Page 12: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (May 1995)

Shows of force in Euro military market by Carol Fulford and Andy Smith

For the second time in just two weeks, mili-tary-minded visitors made their way to defense industry showcases in Eu- rope and the Middle East, including London's own International Maritime Defence Exhibition (IMDEX), held during the last week in March, following Abu Dhabi's massive IDEX event. De- spite the proximity of dates, the U.K. offering at

Greenwich still attracted 250 exhibitors, a steady stream of visitors and 12 ships moored up for inspection in West India Docks.

The latter inevitably attracted much atten- tion, largely due to the variety on view. Vessels featured included a SMYGE experimental patrol craft from Sweden, mine countermeasure ves- sels from France, Germany, Norway, The Neth- erlands and the U.K., together with the latest

Danish Flyvefisken multi-role vessel, a Polish rescue vessel and an Irish offshore patrol ship.

The display was completed by a 3,240-ton

Nordkapp class coast guard vessel from Norway and — the largest of them all — a 4,330-ton

Italian De La Penne class destroyer.

The tone of the four-day event revolved around two major themes: the urgent need for yards to promote and encourage international partner- ships and the increasing naval requirements for multi-role vessels.

VSEL, the UK's only submarine building company, was upbeat at the show despite the fact that over the next three months it will continue the process of shedding nearly 600 jobs due to cuts in defense spend- ing. This is not new for the com- pany, which has been steadily re- ducing its workforce since 1990.

Shortly, there will be no more than 5,200 employed at the

Barrow-in-Furness,

Cumbria, facility—ayard which used to employ 14,000. Contracts, even for a dwindling workforce are, how- ever, in hand — as

VSEL completes the fi- nal two vessels in a se- ries of four Trident mis- sile submarines ordered by the Royal Navy, and makes progress with the Batch 2 Trafalgar class project for which it will be tendering later in the year. In its sur- face shipbuilding capac- ity, it is constructing the

Royal Navy's new heli- copter carrier in part- nership with Scottish merchant shipbuilder

Kvaerner Govan.

Kvaerner will complete the basic ship which will then sail to VSEL's yard to be finished to mili- tary specification.

The U.K. Ministry of

Defence (MOD) has also confirmed that VSEL is the only bidder for the contract to build the

LPD assault ships scheduled to replace HMS

Fearless and HMS Intrepid. If the contract is awarded, the ships will be built at Barrow with support again from Kvaerner Govan.

In addition to this link-up on large surface ships, other collaborative ventures are on the go, such as the yard's international sales and marketing agreement with Dutch submarine builder RDM on the Moray class diesel-electric submarine.

Exclusively in the surface shipbuilding cat- egory, U.K. company Vosper Thornycroft was talking eagerly of the pending launch of the first of its new series of fast strike craft for the

Qatar Emiri Navy. To be named QENSBarzan, the vessel is the first of four in the new Vita class 183.6-ft. (56-m) series and will be supplied together with extensive integrated logistics support including ship documentation, through- life support and training.

The launch of QENS Barzan will take place less than 14 months after keel laying, an impres- sive build performance that reflects the modern shipbuilding facilities at VT and has moved Man- aging Director Martin Jay to comment: "The vessels for Qatar will be among the best VT has built in terms of productivity and quality." (For more on QENS Barzan, turn to page 18.)

Despite such obvious success in the Middle

East, VT has not been so fortunate in tendering for the remodernization project required by the

Brazilian Navy for its six Niteroi class frigates.

Although invited as original designer and builder of the vessels to tender as sole prime contractor and project integrator, VT lost out to Italian company Alenia Sistemi Navali. The subsequent contract for $160 million, signed after the Brazil- ian Senate approved the funding, was won largely because of the company's edge in being able to offer the bulk of the supply packet — e.g. radars, command and control systems, fire-control equip- ment and a complete missile package.

Italy is also playing its part in the European naval project of the decade, the buzz talk of the show — Project Horizon. Forming the third coun- try with France and the U.K. in another trium- virate military project, the aim to develop a single class of anti-air frigate is now progressing through stage one. Prime contractors for the project are DCN for France, Orizzonte SpA for Italy and GEC-Marconi Naval Systems for the U.K.

French yard DCN International has also, meanwhile, been awarded three other major contracts: to regularly overhaul Saudi Arabian frigates and

Underway Replenishment tankers; supply three Agosta 90-B diesel- electric submarines to Pakistan; and build two air-defense frig- ates for Saudi Arabia. It also continues to work on the i Scorpene family of "next-gen- * eration" nuclear subma- rines for the French Navy in collaboration with Span- ish yard Bazan. At 202.3 ft. (61.7 m) in length with endurance of 50 days, the

CM2000's strengths are its platform versatility and state-of-the-art integrated combat system. It has been designed for easy conver- sion to air-independent propulsion, carries a maxi- mum crew complement of 32 and 18 weapons such as torpedoes and missiles.

In Scandinavia, Norwe- gian yard Kvaerner con- tinues with its program to build the Oksoy/Alta class of minehunters/sweepers.

Developed by the navy in

Bergen with Defence Re- search Institute and Det

Norske Veritas, the 181.1 x 44.6-ft. (55.2 x 13.6-m) design is of catamaran type with FRP hulls built in sandwich construction. (Continued on page 16) 14 Maritime Reporter/Engineering News