Thales "superblock" strategy for new R.N. carriers

Sea Power, Jun 2002

The Thales (formerly Thomson-CSF) CVF Team has announced its strategy for the construction phase of the U.K. Royal Navy's Future Aircraft Carrier (CVF) program. The team is one of two consortia bidding for the contract to build two new R.N. aircraft carriers, 50,000-tons or larger, each of which would be capable of operating 50 fixed-wing aircraft.

The strategy is radically different from anything seen previously, although it draws on experience with the construction of very large mercantile hulls. Basically, the Thales team proposes to build each carrier in five separate sections known as Superblocks. Each of the 5,000- to 16,000-ton Superblocks would be as self-contained as possible, and would correspond with the ships' nuclear, biological, and chemical defense (NBCD) zones in order to minimize interconnections.

Each Superblock also would be as fully outfitted as possible (80-90 percent); this approach would create a "virtual ship" that could be moved by sea to a dry dock, where it could be rapidly welded to the other Superblocks. The Thales CVF Team claims that this building process, which would be coordinated by the team partner Halliburton KBR, would take only two months to complete.

The Thales officials said the team has carried out extensive studies to determine the best way of providing the facilities and resources needed to design and build the two ships, and of guaranteeing the 2012 and 2015 delivery dates for CVF(1) and CVF(2) demanded by the Ministry of Defence. The team's inclusive approach engages the entire U.K. shipbuilding industry to ensure the widest possible access through open competition. The shipyards would optimize their chances of winning by competing for the Superblocks best matched to their individual facilities, competencies, and cost structures.

To further reduce costs, each competing shipbuilder would build the same segment of both carriers; the design team sees the traditional approach of awarding contracts to two different shipyards for the carriers as too costly, company officials said. The final shakedown and commissioning would take place at the Devonport Management Ltd. yard in Plymouth.

Thales plc's CEO, Alex Dorrian, said that Thales "is adapting the expertise from Halliburton KBR's well-proven commercial and offshore processes and applying it for the first time to the largescale construction of warships. The new skills and ship-construction techniques ... [represented in] the Thales [CVF] Team will move naval ship construction into a new era, creating an efficient and capable industry that can compete in the world marketplace."

Thales employs 12,000 staff in its U.K. companies and has a turnover approaching $168 billion; in comparison, the Thales Group employs 65,000 people worldwide; the team includes-- in addition to the companies already mentioned-consultants BMT, Alstom, and U.S. electronics giant Raytheon.