[BITList] Fwd: Royal Navy

[michael J Feltham]

I wonder who pays for the so-called refitting of the main engines of the Type 45 Destroyers ?

Mike
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> Fury as HMS Ocean is sold to Brazil amid Rosyth job crisis
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> By : Martin Hannan
> HMS Ocean is being sold to Brazil for £84m just more than two years after it was refitted for £65m
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> HMS OCEAN departing from Haifa during her last voyage Photo : Peter Szamosi (c)
> THE Westminster Government’s decision to sell off the Royal Navy’s most recent flagship HMS OCEAN to Brazil could directly affect workers at Rosyth Dockyard who are anxiously awaiting news of more contracts to maintain workforce numbers. Owners Babcock announced 250 redundancies at Rosyth shortly before Christmas but said work could be transferred from its Devonport operation if the Ministry of Defence approved it, with finance proving a major stumbling block. The news of the sell-off comes as it was confirmed in the US that three more Boeing P-8 maritime reconnaissance aircraft have been ordered by the RAF and will be based at Lossiemouth. Nine will be based at Lossiemouth and the news confirmed that with three more on the order books, a total of five confirmed orders — costing more than £500 million — have been placed. It was revealed by the UK Defence Journal that HMS OCEAN is being sold to Brazil for a reported £84m just more than two years after the amphibious assault vessel was refitted at a cost of £65m. The Royal Navy’s largest ship currently on active service — the Rosyth-assembled HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH aircraft carrier will not be fully operational until 2020 — is based at Devonport Naval Base where the dockyard is rivalling Rosyth for new contracts. The National revealed last month that work on the refitting of the engines of Type 45 destroyers and the scheduled refit of ocean survey vessel HMS SCOTT could be withheld from Rosyth because naval personnel based around Devonport are reluctant to relocate to Fife Richard Hardy, national secretary for Scotland for the Prospect union, said at the time: “On behalf of those members facing a bleak Christmas at the risk of redundancy, Prospect is more than disappointed at this decision by the MoD, which seems to be based on crew convenience, rather than any sensible economic or workload metrics.” Finance was always a greater issue, however, and the sale of HMS OCEAN suggests that money could now be available to enable the work on HMS SCOTT and the much larger contract to refit the Type 45 engines to be done at Rosyth. The sale of HMS OCEAN, which cost £150m when she was launched in 1995 after being mostly built at the then Kvaerner yard on the Clyde, is proving controversial not least because she is the Navy’s largest vessel capable of delivering helicopter support. Labour’s shadow defence secretary Nia Griffith said: “Hugely disappointing if this turns out to be true, HMS OCEAN undergoes a refit, then sold for just £84 million. “Government have refused to engage on issue of amphibious capability for months. Tories talk a good game but they’re consistently hollowing out our defence capabilities.” Source : The National 
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