Last updated 14:53, Tuesday, 21 October 2008

JOHN SIMPSON talks to BE operations director Haydn Clulow abou the latest progress on the town's first £1.2bn Astute class submarine

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It’s big. It’s black. Its had its nuclear heart fitted. And it’s back in the water.

This may not be quite the end of the £1.2bn future HMS Astute’s time in Barrow. But it is the beginning of the end.

The vessel the navy is keen to get its hands on has completed a year of intensive work in the Devonshire Dock Hall after its first dip in the dock and first successful dive a year ago.

The latest round of work and fault fixing has been completed by dedicated BAE blue collar and technical teams working just about 24/7 under the control of Brian Devenny, head of Astute Trials and Completion.

Now the submarine begins a whole series of dockside tests which will lead to switch on and testing of its powerful nuclear reactor – possibly in February.

The nuclear fuel was loaded in the first such operation for a decade in the DDH. Though complex and high-tech, the Astute ironically has something in common with the battleships of Barrow’s olden days – it is steam powered.

The steam, which will be generated by a 30-year lifespan reactor when it is switched on, drives the turbines that gives the three-deck- deep submarine propulsion and electric power.

Before the nuke power is tested though, there will be further tests of the internal pipes and propulsion systems using the shipyard’s steam barge. Problems that are now sorted delayed the boat’s relaunch by months.

But the shipyard’s operations director Haydn Clulow is optimistic about the rest of the programme to get Astute finished, and to get the 100 different systems on board handed over to the Royal Navy crew based in Barrow.

So far 27 on-board systems including platform management have been handed over.

In August the 250 blue collar workers and other workers on the boat began a 67-day daily countdown that aimed to get the squat sub out of the big shed and in the water by October 23. They actually got it out eight days early, earning praise.

Mr Clulow said: “The guys are very proud of the boat. It never ceases to amaze me how many boats must have come out of this place over the years, but there is still that pride. People think it is their boat.

“There is still a buzz although there is no complacency.”

“We bumped into a number of challenges around a number of key systems. Having said that the boat has come out of the hall now and if you speak to guys who have been around here for some time and seen a number of submarines comes out of the shop, they are saying from a volume and a quality perspective it is the most complete submarine.

“The guys that have been around are giving us the indication that this submarine looks fantastic.

“I went round her yesterday and she looks great. But there is still lots to do. We need to be clear we have still got a programme of work to bring this boat up to final quality, but she is in great shape.”

He says delays were partly due to a first-of-class vessel and partly due to the fact the yard has not completed a new nuke sub for 10 years. Other were the equipment supplied.

He said: “Whilst nobody wanted it to take that long it has not been wasted and all that activity in the DDH has derisked the downstream programme.

“It has given us great confidence that when she does sail out of Barrow on sea trials there is no reason she should not perform very well.”

There are issues that Mr Clulow won’t go into with some of the kit supplied, such as the reactor integration, and the coolant pump which the Ministry of Defence was unhappy with and which had to be replaced.

“It was not performing to specification and was tripping out,” said Mr Clulow.

The one everybody knows about was the costly clanger when the turbo generator shafts ran against bearings without any oil when a pump and its back-up system both failed.

A story flashed round Barrow that a big hole would have to be cut in the new sub, but in the end the shafts were reprofiled on board in cramped confines.

He said: “It was just one of those one in a million or more instances. We just got bad luck. It also fitted into that category that we have not done this for 10 years.”

BAE found a company with a piece of kit with which it could repair the shafts in situ.

“It was a fantastic piece of work fixing that,”said Mr Clulow, “It was a testament to the capabilities of the guys that they worked with external suppliers who had a fantastic piece of kit.”

Moving Astute out of the DDH is allowing the other subs in the hall, Artful and Ambush, to move up to allow the body parts for the fourth sub Audacious to start to move from the New Assembly Shop and into the DDH. Its keel laying ceremony is due next year.

Critical parts for a fifth sub have been ordered and BAE is pinning its future on orders for at least two more boats after that.

Astute will be in the limelight again tomorrow when the Duchess of Cornwall returns to meet the crew and their families and descend its steep ladders to tour the labyrinthine interior.

Camilla launched the boat in a mini heatwave in June last year and is its Lady Sponsor.