FSL Starts $34m Refit

Portsmouth-based Fleet Support Limited (FSL) has taken in hand the Royal Navy Type 42 destroyer HMS York ready for a $34 million refit lasting more than a year.

The ship was last dry docked at Portsmouth some four years ago but the project, possibly her final refit before she is decommissioned, will this time include major equipment upgrades, maintenance programmes and improvements to her accommodation.

She will dock down in March shortly after one of the major engineering tasks of the refit starts with the removal of the ship’s Sea Dart missile launcher. This will promptly be replaced with a newly refurbished launcher and FSL technicians will then spend several months re-connecting the supporting infrastructure, notably the radar and alignment systems, and setting to work the new equipment.

A team of up to 100 FSL personnel will be engaged on an extensive menu of other work during the next few months before the ship is un-docked in August.

This will include fitting a new, fuel-saving transom flap which is being fabricated in FSL’s workshops.

Internally, the major tasks include fitting a new ship’s IT network, which involves installing cabling throughout the whole vessel. Another internal network to be re-wired with multi-core cabling will be the ship’s communication system, while the ship’s interior accommodation and crew facilities are also set to be upgraded.

Much of the ship’s power plant will be overhauled and externally work will include removing the propellers and changing the tail shafts, while surveys will determine the level of replacement on the ship’s sea valves and other hull fittings. Before she returns to service in March 2009, HMS York will be totally represerved ready for her next operational deployment.