Photo: BAE Systems via the Royal Navy
The future fleet of the UK’s Royal Navy will include eight City-class frigates. The first one of them, HMS Glasgow, has entered the final development stage, after been acquainted with the water through a new, modern procedure developed by the BAE Systems engineers.
A new anti-submarine warship is getting closer to becoming fully operational. HMS Glasgow, a Type 26 frigate, has recently entered the water for the first time. Not as a full ship ready to sail, but as part of the building process. This specific step is called “floating” and it involves taking a future ship to the water, for the final outfitting, testing, and then commissioning.
What’s special in this particular case is that the teams at BAE Systems did not use the standard procedure for this, known as a dynamic launch, but a new method that is less risky and more efficient. Through this process, the ship is carefully moved to a barge, then the base of the barge sinks slowly for several hours, until the ship enters the water.
The float-off is carefully monitored using 3D visualization, which implies the creation of a digital twin for the vessel. BAE Systems had already started using this modern float-off process for the Batch 2 Offshore Patrol Vessels that it had previously built in Glasgow, with the last one delivered to the Navy in 2020.
At the moment, HMS Glasgow only weighs about 6,000 tons. Once in the water, it was then transferred from the Govan shipyard in Scotland to Scotstoun. There, the last steps of the building process will be finalized, after which the frigate will be commissioned. As the first of the new City-class frigates, it’s expected to start working with the Royal Navy’s aircraft carriers by 2025.
The next ones, HMS Cardiff and HMS Belfast are currently in-build, with five more to come.
What’s special in this particular case is that the teams at BAE Systems did not use the standard procedure for this, known as a dynamic launch, but a new method that is less risky and more efficient. Through this process, the ship is carefully moved to a barge, then the base of the barge sinks slowly for several hours, until the ship enters the water.
The float-off is carefully monitored using 3D visualization, which implies the creation of a digital twin for the vessel. BAE Systems had already started using this modern float-off process for the Batch 2 Offshore Patrol Vessels that it had previously built in Glasgow, with the last one delivered to the Navy in 2020.
At the moment, HMS Glasgow only weighs about 6,000 tons. Once in the water, it was then transferred from the Govan shipyard in Scotland to Scotstoun. There, the last steps of the building process will be finalized, after which the frigate will be commissioned. As the first of the new City-class frigates, it’s expected to start working with the Royal Navy’s aircraft carriers by 2025.
The next ones, HMS Cardiff and HMS Belfast are currently in-build, with five more to come.
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