After more than 30 years powering HMS Brocklesby safely around the globe, trusty Deltic engines – the same once used by British Rail in locomotives – have been replaced by fuel-efficient Caterpillars.
The Hunt-class minehunter is the latest to receive a mid-life revamp in Portsmouth which will keep her in service until the 2030s.
In the Portsmouth ship hall built to construct the bow sections of Type 45 destroyers (about 400 tonnes heavier, but ten metres shorter) and extended for gigantic segments of carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales, HMS Brocklesby receives the most substantial revamp in her 33-year history.
She’s the latest ship in her class to receive the year-long overhaul which will help extend the life of the Hunts well into the 2030s.
Her sisters received the mid-life upgrade exposed to the elements, but with the hall now turned into part of BAE’s ‘Minor War Vessels Centre of Specialisation’, Brocklesby escapes the vagaries of the British weather.
That said, it will still take 190,000 ‘man hours’ – that’s the equivalent of one person toiling continuously for more than 21 years – to carry out all the work required to return the ship to fighting order (some 9,000 maintenance tasks in all).
https://navynews.co.uk/archive/news/item/15235