b'36 Partner News Summer 2020Corporatedesign of purely British design byThese teams have extensive support to Rolls-Royce & Associates and was takentechnically and professionally develop as critical for the first time in 1965.new technologies and test methodologies are researched and implemented across theThis places engineersThe PWR3 is a new design using newwhole boat.technology, materials and advanced C&Iin a unique environment systems and has been chosen for theContinuing programmesof daily challengesDreadnought class due to its simpler andThe considerable lifecycle of a singleand a variation of safer design, with longer life and lowerplatform from design to commissioning maintenance requirements than previousmeans that the platforms currently underworkloads.designs.construction at Barrow are at very different stages of maturity. This places engineers The difficulty of integrating a reactor plantin a unique environment of daily challenges into a submarine provides an engineeringand a variation of workloads.challenge, taking a team of experts across multiple disciplines to build and commissionDave Pugh, Reactor Commissioning in a safe and controlled manner. TheManager, said: As an engineer, I worked on setting to work of the PWR plant fromthe commissioning of the PWR2 plant and early installation checks, pressure testingthe associated protection and containment and flushing through to operational trialssystems. As a draughtsman, I was part of is a complex process in a challenginga team designing the reactor compartmentsite into the 2030s. The Dreadnought environment, which makes it a desirablefor Astute, and ten years later, I was part ofclass will replace the Vanguard class and opportunity for engineers looking to pusha sea trials team operationally proving thetherefore provide the nations Continuous themselves. reactor plant on full power propulsion trials.At Sea Deterrent (CASD).Every day of my 20 years so far has been Within BAE Systems Submarines, workinga learning curve, a highlight being a three- When Dreadnought slipped into Walney practices and methods are constantlyyear secondment to the United States asChannel in 1963 who could have thought evolving with innovative techniques topart of the ongoing exchange programme.that half a century later a whole class of improve the way the submarines are builtNow I look towards PWR3 and Dreadnoughtsubmarine sharing the same name would and tested. This has established a culture ofdelivery. be in production? The first Dreadnought continuous improvement and learning. will leave Barrow in the 2030s with The program for the current class of nuclearthree others set to follow suit.Keith Skinner, Boat Commissioning Managerattack submarine, Astute, has seen three for Astute boats 6 & 7, Agamemnon andPWR2 plants commissioned at Barrow, withWith a legacy extending back to Victorian Agincourt, said: Traditionally, Test anda further four platforms in various statestimes, theres a good chance that the Commissioning is separated into four testof build and commission. The first-of-classapprentices recruited in 2020 could well sections: reactor, propulsion, weaponsDreadnought submarine is now underbe working on a whole new generation of and ships, each further separated intoconstruction, with four submarines in thesubmarines 150 years after steel was first electrical, mechanical and structural teams.class planned, taking work on the Barrowcut on the pioneering craft.'