HMS Daring is launched at BAE’s Scotstoun shipyard

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Manufacturing News, Source : The Manufacturer
Published : 08 Feb 2006 9:48

SHIPBUILDING: The world’s most advanced warship takes to the water shipyard

HMS Daring, the first of the new class Type 45 destroyers which the Navy claims will be the world’s most advanced warship, has been launched at BAE Systems’ shipyard at Scotstoun on the Clyde.

Daring is one of six Type 45 destroyers to be built by BAE Systems in Glasgow under a £5.5 billion contract for the Ministry of Defence and it will come into service with the Navy in 2009. Portsmouth-based VT Group, formerly Vosper Thornycroft, manufactured the bow section and the funnels and main mast, and shipped them to Glasgow for the vessel’s final assembly.

The Type 45 class destroyers will be equipped with a state of the art air defence system which will be able to track and destroy a target the size of a cricket ball travelling three times the speed of sound. Over 150m long, weighing over 7000 tonnes and with a range of 7000 nautical miles, they are designed to be able to carry out a variety of tasks from their primary air defence role to humanitarian and anti-smuggling roles.

Vic Emery, managing director of BAE Systems Naval Ships, said: “The current contract for six Type 45s will keep the company busy for at least the next six to seven years. We are looking for two more Type 45s, and we have a bid on the table with the Ministry of Defence to make a class of eight ships.”

Production of the second destroyer is now under way at the BAE’s Govan shipyard in Glasgow, and at VT Group shipyard in Portsmouth.

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