WATER SHAMBLES Royal Navy’s £1bn warships are breaking down in the Gulf because the sea is too HOT
A design flaw in the fleet of Type 45 Destroyers means crews are left drifting in total darkness
BY MARK HODGE 8th June 2016, 10:29 am

The Royal Navy’s state-of-the-art £1 billion warships have been called “sitting ducks” because of a design flaw which makes them break down in warm water.

Six Type 45 Destroyers, which are supposed to be among the world’s most advanced battle frigates, have engines which shut down in any seas warmer than Portsmouth Harbour- plunging vulnerable sailors into darkness.



The Ministry of Defence has been accused by contractors of not briefing them correctly by not disclosing that the combat ships would be stationed near Middle East combat zones.

The shocking details were revealed during a defence select committee yesterday which left MPs stunned at the inadequate state of the Britain’s key naval assets.

One former Admiral called the 8,000 tonne ships “bloody dangerous”.

Four of the guided-missile ships, which are designed to protect the rest of the fleet from attacks, are currently at sea with one stationed outside Europe.

The vessels, which have been described as the ‘backbone’ of the Royal Navy, have a pioneering new system which is supposed to be cut costs and be more fuel efficient.

Developed by Rolls Royce, the two turbines on the frigates have intercooler units which take heat from the exhaust and recycle it into the engine.

However, a crucial design flaw means the turbines slow down in warm waters meaning the engine cannot generate enough power and cuts out. The ship’s system does not recognise the flaw and keeps demanding more power which causes the generators to conk out which leads to total electrical failure.

Tens of millions of pounds will be spent refitting the warships with extra diesel generators – which could involve cutting a massive hole in the side of each ship.

MPs yesterday said they were ‘stunned’ by further revelations by two former heads of the Navy who claimed the service was short of money and that fixing the Destroyers had slowed another warship programme.

Admiral Lord West said further delays would mean UK forces were “grossly inadequate” and that putting off replacing the ships was “bloody dangerous”.

Rolls-Royce’s Tomas Leahy said the company, which built the engine, had followed the MoD’s specifications.

He said: “Are the conditions experienced in the Gulf in line with that specification? No, they’re not. So the equipment is having to operate in far more arduous conditions than were initially required.’

Leahy said the heat experienced in areas such as the Persian Gulf had caused electrical failure and ‘plunged the ships into darkness’.

The committee chairman, Conservative MP Julian Lewis, asked: “How many years do you think that the Royal Navy has had a naval presence in the Gulf, would it be measured in decades, scores of years, a century?

“Why should it come as such a surprise that there would be these sorts of climatic demands and obstacles?”

John Hudson of BAE Systems, which built the Type 45, said his company was told that the Navy would be spending less time in the Gulf.

He said: “I think the Navy have operated in the Gulf for many, many years and we are aware of that.

“I think the operating profile that was considered at the time was there would not be repeated and continuous operations in the Gulf – and therefore it wasn’t designed explicitly and uniquely for operations in the Gulf.”

SNP MP Douglas Chapman said: “I’m absolutely stunned, to have a billion-pound asset that you’re putting into a warzone and we don’t know if these people will go in there and come back alive because there might be a problem with the power system. I’m stunned.”

“We’ve got a battle-ready ship in the Gulf, it is sitting there as a sitting duck basically because if you have a lack of power – that’s an amazing level of risk that the MoD were prepared to accept.”

However Dr Andrew Tyler of Northrop Grumman, which developed one of the systems for the ships, said: “It is very difficult to fully simulate a lifetime’s worth of conditions. There’s always a risk of some discovery once a system enters service.”

Former Navy bosses Lord West and Sir Mark Stanhope also told the select committee that the overall state of the service was worrying and that the 19 main warships are set to be reduced.

Lord West said: “Our 19 Destroyers and Frigates are effectively 13 and if there was a major war we might well have air defence units that aren’t able to do air defence.

“I think it is a terrible error that our nation is making in allowing this to happen.”

Sir Mark added: ‘It needs to be resolved – we’ve got to do this quickly because of the risks involved in total power failures at the wrong time.”

An MoD spokesman said: “The Type 45 was designed for world-wide operations, from sub-Arctic to extreme tropical environments, and continues to operate effectively in the Gulf and the South Atlantic all year round.”

Sumber:https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1248396/royal-navys-1bn-warships-are-breaking-down-in-the-gulf-because-the-sea-is-too-hot/