The committee also heard that problems with the power units of the Type 45 destroyers were partly because the warships turbines and electrics were not designed for the heat of the Gulf.
The 8,000-ton air defence destroyers have a crew of 190 and are designed to shield the rest of the fleet from air or missile attack. They will play a vital role in defending Britain’s new aircraft carriers, but have suffered a string of power outages and are scheduled to undergo a refit costing tens of millions of pounds to put in extra diesel generators.
But executives from firms which built the destroyers said the Navy had not specified the warships would need to be able to operate for long periods in the extreme temperatures of the Gulf.
Mr Hudson said: “I think the operating profile considered at the time was that there would not be repeated and continuous operations in the Gulf.”
Thomas Leahy, a director of Rolls Royce, said the conditions the firm’s turbines were working under were “far more arduous conditions than were initally required by that specification”.
The Prime Minister's official spokesperson responded by saying said: "We are going to be spending £8 billion in the next decade. That is a considerable sum. That's what the Royal Navy will be spending on new kit and new warships. Much of that is being manufactured on the Clyde."
An MoD spokesman added that the Type 45 destroyer was “designed for world-wide operations, from Sub-Arctic to extreme tropical environments, and continues to operate effectively in the Gulf and the South Atlantic all year round”.
