Rolls-Royce Replenishment-at-Sea ship designs on display at Pacific 2008

Designs for a family of replenishment ships capable of supporting warships on rapid response missions are being displayed by Rolls-Royce at the Pacific 2008 exhibition in Sydney.

The family of underway replenishment ships is based on existing Rolls-Royce commercial designs, which means the company is able to meet conflicting pressures of capability, requirement and cost.

The Rolls-Royce designs, which range from 9,000 – 2,5000dwt and are designed for speeds of 18-27 knots, offer a cost-effective alternative to taking ships up from trade or building bespoke naval design ships.

Rolls-Royce has gained a great deal of ship design experience over the past 30 years with over 750 ships delivered, from offshore support vessels to high speed ferries. The ships feature a full range of Rolls-Royce propulsion and motion control equipment.

David Bricknell, Rolls-Royce Systems and Product Strategy Director – Naval, said: “Our solution is to take a commercial ship hull design that is then adapted and “navalised at the design phase”. This approach enables a navy to adopt a commercial ship with a basic level of replenishment capability but incorporates spaces where additional capability can be added.

“The ships can be incrementally upgraded to allow governments to plan spending based on known costs for packages. It also allows those spending plans to be changed at any point in the life the ship if higher priorities are found or greater capability is needed quickly.”

The Rolls-Royce family of replenishment ships is based on commercially-proven hullforms for fast Ro-Ro ferries. This offers better efficiency at speed than a conventional tanker and better course-keeping to ensure accurate station-keeping for replenishment operations.

Baseline hullforms in the designs are from the company’s Ro-Pax range, while experience of oil handling is based on its product tanker designs and experience with refuelling and replenishment at sea systems and equipment.

Rolls-Royce is focusing its commercial design expertise on four key markets – Coastal Protection (Exclusive Economic Zone) vessels, Fast Naval Logistics, Survey and Research vessels and underway replenishment (UnRep) ships.


Notes to Editors

1.

Rolls-Royce, a world-leading provider of power systems and services for use on land, at sea and in the air, operates in four global markets - civil aerospace, defence aerospace, marine and energy.
2.

The Marine business of Rolls-Royce employs 7,400 people in 34 countries with the main manufacturing centres being in the UK, the Nordic countries, the United States and increasingly Asia. Rolls-Royce serves the civil aerospace, defence aerospace, marine and energy markets in Australia and New Zealand. The head office is in North Ryde, Sydney.
3.

Rolls-Royce continues to invest in core technologies, products, people and capabilities with the objective of broadening and strengthening the product portfolio, improving efficiency and enhancing the environmental performance of its products. These investments create high barriers to entry.