New 'Multi-Purpose' ship for RN

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In todays telegraph

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Former Conservative leadership contender Penny Mordaunt has unveiled plans for three multi-purpose ships to “fly the flag” for the UK and act as a replacement for the Royal Yacht Britannia.

The vessels would be capable of performing a range of roles from disaster relief to research, and the cleaning up of oceans.

Built in British shipyards, they could also be used in operations to tackle illegal migration, as well as for communication purposes.

Unlike Boris Johnson’s £250 million plan for a replacement for the Royal Yacht Britannia, the proposed vessels would be commercially built and operated and funded exclusively by the private sector.

The first of the ships is expected to cost £150 million, with the other two likely to cost “significantly” less.

The Royal Yacht Britannia was decommissioned in 1997, in a move that caused the late Queen much sorrow. Campaigners want a replacement to promote the UK overseas.

Ms Mordaunt’s support for the multi-purpose ships idea came as part of her role as MP for a seat in Portsmouth, the country’s naval capital - rather than her Cabinet role as Leader of the House of Commons.

It is not part of her Cabinet brief, and may raise eyebrows in the wake of her previous tilt at the Tory leadership in October, when she ran against Rishi Sunak, but withdrew before the vote.

“The UK is a proud maritime nation, whose expertise is recognised and respected around the world,” she said.

“These multi-purpose ships seek to build on this by providing additional capacity to our existing fleets to deliver additional training, scientific research and disaster relief, while giving businesses space to show off innovative British products and services.

“They are not designed merely to replicate what we had in the past, but are based on a serious and detailed assessment of what the country needs in the future in a cost-effective way by working closely with the private sector.

“These ships will fly the flag for the UK and will provide important additional resources for humanitarian relief and scientific research.”
 
So, totally built, operated, and funded exclusively by the private sector. What's the business case again? Because if these tasks were profitable without sticking a hand out to the government, someone would be doing them already.
 
So is this the start of privatisation of the Royal Navy or Royal Fleet Auxiliary? Or are these HMCG vessels or some kind of sub-contracted service for them? Or are they Border Force vessels or some kind of sub-contractee?

It's hard to tell what rationale is going on here other than an obsession to build something and channel funds into millionaires' pockets.
And how much has been spent already? Nobody has come up with a design and nice shiny model in a glass box for free....

The sceptic in me feels that if the RN agreed to put Union Jack decals on all their ships as dazzle camo we wouldn't have this problem!
 
This is a resurrection of a previous plan from Cammell Laird.

Obviously the ship would be built by them...

ukdefencejournal.org.uk

Cammell Laird helps launch plans for new £150m disaster relief ship

Birkenhead shipyard Cammell Laird has helped launch plans for a new £150m disaster relief ship.
ukdefencejournal.org.uk ukdefencejournal.org.uk

To be honest the idea has some merit...the RN deploys warships or auxiliaries every year to the Caribbean for disaster relief (and some law enforcement). This year its a T45. Whilst welcome as a cruise for the crew (and don't discount that as a recruiting tool, overseas deployments get good publicity) they're not always an appropriate vessel for the task. When we were deploying a Bay Class every year it made sense but they're in real demand now...

I actually think the idea is good, but doesn't go far enough. We should have a number of such vessels that operate as training vessels for commercial mariners, with an onshore National Maritime college to train the seafarers of tomorrow, whilst also combining disaster relieft and humanitarian assistance. You could imagine a shore based training scheme with an annual cruise to 'learn the ropes' in the Caribbean or off West Africa utilising the accommodation and class rooms onboard. Similar to the US National Security Multi Mission Vessel. The fact that such a ship or number of shis, preferably, could also have a role in a national emergency/military crisis would also have some note. Fund it jointly out of the Foreign Aid, BEIS, DfE and MoD budgets....for medical staffing you'd easily get volunteers from the NHS and from wider emergency services for disaster relief. All good training....and it might even help alleviate the shortages of RN and RFA recruits over a number of years....

National Security Multi-Mission Vessels | MARAD

2023 NSMV Empire State Christening Ceremony
www.maritime.dot.gov www.maritime.dot.gov

Empire State VII | SUNY Maritime College

www.sunymaritime.edu www.sunymaritime.edu

https://imgur.com/mx9RQhg
View: https://imgur.com/mx9RQhg
 
Dimensions: 135 x 23.4m, 5.2m draft
Speed: 18 knots
Range: 6000 nm
Cargo capacity 12,000 m3, 2000 tonnes
RORO
Accommodation: 200

To be operated by the Britannia Maritime Aid charity which has been pushing for these ships for 4 years.
 
WatcherZero said:
To be operated by the Britannia Maritime Aid charity which has been pushing for these ships for 4 years.
Click to expand...
Information on Britannia Maritime Aid from YouGov:

Income and expenditure data for financial year ending 31 March 2022:
Total income: £8,920
Total expenditure: £9,164

People:
9 Trustee(s)
1 Volunteer(s)

In 2019/20 (the year of the Cammell Laird event Tinymagic mentions above) they had a total gross income of £3.92k and total expenditure of £198. Gross income for 2020/21 was £73(!!) and total expenditure was £336.

I don't knock the intent and desire but this doesn't sound like a financially strong charity to be backing this kind of project.
 
Sadly this merges the actual needs of HMG and the RN with the usual dubious political shenanigans of a certain emergent class. Of which Mordant is an exemplary.

So while I can agree with certain parts of this, it's fairly clear who the real winners will be.

Shades of ID Cards here in insert good reason why this should be done this way. But dig into it and each reason will fall apart in the need for private sector....sorry honesty needed here....corporate sector involvement.
 
Absolutely desperate and a distraction from bigger issues, same as it has been every other time it has been trotted out (for clarification I’m referring to the boat rather than Mordant)
 

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