January 2011

Build is underway, 2 giant blocks - one heavier than a warship, the other to house the diesel generators.

As well as housing auxiliary equipment for heating and ventilation systems, it will have storage space and sleeping and living quarters for some of the battle-ready crew.

Once completed, Lower Block 03 will weigh 9300 tonnes – more than 2300 tonnes heavier than each of the six new-generation Type 45 destroyers recently built at the Clyde yards.
The block will be fitted with an assortment of 10,000 pipes and almost a quarter of a mile of cable.

Standing 23 metres tall and stretching more than 63m, with a depth of almost 39m, it will have enough space for 535 berths.

A snapshot of the block

 Work starts on another section of the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier

Workers at BAE systems in Portsmouth today cut the first steel for the second stage of Portsmouth's involvement in building the Navy's new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth. Weighing over 1,000 tonnes on completion by April 2012, this section will house switchboards, air treatment units and the vessel's steering gear, as well as some accommodation areas.

BAE Systems chooses radar scan converter from Cambridge Pixel for Royal Navy destroyers and aircraft carriers 

 Cambridge pixel won a contract worth £600,000 to supply its software-based SPx radar scan converter to BAE Systems for the command and control client software aboard the United Kingdom warships. The BAE Systems command and control client software feeds video from several different shipboard radar systems into a computer server, and distributes the radar video over Ethernet networks to command and control displays located in different parts of the ships. The server application is built from Cambridge Pixel's HPx-100 radar acquisition cards and SPx software modules for compression and network interfacing.

Milestone for Aircraft Carrier Weapons Handling 

A key component of the highly mechanised weapons handling system (HMWHS) for the new Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers, designed and being delivered by Babcock, has successfully completed factory acceptance testing, marking a significant milestone in the programme.

Propellor and Rudder Design for the Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers 

To propel a ship of this size the propulsive power generated by the four electrical engines is 80MW, so each of the twin propellers has to absorb nearly 40MW. This is a substantial loading on the propeller, where the diameter is limited to 6.7m by other factors, especially in view of the high ship speed and the strict performance requirement.