Comment & Analysis
Eleven thousand tonnes of aircraft carrier has begun its journey from BAE Systems' shipyard in Glasgow to Rosyth on the other side of Scotland.
The last of the main hull sections for HMS Queen Elizabeth is undertaking the 600 mile voyage to Rosyth where final construction of the carrier will take place. Sections of another ship, HMS Prince of Wales, will eventually follow in its wake.
The final block, known within BAE as LB04, or Lower Block 04, will traverse the route around the the northern coastline of Scotland this week on a giant barge. It's taken BAE more than two-and-a-half years to construct it with a team of 1,500 workers. Alan Nicholson, project manager for Lower Block 04, joined the yard as an apprentice. He says: “There's a real sense of pride – when you walk around and see the block, that is the feeling people express. And to be able to say you were involved in the carrier project as a whole.”
The importance of the carriers to British shipbuilding cannot be overstated. If one or both had not survived the Strategic Defence Review, the industry could have been decimated. As it is, the carriers are supporting 10,000 jobs around the country, and more indirectly. “It's a real national industry,” Nicholson observes. Also of importance has been BAE's work on the Type 45 destroyer programme, the final ship of which, HMS Duncan, is due to be delivered to the navy in March. Jennifer Osbaldestin, Type 45 programme director, says the Govan shipyard “would be a very different place” without the destroyer. “In the early 2000s, we were building predominantly for an international customer. We had an international contract for three offshore patrol vessels and we were working on other options for other international customers. I suspect if we had not had the success of Type 45, then we might have pursued an international profile more robustly.
“But Type 45 came our way, and we've flourished building it. We've modernised our manufacturing techniques and capabilities.”
The Type 45 programme and the aircraft carriers have given BAE and its partners around Britain busy yards, ensuring that skills that have existed for generations are maintained. The challenge will be to keep them busy for years to come. Taking on a project the scale of the aircraft carriers – the largest warships ever constructed for the navy – has been a steep learning curve. But Nicholson says: “I think if you deal with something of that scale, it gives you confidence that you could deal with something similar in the future.” Now the lead will be with the Ministry of Defence at home and governments overseas to see that steel is still being cut at Govan as the carriers enter service.