HMS Dragon is the fourth ship of the Type 45 or Daring-class air-defense destroyers built for the Royal Navy. Photo: LA(Phot) Nicky Wilson/MOD, OGL via Wikipedia
BAHRAIN — Not even billion-pound British warships can defeat the high temperatures of the Gulf.
Six 1 billion-pound British destroyers are apparently breaking down because their power systems can’t handle long tours in the region.
The Type 45 destroyers have been working alongside the U.S Navy since last year, protecting aircraft carriers launching airstrikes against Islamic State.
British MPs have now grilled top navy officials about the regular breakdowns as part of an inquiry by the U.K. parliament’s Defense Committee.
“It’s a billion-pound asset that you’re putting into perhaps a war zone and we don’t know if these people who are making up the complement on that ship will go in there and come back out alive, because there might be a problem with the power system on the ship,” committee member MP Douglas Chapman said.
However, a representative of Rolls-Royce, which supplied engines for the ships, said they were never designed for such extreme temperatures.
“Are the conditions experienced in the Gulf in line with that specification?” asked the company’s Naval Marine, EMEA Programs director Tomas Leahy.
“No, they are not. The equipment is having to operate in far more arduous conditions than were initially required by that specification.”
Meanwhile, BAE Systems which built the destroyers said they were never meant for “repeated and continuous” missions in the Gulf.
“The operating profile that was considered at the time was that there would not be repeated and continuous operations in the Gulf, that they would not form a part of the operating profile for the ship,” said managing director John Hudson.
“Therefore, it was not designed explicitly and uniquely for operations in the Gulf.”
The new British Navy base being built in Bahrain, the HMS Juffair, which will be ready next year, is being ….
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