Q: What about project management on MOD projects?
A: It would be a good idea.
Surely someone (DPA?) is responsible for making sure all the companies involved are singing the same tune - ie compatibility and interfaces? If the problem is lack of experienced ship designers then can some expertise be brought in from outside?
althenick
They are on about replacing dedicated MCM vessels with a seondary capability for our dwindling frigate/destroyer force. So less capability, less safety, less protection for the crews, and ships will need to be in two or three places a the same time. The sonar used for hunting mines is rather different from that used for hunting submarines, for instance. Also I remember being at Navy Days in 1991 (I think) and an Officer aboard one of the Hunt class told us that they had been close to a mine that exploded and been unscathed - a steel hulled ship would have sunk! GRP is stronger than steel.
Making a larger ship from GRP would be very expensive, and isolating equipment to harden against underwater blasts would be too. More expensive than building a new class of MCM Vessels.
Then again, to the powers that be, a ship is a ship. Wire is wire. Sonar is sonar. This is one of the reasons procurement is so troublesome: those at the top misunderstand the little things.
Which brings us back to CVF...........
Last edited by WE Branch Fanatic; 5th Aug 2006 at 15:32.