Dragon Roars Home Marking The End of a Successful Year for Type 45

Glasgow, United Kingdom: Dragon, the fourth Type 45 destroyer, has completed her first stage sea trials, demonstrating the ship’s outstanding capability and marking the end of a highly successful year on the Type 45 programme.

The trials tested the ship’s power and propulsion systems in a seagoing environment as well as navigation, auxiliary and domestic services and included the first firings of her medium and small calibre guns.

This exceptional year of achievement for the Type 45 programme also saw the first and second of class enter service and the handover of Diamond, the third of class, highlighting BAE Systems’ continued commitment to delivering enhanced capability to the Royal Navy.

Highlights for the year include:

The first of class, HMS Daring, entered service on 31 July, followed by HMS Dauntless on 16 November

• HMS Daring completed her first overseas deployment to the United States, returning on 29 November
• HMS Dauntless demonstrated the Type 45’s exceptional anti-air warfare capability in September, with the first successful firing of the Sea Viper missile system from a Type 45 taking place
• Diamond, the third vessel in the class, left the Clyde for the final time and was formally handed over to the Royal Navy on 21 September
• The Class Output Management team is now established, with BAE Systems’ engineers providing support through basic operational sea training and ongoing in-service support to all three ships, delivering exceptional availability of the fleet
• Dragon returned from four weeks of sea trials on 2 December. The ship will undergo further integration and testing at the Company’s Scotstoun yard, before returning to sea for second stage trials in April. She is on schedule for delivery to the Royal Navy in the latter half of 2011
• Defender is currently undergoing final stages of outfit and will head to sea for the first time in the latter half of 2011
• The launch of Duncan, the final ship in the class, on 11 October marked a pivotal moment in shipbuilding history and the culmination of a successful production phase on the programme. The ship is now undergoing outfit and commissioning at the Company’s Scotstoun yard
• The Type 45 Command and Control simulator was opened at HMS Excellent in October. Replicating the Type 45’s propulsion, generation and auxiliary systems functionality and creating realistic damage scenarios, it allows crew members to undertake command and control training within a state of the art shore based facility

Angus Holt, UK Programmes Director at BAE Systems’ Surface Ships division, said: “The significant progress which we have made during this pivotal year in the programme demonstrates the effective partnering between industry, the Royal Navy and the Ministry of Defence.

“With the first three vessels handed over, on the Clyde we remain focused on the delivery of the next three ships in the class. At Portsmouth, providing support to three Type 45s at sea for the first time has enabled us to demonstrate the effectiveness of our support operation and our ability to deliver improved availability of the fleet, allowing the Royal Navy to continue to meet its operational commitments.”

Head of Destroyers, Commodore Steve Brunton, said: “2010 has been the busiest year so far on the Type 45 programme, I am immensely proud of the milestones that have been achieved and can only congratulate all of the teams who have worked tirelessly to accomplish such remarkable results.”

As Class Output Manager for the fleet, BAE Systems is providing in-service support to the Type 45s. Working alongside the Royal Navy at Portsmouth Naval Base, the Company coordinates all aspects of repair, maintenance and support to improve ship availability and reduce through life support costs.

The Type 45s will provide the backbone of the UK’s naval air defences for the next 30 years and beyond. The destroyers will be capable of carrying out a wide range of operations, including anti-piracy and anti-smuggling activities, disaster-relief work and surveillance operations as well as high intensity war fighting.

Each destroyer will be able to engage a number of targets simultaneously, and defend aircraft carriers or groups of ships, such as an amphibious landing force, against the strongest future threats from the air. The vessels will contribute a specialist air warfare capability to worldwide maritime and joint operations until 2040.

About BAE Systems

BAE Systems is a global defence, security and aerospace company with approximately 107,000 employees worldwide. The Company delivers a full range of products and services for air, land and naval forces, as well as advanced electronics, security, information technology solutions and customer support services. In 2009 BAE Systems reported sales of £22.4 billion (US$ 36.2 billion).