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H&W Set to Bid for £30m Contract with UK Royal Navy 'QE' Aircraft Carriers

25th August 2021
Belfast shipyard, Harland & Wolff is set to bid for maintenance work on two huge UK Royal Navy aircraft carriers. Belfast shipyard, Harland & Wolff is set to bid for maintenance work on two huge UK Royal Navy aircraft carriers. Credit: Belfast Telegraph - twitter

Parent company of Harland & Wolff has said it is ready to bid for an estimated £30m 10-year deal to dry-dock, repair and maintain two giant UK Royal Navy 'Queen Elizabeth' class aircraft carriers.

InfraStrata shut down large parts of its Belfast dockyard for four months last year to carry out maintenance and upgrades to ensure the shipyard was in a strong position to bid for the lucrative contract.

The yard will face opposition from one other facility, Rosyth on the east coast of Scotland, where the two 'QE' carriers were built.

More from the Belfast Telegraph.

As Afloat previously reported the pair of QE aircraft carriers, had involved sections of the vessels to be built throughout various yards, among them Appledore Shipyard.

The north Devon facility which built a quartet of OPV90 'P60' class for the Irish Naval Service, was last year acquired by Infrastrata.

Published in Shipyards
Jehan Ashmore

About The Author

Jehan Ashmore

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Jehan Ashmore is a marine correspondent, researcher and photographer, specialising in Irish ports, shipping and the ferry sector serving the UK and directly to mainland Europe. Jehan also occasionally writes a column, 'Maritime' Dalkey for the (Dalkey Community Council Newsletter) in addition to contributing to UK marine periodicals. 

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Shipyards

Afloat will be focusing on news and developments of shipyards with newbuilds taking shape on either slipways and building halls.

The common practice of shipbuilding using modular construction, requires several yards make specific block sections that are towed to a single designated yard and joined together to complete the ship before been launched or floated out.

In addition, outfitting quays is where internal work on electrical and passenger facilities is installed (or upgraded if the ship is already in service). This work may involve newbuilds towed to another specialist yard, before the newbuild is completed as a new ship or of the same class, designed from the shipyard 'in-house' or from a naval architect consultancy. Shipyards also carry out repair and maintenance, overhaul, refit, survey, and conversion, for example, the addition or removal of cabins within a superstructure. All this requires ships to enter graving /dry-docks or floating drydocks, to enable access to the entire vessel out of the water.

Asides from shipbuilding, marine engineering projects such as offshore installations take place and others have diversified in the construction of offshore renewable projects, from wind-turbines and related tower structures. When ships are decommissioned and need to be disposed of, some yards have recycling facilities to segregate materials, though other vessels are run ashore, i.e. 'beached' and broken up there on site. The scrapped metal can be sold and made into other items.