The primary of the Royal Navy’s new Sort 26 frigates is because of enter the water for the primary time.
The float off course of for HMS Glasgow began immediately and can see her journey from her present location at Govan shipyard in Scotland to Scotstoun over the subsequent few days to proceed her construct. The ship, at present weighing almost 6,000 tonnes, will undertake a collection of advanced manoeuvres beginning with being lowered onto a barge after which towed down river to deeper water. At the moment marks the subsequent part of her construct and can see BAE Programs engineers and engineers from Defence and Gear Assist (DE&S), the Ministry of Defence supply agent, monitor her transfer to the barge, with the float off seeing the bottom of the barge sinking slowly over quite a lot of hours till the ship totally enters the water.
David Shepherd, Sort 26 Programme Director at BAE Programs, mentioned: “Seeing HMS Glasgow within the water for the primary time is a proud and thrilling second for everybody concerned on this nice endeavour. She’s going to quickly switch to our Scotstoun yard in Glasgow the place we stay up for putting in her advanced programs and produce her to life.”
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Brigadier Andy Muddiman RM, Naval Regional Commander Scotland & Northern Eire, mentioned: “The floating of HMS Glasgow immediately represents an necessary milestone within the construct of the Royal Navy’s newest anti-submarine warfare frigate. That is the primary of eight Sort 26 frigates being constructed by BAE Programs in Glasgow. The Royal Navy’s thrilling programme of ship constructing in Scotland, which incorporates 5 Sort 31 basic objective frigates being constructed by Babcock Worldwide in Rosyth, will generate jobs, abilities and financial advantages in Scotland for a few years to come back.”
Glasgow will then be towed to BAE’s Scotstoun shipyard additional alongside the Clyde the place the Sort 26 Metropolis-class frigate will bear additional outfit, testing after which commissioning. The BAE Programs groups concerned within the float off of HMS Glasgow have been skilled utilizing the 3D visualisation suite giving them entry to a full digital twin of the ship. The float off course of is a extra trendy, environment friendly and low-risk approach for a ship to enter the water in comparison with the earlier dynamic launches. The method is well-proven, having been used for the 5 Batch 2 Offshore Patrol Vessels (Tamar, Spey, Trent, Medway and Forth) constructed by BAE Programs in Glasgow, the final of which was delivered to the Royal Navy in 2020. They’ll monitor the ship carefully all through all phases of the method guaranteeing that the transition is safely managed.
HMS Glasgow is the primary of eight Metropolis-class frigates to be delivered to the Royal Navy. HMS Cardiff and HMS Belfast are additionally beneath building with the contract for the ultimate 5 being awarded this month to BAE Programs. The frigates will likely be anti-submarine warfare specialists and can work alongside the continuous-at-sea deterrent and the Queen Elizabeth-class plane carriers. Glasgow is anticipated to enter service within the mid-2020s. The Sort 26 frigate or Metropolis-class frigate is a category of frigate being constructed for the UK’s Royal Navy, with variants additionally being constructed for the Australian and Canadian navies. The programme, generally known as the International Fight Ship, was launched by the UK Ministry of Defence to partially exchange the navy’s 13 Sort 23 frigates, and for export. Its main function is to conduct superior anti-submarine warfare missions whereas supporting air defence and basic objective operations.
