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Shipbuilding Resumes at Portsmouth Naval Base
01 Nov 2003
VT will build blocks for the first six of the new class of 7,000 tonne vessels ordered thus far. The prime contractor is BAe Systems, which started production work at Glasgow earlier this year.
In a ceremony at VT's new Portsmouth shipbuilding facility, Naval Base Commander Commodore Amjad Hussain pressed a button to start steel cutting on a laser cutter, one of several pieces of high-tech machinery at the £50m facility.
VT will build the bow section, masts and funnels of the ships with the blocks moved by barge, also under construction at Portsmouth, to BAe Systems' shipyard in Glasgow for whole ship assembly. The 152.4m Type 45 destroyer will be a multi-role vessel capable of more than 27 knots. The first block is scheduled to leave Portsmouth in 2005 in a build programme that will sustain some 600 jobs.
MJ Information No: 18809
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