The Royal Navy is creating the ‘ultimate repair shop’ to increase the availability and effectiveness of its ships – and potentially save millions of pounds.
As part of a Defence-wide drive to save money, increase efficiencies and improve the overall readiness of the Armed Forces, Royal Navy engineers in Portsmouth are tackling a massive repair/recycling project.
The city’s naval base is home to the largest of three gigantic equipment stores across the Service, where broken items are held awaiting repair and reinstallation on ships.
Over the years, through a combination of lack of funds, accurate details and data, or repair contracts, items have not been fixed and the stock has built up.
The warehouse in Portsmouth alone now houses some 84,000 items deemed repairable – with a collective value of an estimated £200m.
It’s at 97 per cent capacity – and is expected to be full in about 12 months’ time.
There are smaller repairable equipment stores in Plymouth (circa 15,000 items) and Faslane (around 6,000).
The Navy has already scored some success recycling out-of-date life rafts, working with charities to produce designer handbags, rucksacks and accessories – a project endorsed by Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal – which has generated income and spared landfill.
The Royal Navy Circularity initiative (dubbed ‘round again coxswain’ by the team) is on a different scale – and will have an operational impact as well as potentially generating much greater savings for the Royal Navy (and wider Defence if the Army and RAF follow suit).
Engineers are now going to work their way through the stores, fixing what can be repaired, recycling equipment which cannot or is obsolete for raw materials, especially rare/precious metals.
“We’re giving equipment a second life instead of letting it gather dust,” said Warrant Officer Lee Reeves, from the Navy Climate Resilience and Environmental Management team.
“This is skilled engineering work that makes a real difference – every item we repair and return to service is a win for the fleet, for taxpayers, and for the environment.
“With a further 21,000 repairable items in Plymouth and Faslane, there’s significant scope to scale; indeed there’s no reason why a similar approach cannot be taken-up throughout Defence.”
The pilot for the initiative was repairing ‘reducing stations’ – machines which reduce air pressure from 276 bar to just 8.
Seven such devices can be found on every Type 23 frigate.
A new station will set the taxpayer back £9,696 – with a waiting time of 13 months per order. Asking the original manufacturer to fix a broken set would cost £4,361.
Naval engineers fixed it ‘in house’ for £138, plus £500 certification. It took them a matter of hours. That’s a saving of around £26k per ship.
The initiative was shown to Deana Rouse, the MOD’s Senior Responsible Owner for Defence Productivity.
The project is receiving investment from the Productivity Portfolio team in the Department of State and contributing to the Strategic Defence Review target of unlocking nearly £6 billion in savings this Parliament.
“This is exactly what productivity looks like in practice – local teams tackling longstanding problems with smart, innovative solutions,” Ms Rouse said.
“Today, we’ve seen how the Productivity Portfolio enables Navy engineers on the ground to solve a decade-old problem, delivering real savings and getting equipment back on our ships, into the wider public sector or recycled into Defence Industry.
“It is great to see the Productivity Portfolio in action, making a clear difference to Defence. We will keep looking for ways to scale local initiatives out and bring in new ideas or best practice.”
Image provided by LPhot George Seymour
