New paint shed speeds up Type 26 frigate construction

The block, which will one day be home to machinery at the heart of the Royal Navy’s fifth Type 26 frigate, was moved from the Govan Shipbuild Outfit Hall to the paint facility.

The new facility which was handed over to BAE Systems earlier this month allows consolidated blocks of the ship to go through the shot blast and paint process rather than the work being carried out on less efficient unit-by-unit basis.

This introduces efficiencies in the use of containment and extraction equipment for the shot blast element as well as the act of painting the hull itself.

The use of the dedicated facility also minimises disruption on other units and blocks under construction in the build facilities (work on ships 3 to 5 – Belfast, Birmingham, Sheffield – in the Type 26 programme is under way on the Govan site, with HMS Glasgow and Cardiff being completed at BAE Systems’ facility in Scotstoun on the right bank of the Clyde) and also reduces the transportation of individual units around the site.

The new paint hall is part of a multi-million-pound upgrade of the Govan site, incorporating the lessons of the construction of the first three ships in the Type 26 class – the huge Janet Harvey Hall where two 8,000-tonne frigates can be constructed side-by-side is another shielding the vessels and workers from the elements – which will speed up and improve the five Batch 2 frigates which will complete the class for the Royal Navy.

Pictures courtesy of John Linton, BAE Systems.