Building modern warships is no easy task. Before the hull is launched into the water, hundreds of technicians take over, working tirelessly for months in installing heavy equipment like engines, electronics, miles of electronic cables and the armoury that adds stealth to the battleship. Involving tonnes of metal, the mammoth exercise is often marred by fatalities arising out of dangerous mishaps.
The Indian Navy is looking at introducing an entirely new concept in order to expedite the entire process. Called modular shipbuilding, the concept is being promoted by UK-based BAE Systems. A high level delegation from the UK-based firm will be visiting India soon to offer such a technology for shipbuilding.
Benefits that the Indian Navy can derive from this concept are two-fold. Firstly, rolling our new ships will become a fast affair. Secondly, safety aspects for the technicians in building new ships will not be compromised.
Typically, modular shipbuilding involves building the ship in huge blocks?typically 300-tonne blocks?in the friendly conditions of a ?modular workshop,? inform BAE officials. Once the blocks are ready, they are ferried by a crane to a dry dock where they are assembled into a warship. Indian Navy officials inform that this modular method might be considered to build the next-generation warships.
Till date, the technology associated with modular shipbuilding is still not available in India, though senior naval officers say that a few parts for submarines are manufactured somewhere else and then fitted at the dock. ?You can safely assume that this modular shipbuilding is in nascent stage in India,? inform officials.
BAE officials say, ?Our shipbuilding facilities are responsible for some of the best and most advanced ships in the world. We are currently building six destroyers for the UK Royal Navy, three ocean patrol vessels for the Royal Navy of Oman and three offshore patrol vessels for the government of Trinidad and Tobago.?
Officials from BVT Surface Fleet, the maritime joint venture between BAE Systems and VT Group, say that the use of prefabricated modular cabins reduce onboard outfitting time and consequently shorten the shipbuilding cycle. In addition, modular construction improves shipbuilding efficiency because it transfers field assembly work to a shop environment.
Modular construction also reduces building costs, because the standardisation of the cabins allows assembly-line methods to be used. It also achieves a consistently higher and more uniform level of finish. The world?s most advanced warship, HMS Daring, built by BVT has completed stage one sea trials and is believed to have performed above expectations.
Senior Indian Navy officers say that modular shipbuilding technology will be welcome here as there are huge space constraints in the country?s docks.
Modular shipbuilding technology helps save time, space and money.
?It also helps save space on the dry docks,saves precious time and helps us in meeting our modernisation plans for the Indian Navy,? they inform.
Many different approaches have been used in the construction of ships. Sometimes a ship must be custom-built to suit the particular requirements of a low-volume trade route with unique cargo characteristics.
On the other hand, there are many instances where a significant number of similar ships are constructed, providing an opportunity to employ procedures which take advantage of repetitive processes. The building of a ship can be divided into seven phases: design, construction planning, work prior to keel laying, ship erection, launching, final outfitting, and sea trials.
Modular ship production begins with hundreds of smaller subassemblies in which piping sections, ventilation ducting, and other shipboard hardware, as well as major machinery items, such as main propulsion equipment, generators, and electrical panels are installed. The pre-outfitted subassemblies are then joined with others to form assemblies which are welded together to form complete hull and superstructure modules.
These giant ship modules, each weighing thousands of tonne, are joined together on land to form the completed ship hull prior to launch. As a result of this early outfittings and modular construction, a ship is more than 70% complete at the time of launch.
Ship launch at Northrop Grumman?s Ship Systems Ingalls, located in Mississippi, is equally innovative. Completed ship hulls are rolled on a rail transfer system, from the construction area to Ingalls? floating drydock for launch. The drydock is then positioned over a deep-water pit and ballasted down, allowing the ship to float free.
Following the launch, each ship is taken to an outfitting pier for champagne christening, final outfitting, dockside and at-sea pre-delivery testing and onboard crew training.
This system has been technologically upgraded over the years and applied to the construction of multi-mission destroyers, amphibious assault ships and missile destroyers. It is now being applied to the construction of next generation missile destroyers and multi-purpose amphibious assault ships for the US Navy, as well as luxury cruise ships and a variety of offshore marine products.
Ingalls has developed advancedthree-dimensional computer-aided design (CAD) and engineering (CAE) systems available in the shipbuilding industry.
