Developing Engineers

Last week saw some truly remarkable images come out of the Mediterranean, images that made it look like a gigantic ship had just been plucked out of the water and dumped near a small island.  But rather than fantasy this was the sinking and grounding of a £370 million, 290 metre long, 115,000 tonne cruise liner.

As I write this, all focus seems to be on the Captain for leading his ship astray, diverting this massive vessel off it’s pre-planned course as a treat for the islanders on Giglio or to salute a fellow captain at his home.  The investigation into the exact cause of this disaster is likely to go on for some time, but importantly questions are also being asked as to whether or not cruise liners are safe?

Modern cruise liners are true behemoths of the sea, reaching up to 220,000 tonnes and featuring restaurants, swimming pools and cinemas to entertain up to 6,000 passengers.

Naturally, the media was quick to conjure up comparisons between the Costa Concordia and the RMS Titanic, but one thing remains as true today as it did back in 1912 – no ship is unsinkable.  The key differences between then and now lie in design and evacuation procedures, which essentially boil down to how long the ship should take to sink if the hull is breached, how well it is able to prevent listing (toppling over) and how quickly passengers and crew should be evacuated.

A specialist in ship dynamics at the University of Southampton, Professor Philip Wilson pointed out that modern ships are incredibly stable, when interviewed by the BBC.  Ships have systems in place allowing water flooding one side of a ship to be pumped to the other, or even to deliberately take more water on board to correct any imbalance.  So the severe listing experienced by the Costa Concordia remains a mystery to be solved, as is the fact that the ship eventually toppled over to starboard, even though the main hull breach was on it’s port side!

Personally there’s one thing that puzzles me much more, and that’s this: why exactly are ships worth hundreds of millions of pounds, carrying thousands of passengers and crew, even allowed to sail off pre-defined routes apparently at the ‘whims’ of their captains?  Engineers managing projects worth mere hundreds of thousands of pounds must follow strict specifications and raise any change requests with their stakeholders – how is operating a cruise ship any different?

HMS Ark Royal will be decommissioned immediately (photo courtesy of Royal Navy © Crown Copyright/MOD 2010)

As the Defence Review’s cuts hit home – the armed forces have been hit hard. It was thought one of the new carriers would be cancelled, but it now looks like it may be built – but sold after three years!

Last time Britain thought of selling a new carrier was April 1982. Then Argentina invaded the Falklands and the rest is history – the deal with Australia was shelved as HMS Invincible lived up to her name.

Critics say if the Falklands were invaded today – Britain couldn’t do a repeat performance. HMS Ark Royal is being decommissioned, and the entire fleet of 80 Harriers withdrawn – leaving Britain unable to mount another unsupported attack until the Joint Strike Fighter arrives in 2020. 

The new generation of nuclear submarines are postponed until at least 2028 – that’s four years after the Vanguard-class are to be scrapped. The cuts also mean finally cancelling Nimrod. No surprise – but where does this leave the British aircraft industry?

The army has also seen its Challenger 2 tanks cut by 40% and the decision on Trident has been put off for six years – or in other words until after the next election. Tories and Labour support a nuclear deterrent while the Liberals ask ‘Does Britain need Trident?’

Plans for HMS Prince of Wales look like being scuttled - the last HMS Prince of Wales (above) was sunk off Malaya in 1941 (photo courtesy of the online library of the US Navy)

The imminent ‘Defence Review‘ which plans to bring the MoD into line with all other government departments – will mean the loss of thousands of engineering jobs. Defence isn’t ring-fenced, so faces cuts of up to 40%.

This is likely to mean cutting one of the two 65,000ton ‘Queen Elizabeth’ class aircraft carriers planned for delivery in 2016. HMS Queen Elizabeth is well underway, but the second ship HMS Prince of Wales looks likely to be cancelled with a saving of £2.5billion.

The RAF and Navy are also reported to have their order for Lockheed Martin/BAe F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft slashed from 130 to 50. Cuts to the STOVL (short take-off and vertical landing) US-built Harrier replacement will save the tax-payer a further £8billion.

The cuts have been the talk of this week’s Tory Party Conference, with leaked letters and rumours of a rift between Defence Secretary Liam Fox and PM David Cameron.

There has even been talk of saving costs by having a joint nuclear deterrent with the French – This would be nothing new for BAe who have long had continental bedfellows through Eurofighter, Tornado and Jaguar.

What is not just talk will be the very real loss of engineering jobs – an inevitable consequence of taking over £10billion out of the industry.