End in sight for the Royal Navy’s Type 23 frigate LIFEX programme
End in sight for the Royal Navy’s Type 23 frigate LIFEX programme
Here we provide an update on the complex support programme that is being undertaken to keep the Type 23 frigates in service.
The programme of life extension refits to upgrade and repair the ageing Type 23 frigates to serve beyond their 30th birthdays is almost complete. The last ship to undergo this process, HMS Sutherland is still in the Frigate Support Centre (FSC) shed at Devonport but will undock in late February and should be ready to be handed back to the RN in June.
Each frigate undergoing life extension (LIFEX) refit has a hull survey and repairs, the Sea Wolf missile system replaced with Sea Ceptor, new Artisan radar (if not already fitted) and a wide range of other upgrades and refurbishments. While delivering an important capability boost, the work has mostly taken longer than expected and the work on each vessel has often been a unique project. As each ship was stripped down and surveyed, different levels of hull corrosion, structural problems and equipment deterioration were revealed. This partly explains why the time taken for each ship has varied significantly between vessels.
| Frigate* | PGMU status | LIFEX refit start | LIFEX refit end | LIFEX duration (months) | First post-LIFEX refit start |
| HMS Westminster | N | Oct 2014 | Mar 2017 | 30 | To be decommissioned |
| HMS Argyll | N | May 2015 | Apr 2017 | 24 | May 2022 |
| HMS Montrose | N | Mar 2014 | July 2015 | 17 | Decommissioned |
| HMS Northumberland | Future? | May 2016 | Apr 2018 | 23 | Due Mar 2024 |
| HMS Kent | Future? | Oct 2016 | Oct 2018 | 25 | Due June 2024 |
| HMS Lancaster | N | May 2017 | Mar 2020 | 36 | |
| HMS Richmond | Y | Sept 2017 | Mar 2020 | 30 | |
| HMS Portland | Future? | Apr 2018 | May 2021 | 37 | First to have new S2150 Bow Mounted Sonar |
| HMS Somerset | Future? | Oct 2018 | May 2022 | 43 | Post-refit issues delayed return to service until late 2023 |
| HMS Iron Duke | N | May 2019 | Jun 2023 | 49 | |
| HMS St Albans | Y | Mid 2019 | Mar 2024 | 58 | |
| HMS Sutherland | Y | Dec 2020 | Jun 2024 | 42 |
(HMS Monmouth decommissioned in 2021 without undergoing life extension.)
The original cost estimate for each LIFEX project was around £35M (excluding the engine upgrades) but this has been exceeded in most cases. HMS Iron Duke was the most extreme example, She did not receive new engines and required 2,000 steel inserts to make her seaworthy in a package that eventually cost £103M. The official figure for HMS Somerset was £60.7M, although she continued to suffer from defects well after the refit was complete. The cost of the LIFEX for every ship has not been released into the public domain, with the MoD citing “commercial sensitivity”.
The impacts of the pandemic clearly did not help but progress was slower than expected. Against expectation, the trend has been that LIFEX projects are taking longer for the later ships. Babcock says they have never delivered a ship late back to the customer and work with the RN to coordinate handover to dovetail with the build-up of the ship’s company (Something the RN is increasingly finding harder to manage). Despite being the youngest of the frigates, HMS St Albans has endured the longest time in LIFEX. The work involved 1.2 million man-hours including some 350 structural enhancements, PGMU and the complete removal of her two electric propulsion motors for a major overhaul. Her ship staff moved onboard in November 2023 but she is not expected to be ready for sea until March.
PGMU ambition scaled back
Originally it was intended that 11 of the 13 ships would receive the Power Generation Machinery Upgrade (PGMU) but only HMS Richmond, St Albans and Sutherland will benefit from this. Essentially the upgrade involves replacing the four diesel generator sets with modern equivalents to provide much greater fuel efficiency and performance, especially in hotter climates. (More technical details here). It is unclear if some of the other frigates that have previously completed LIFEX will return to have PGMU at a later date.
The PGMU project presented considerable engineering challenges and attendant costs that were somewhat underestimated at the start. New equipment had to fit within the existing structural and compartment constraints and integrate with the ship’s legacy services and systems. The first frigate to have the PGMU, HMS Richmond went back to sea in March 2020. Her refit employed 350 Babcock staff working a total of 1 million man-hours. 8 km of new cable and 600m of new pipework and were installed. The new diesel-generator sets have to be placed into the Forward Auxiliary Machinery Room (FAMR) below decks. The Upper Auxiliary Machinery Room (UAMR) is on the main deck level and is more easily accessible via deckhead soft patches but was also completely stripped and much equipment re-sited. Richmond has now sailed for thousands of miles and the upgrade has proven to be a success.
Back for more
Following the end of the LIFEX project, ships are now returning for their next upkeep period. HMS Argyll was dry-docked in the Summer of 2022 and is part-way through the project. She was undocked in January but soon after the Daily Telegraph reported HMS Argyll would not be returned to service, essentially due to a lack of sailors with crewing Type 31 and Type 26 being prioritised. However, Babcock say the upkeep is continuing and she is now undergoing ‘post dock-dependent work’. The MoD refuses to confirm that HMS Westminster will be scrapped or comment on plans for HMS Argyll.
Having been run extremely hard since completing LIFEX in 2018, HMS Northumberland will go into the FSC dry dock for a badly needed upkeep period in March. HMS Kent will begin similar maintenance package in June. Under Lloyds certification rules now applied to most RN vessels, ships must be dry docked at least every six years and Babcock will be kept busy with a rolling programme of Type 23 frigate maintenance into the 2030s.
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HMAS Anzac (D59) was a Battle-class destroyer of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Named after the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, the destroyer was commissioned in 1951.
HMAS ANZAC Lyttleton 1974
HMAS Anzac 1950
H.M.A.S. ANZAC – lateral view
The ship served on two tours of duty during the Korean War, and attempts to distinguish herself from British ships led to the practice of red kangaroo symbols on Australian warships. During 1956, Anzac served during the Malayan Emergency. In 1960, a malfunction in the destroyer’s gun direction equipment caused Anzac to fire directly on sister ship HMAS Tobruk during a gunnery exercise, with Tobruk left unrepairable. In 1961, the destroyer was reclassified as a training vessel. Anzac remained in service until 1974, and was sold for breaking a year later.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAS_Anzac_(D59)
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USS Davis (TB-12) and USS Fox (TB-13) along with two unknown destroyers at the Portland, Oregon Rose Festival of June 1908 moored in Williamette River, downtown Portland.
This photo was probably taken during the 1908 Rose Festival when the “Mosquito Squadron” visited Portland. The destroyers Preble, Perry and Farragut, and the torpedo boats Fox and Davis were among the ships in attendance. This photo shows two destroyers (larger ships in the background) and two torpedo boats. Coincidentally, the Fox and Davis, along with a third torpedo boat Goldsborough, were built in 1898-99 at Wolff & Zwicker Iron Works at the foot of Hawthorne on Portland’s east side.
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USS Vella Gulf (CG-72) is a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser that served with the United States Navy. She was the second ship named for the Battle of Vella Gulf, a naval engagement in the Solomons campaign of World War II, the first being USS Vella Gulf (CVE-111), an escort carrier commissioned in 1945.
USS VELLA GULF 2014
The ship’s keel was laid down on 22 April 1991 at Pascagoula, Mississippi, by Ingalls Shipbuilding, then a division of Litton Industries. She was launched on 13 June 1992, sponsored by Mary A. McCauley, wife of Vice Admiral William F. McCauley (Ret.), and commissioned on 18 September 1993 at Naval Station Norfolk.[3]
Designed as a multi-mission ship, Vella Gulf was capable of sustained combat operations in Anti-Air, Anti-Submarine, Anti-Surface, and Strike warfare environments. She supported of carrier battle groups, amphibious assault groups, ballistic missile defense, as well as interdiction and escort missions. Her diverse combat capability was orchestrated by the Aegis Combat System, a fully integrated electronic detection, engagement, and fire-control system. Aegis enabled Vella Gulf to detect, evaluate, and engage an enemy with great firepower and accuracy.
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Controversial hands in pockets ban for sailors lifted by US Navy – Julian Perreira 15th February 2024 at 11:54am
Sailors in the United States Navy are now allowed to place their hands in their pockets after the service implemented sweeping changes to its uniform policy.
The policy update, which was sent out to all US Navy personnel, rescinds the decades-old restrictions barring sailors from putting their hands in their pockets, which the Navy previously claimed was “inappropriate and detracts from a professional military appearance”.
Sailors are now “authorised to have hands in their pockets when doing so does not compromise safety nor prohibit the proper rendering of honours and courtesies”, the latest guidance said.
While the US Navy has relaxed its rules, current US Army policy still states that “while in uniform, personnel will not place their hands in their pockets, except momentarily to place or retrieve objects.”
No such regulation exists for UK military personnel. However, having hands in pockets is widely considered a sign of poor discipline and it has been known for ‘repeat offenders’ to have to sew up their pockets as a punishment.
Since the policy update was released, female sailors are now able to wear t-shirts designed for women, if the garment conforms with the navy’s current colour, fabric, and neck configuration standards.
“The intent of this policy update is to address expressed dissatisfaction regarding the required wear of male or unisex t-shirts that are not designed to fit female bodies,” the latest regulation said.
Sailors may also wear false eyelashes or eyelash extensions in uniform – provided they are no more than “14 millimetres in length as measured from the eyelid to the tip of the eyelash.”
The false eyelash colour must match the colour of the natural eyelash, however, and “eyelash extensions cannot hinder wear of protective eyewear”.
Elsewhere, the Royal Air Force has scrapped its strict no-hand tattoo policy for all serving personnel and potential recruits.
The removal of the RAF’s previous zero-tolerance stance on hand tattoos brings the service in line with British Army and Royal Navy guidance.
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Tricky E-7 adaptations complicate U.S. Air Force, Boeing negotiations – By Stephen Losey
A Royal Australian Air Force E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft is prepared for a sortie during Red Flag-Alaska 19-3 at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Aug. 9, 2019. (2nd Lt. Mark Goss/Air Force)
DENVER, Colo. — The Air Force’s desired adaptations to Boeing’s E-7A battlefield management aircraft are proving to be harder than expected and complicating price negotiations, top service officials said Tuesday.
“We’re having a hard time with [the E-7 program], getting price agreement with Boeing,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told reporters in a roundtable at the Air and Space Force Association’s Air Warfare Symposium here. “We’re still in negotiations with them, and that’s not been finalized yet.”
The Air Force plans to buy 26 E-7s from Boeing by 2032 to replace its aging E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system aircraft fleet. The service awarded Boeing a $1.2 billion contract in February 2023 to start working on the aircraft.
The service plans to first buy two rapid prototype E-7s, with the first expected to be fielded in 2027, and in 2025 make a production decision on the rest of the fleet.
Australia already flies the E-7, which it refers to as the Wedgetail, and Boeing is also making the aircraft for other nations such as the United Kingdom. The Air Force’s version of the E-7 will have a modified design to meet U.S. satellite communication, military GPS and cybersecurity and program protection requirements.
“We’re partnering with the US Air Force to deliver this critical capability and are working diligently to reach an agreement,” Boeing said in a statement to Defense News.
Andrew Hunter, the Air Force’s assistant secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, said in another roundtable the sticky negotiations center on the E-7′s first two rapid prototype aircraft.
The level of engineering work needed to adapt the E-7 to the Air Force’s specifications was “above and beyond what we anticipated,” Hunter said.
“The big surprise there was an unexpected amount and degree of non-recurring engineering required to meet the requirement that the Air Force specified, which we thought was very close to what the U.K. is currently procuring from Boeing,” Hunter said. “Those discussions have been challenging.”
Hunter said the Air Force is trying to better understand Boeing’s proposal and determine what elements are essential, and what are unnecessary or could be deferred. The service has narrowed those nagging issues down to a smaller list, Hunter said, but he declined to detail them.
Hunter said he would prefer the process to be going faster. But he acknowledged it’s not surprising that Boeing is being particularly cautious as it negotiates on this program, and that the Air Force and Boeing are working through these challenges together.
“They’ve gotten into some contracts in the past that it’s apparent that as they were bidding those, there was key information they were lacking,” Hunter said. “At some level, it’s not that surprising that they’re trying hard to do their homework and not bid things and not understand the full scope of the work they can be expected to perform when they prepare their proposal.”
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
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Photos show damage that happened to USS Shaw (DD-373). She was a Mahan-class destroyer and the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Captain John Shaw, a naval officer.
Shaw sustained major damage from several bomb hits by Japanese forces during the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Shaw (DD-373) wrecked in floating drydock YFD-2 on 7 December 1941, with fires were nearly out but structure still smoking. Her bow had been blown off by the explosion of her forward magazines, after she was set afire by Japanese dive bombing attacks. In the right distance are the damaged and listing USS California (BB-44) and a dredge.
A navy photographer snapped this photograph of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, just as the USS Shaw exploded. The stern of the USS Nevada can be seen in the foreground. (80-G-16871)
USS Shaw (DD-373) after bow replacement
Mid-February 1942, just after she arrived to receive a new bow and other repairs of damage from the 7 December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Note her temporary bow, installed just forward of the foremast. Submarine on the building ways in the left distance is probably Whale (SS-239).
Commissioned in 1936, Shaw was plagued by construction deficiencies and was not fully operational until 1938. After training in the Atlantic, she was transferred to the Pacific and was berthed in a dry dock in Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.
Shaw sustained major damage from several bomb hits by Japanese forces during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The spectacular explosion of her forward magazine provided one of the most iconic photographs of the attack. She was repaired within a few months of the attack, and served in the Pacific through the rest of World War II, earning 11 battle stars.
Shaw was decommissioned in October 1945 and sold for scrap in July 1946.
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New Scottish-named mine-hunting mothership arrives at HMNB Clyde Alex Candlin 12th February 2024 at 1:38pm
The RFA’s first Scottish-named mine-hunting ‘mother ship’ RFA Stirling Castle, which can launch autonomous drones to seek out threats in the water, has arrived at her new home in Clyde.
The former oil rig support ship will be captained by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary’s Richard Reville who has spoken with pride about his new vessel.
“Being on the first Scottish-named ship is an absolute pleasure. I’m very proud to be the commanding officer of such a wonderful platform with the capability that it has,” he said.
He said: “I have a soft spot obviously because, for myself, I’m not very far from Stirling Castle.
“There’s been equipment fits on board that had to be done in order for the vessel to move into its military service.
“So, it’s been a long process, it’s been challenging but it’s been rewarding. It’s been very different for us.”
Mr Reville recently rejoined the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) after a career that included captaining super yachts.
The new minehunter RFA Stirling Castle, which was purchased by the Ministry of Defence in 2023, will replace the aging fleet of Sandown-class mine-hunting ships and is now part of the Royal Navy’s “paradigm shift”.
The shift will change how the Royal Navy deals with the threat of sea mines around the world and the vessel could be ready for operations later this year.
Currently, her crew is going through an intense period of trials to prepare the 6,000-tonne ship for “initial operational capability”. Overall, the crew will number 54, but only 27 will be deployed at any one time.
Mr Reville said the crewing arrangements gave a good “work and home life balance” and would help with recruitment.
It is hoped the ship will be ready this year and a dedication ceremony could take place as early as April.
Lieutenant Chris Stone, of the MTXG’s Zulu Squadron, said: “It’s a paradigm shift for the Royal Navy, from the legacy (mine counter-measure vessels) that Scottish people will definitely have seen about on the Clyde.
“We’re bringing in a brand new remote and autonomous capability.
“You only have to threaten to lay a mine in an area and that raises insurance premiums for shipping.
“We need a credible capability to deal with that in the future and that’s what we’re working towards now.”
As a former commercial ship, the comfort of the accommodation on RFA Stirling Castle is higher than on Royal Navy warships. Previously a Norwegian vessel, it has an onboard sauna and two gyms.
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