a waterfront alone of over 2km, Barrow isn’t even close to being comparable, you couldn’t get a QEC in or out of Barrow and a QEC is smaller than a Nimitz by some margin, Newport News has the capacity to build and dock multiple Nimitz class ships simultaneously. Ministry of Defence images ©Crown Copyright. Precisely SD67, un-productive and no work ethic. This brand new sub can hit targets a staggering 745 miles away with pin-point accuracy using the Tomahawk missile it carries. Their […]. Barrow is tiny compared to Newport News . The policy has been sold as being a “constant drumbeat” and the weak minded have picked this up as being a good thing. So we’re at a point where ordering SSKs wouldn’t impact Astute orders in any event, I’m not even suggesting they be built at Barrow am I? Work stops at noon on Friday. This may be true but should be seen in the context of the existing gigantic cost-overruns of the Astute programme which already runs to several £Billions. The four ships of the King George V class of the 1910 building programme were to have been repeats of the Orion class. It’s eye watering from an expense perspective. That’s funny although they look great but they are not long-range submarine. HMS Torbay is set to be decommissioned this year, with her replacement delayed The report also revealed that the cost of building the four new subs rose by nearly £200 million last year, according to the newspaper. Embarrassing. Audacious is stated to be handed over in January 2021. You’re making the assumption that BAE is dependent on the UK to stay afloat, but that’s completely wrong. The Audacious class was meant to fix the problems of the Illustrious class. And you cannot be sacked. If there’s a better option than TLAM in 15 years, well great, put that in the VLS instead. https://www.navylookout.com/in-focus-royal-navy-submarine-special-forces-delivery-systems/, https://exoatmospheric.wordpress.com/2018/03/21/a26-the-disruptor-submarine/, https://saab.com/globalassets/commercial/naval/submarines-and-warships/submarines/a26/saab_kockums-a26_brochure_a4_final_aw_screen.pdf, https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15402070.russians-caught-lurking-near-faslane-naval-base-to-eavesdrop-on-nuclear-submarines/, https://www.navylookout.com/another-royal-navy-supplier-goes-under-the-closure-of-appledore-shipyard/, Nuclear submarine HMS Audacious sails for sea trials. HMS Indomitable: April 1945 * Total of 44 aircraft (rising to 48) as flagship aircraft carriers, BPF, for Operation Iceberg ** A squadron of 12 Fireflies was assigned to Indomitable at this stage, though not shipped: Admiral Vian's staff had reduced available accommodation. So, the remaining 25% is causing considerable slippage and cost overrun? Exactly what faults have caused the delay could not be disclosed by the Ministry of Defence, as doing so could jeopardise security and capability. The expectation now is that she will leave Barrow for before the end of 2019 and conduct a year of sea trials and from Faslane throughout 2020. HMS Audacious The King George V super-dreadnought class was the pinnacle of naval design at the time. Would this mean we build our own to a common collaborative design, or manufacture sections for assembly in the US I wonder ? I don’t know where the fault is but in the words of Beatty ‘ there something wrong with our bloody ships’. A26s would certainly need modifying for UK service, the RN doesn’t hot-bunk as the Swedes do for a start. An MOD spokesperson said: "The Audacious operational handover delay has been caused by technical issues. 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