Babcock is a leading provider of critical, complex engineering with a 130-year-old history and an outstanding reputation. They focus on defence, emergency services and civil nuclear, managing complex assets in the UK and internationally. RS Machinery had previously worked with Babcock, providing machinery solutions for workshops onboard the HMS Invincible and HMS Illustrious in 2000.
Because of our several fruitful collaborations, this time Babcock came directly to us for assistance.
The project
They approached us in 2014 after they had just been awarded a five-year joint naval contract with BAE Systems. The deal was worth a combined £3.2 billion, given for engineering support for the construction of the HMS Queen Elizabeth.
HMS Queen Elizabeth is the lead ship of the Queen Elizabeth-class of aircraft carriers and the Royal Navy’s Fleet Flagship. This is the largest ship ever built for the Royal Navy, with a length of 280 m and a capacity of carrying up to forty aircraft.
Babcock had to build the bow section, make the final assembly, and complete the whole ship at Rosyth Royal Dockyard. When we started our collaboration, Babcock was completely overhauling their berth J and K workshops in time for the HMS Queen Elizabeth’s move from dock No. 1 to the main tidal basin.
That’s why they decided to collaborate with us.
We had to provide various metalworking machinery solutions suitable for their newly refurbished berth J and K workshops. The main challenge for this project was to find high quality, innovative machinery while fully making use of the space available.
We have a lot of experience with machines that cover every concern and need, including space economy and implementation of the latest technologies. In 2015, we sat down and discussed the criteria for their desired machinery solutions to get a full scope of the situation and how much we can optimize it. After reaching a conclusion, we provided them with the following machines for the quayside support workshops: