Team Titanic takes on Boaty Mcboatface for the chance to build national flagship
TWO companies representing Britain’s maritime future and heritage are battling it out for the right to build a new £250million national flagship.
Ministers are weighing up two competing designs for what will be seen as the replacement for HMY Britannia, which was decommissioned in 1997.
The new flagship has been dubbed “Britain’s Air Force One” by its supporters with designers making innovative use of glass and green power. The Signal Consortium which includes Houlder, a 34-year-old engineering consultancy behind the Sir David Attenborough polar research vessel – a more dignified title than the public’s choice of “Boaty Mcboatface” – is in the running to build the new ship.
It is up against a team of designers in a network led by 160-year-old Harland and Wolff, best known for building the White Star line’s ocean liners, including the Titanic.
The pair have been whittled down from a field of 19 firms which expressed interest in building the new vessel.
While Houlder’s design is said to resemble modern motor-powered cruisers, with large parts of it under glass, Harland & Wolff ’s design harks back to Britannia’s glamorous past.
Naval sources are said to be delighted with the designs, which also feature helicopter decks, with an emphasis on green technology and battery power.
They include exhibition spaces, conference areas and an “innovative” use of glass – “all the sorts of things Britannia did not have”, said one source.
The new flagship will weigh a minimum of 11,000 tons and require just 70 crew. HMY Britannia, which is moored in Edinburgh as a tourist attraction, weighs nearly 6,000 tons and required 250 crew. A panel of experts drawn from fashion, industry, the environment and architecture will now meet in the coming weeks to evaluate the blueprints before making recommendations to Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, and Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister.
The new ship is due to launch “in the last quarter of 2024”, entering service at the end of 2025.
One defence source said: “The design industry did not let us down – two really remarkable designs have come forward.
“The designs have been really thought from the keel up about the sort of things you need to have to represent the UK around the world.”
One supporter said: “The cost of £250million is a drop in the ocean. In
terms of the work that has been done, the benefits, the business case, the trade, as the experts look at it, it absolutely stacks up. This is something that no other nation could do – it becomes Britain’s Air Force One.”
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “The competition for the design of the national flagship is ongoing and we are currently reviewing multiple compelling proposals. Once a design has been chosen, the national flagship will be built in UK shipyards, creating jobs, boosting skills and kick-starting the building pipeline outlined in the recent Shipbuilding Strategy refresh.”
An MOD source added: “Due to the competitive procurement process, it would not be appropriate to comment further at this time. The winning design is expected to be revealed in due course.
“The national flagship, the first of its kind to be built and commissioned by the UK, will boost British trade and drive investment into our economy.
“It will promote British businesses and play an important role in achieving the UK’S foreign policy and security objectives, including hosting summits and other diplomatic talks.”
A spokesman for Harland & Wolff said it could not comment on the designs as it was bound by competition confidentiality rules. Houlder did not respond to a request for comment.