Astute Class Submarine - Construction and Delays

Construction and Delays

BAE Systems issued a profit warning on 11 December 2002 as a result of the cost overruns and delays it was experiencing with the Astute class and also the Nimrod MRA4 maritime reconnaissance/attack aircraft. The delay was caused primarily by the problems of using 3D CAD; Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram said in 2006 that "due to the complexity of the programme, the benefits that CAD was envisaged to provide were more difficult to realise than either MoD or the contractor had assumed." Other issues were the insufficient capabilities within GEC-Marconi which became evident after contract-award and poor programme management. BAE and the Ministry of Defence reached an agreement in February 2003 whereby they would invest £250 million and £430 million respectively to address the programme's difficulties.

A major element of this was the enlisting of advice and expertise from General Dynamics Electric Boat. The MoD also signed a design and production drawing work contract through the U.S. Navy which ran from 2004 to 2007.

Work on the second and third submarines, Ambush and Artful, proceeded well with major milestones such as the closure of Ambush's reactor compartment, demonstrating significant schedule advance compared with Astute. BAE Systems and the MoD have made efforts to reduce costs and achieved significant cost-cutting and productivity gains. A £580 million cost increase was agreed in 2007 due to maturing of the design requiring more materials, inflationary costs, and "some programme throughput assumptions at the Barrow site not being borne out."

First-of-class HMS Astute was launched by Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall on 8 June 2007.

As of March 2008 the programme was 48 per cent (or £1.2 billion) over-budget and 47 months late. Further delays due to a range of technical and programme issues brought the programme to a position of 57 months late and 53 per cent (or £1.35 billion) over-budget by November 2009, with a forecast cost of £3.9 billion for the first three Astute boats. In June 2012 the order was placed for the manufacture of the nuclear reactor for the seventh Astute class submarine Ajax alongside the refurbishment of Rolls-Royce manufacturing facility in Raynesway, Derby and the development and production of the first reactor for the next generation of SSBN to replace the Vanguard class.

A number of serious quality assuance problems have been identified in the first boats built. Due to the failure of a pipe cap, made of incorrect material although construction records indicated the correct metal had been used, Astute was forced to surface following a leak that was flooding a compartment. A number of other problems have been identified, including the wrong type of lead being used in a reactor instrument, and other quality issues leading to early corrosion of components.