Barrow docks 05/02/14

[ian531]

A trio of navy ships at Barrow (sorry for the poor quality, it was pouring down)

I presume they are ex Royal Navy and they are being prepared for onward sale??





Ian

[buspilot]

The information is on Wikipedia:

F2000 (Nakhoda Ragam) class corvettes
The BDF Nakhoda Ragam

The Royal Brunei Navy is a small coastal defense force tasked with patrolling Bruneian waters and defending the offshore oil industry. It is currently undergoing a large-scale modernization, with the upgrading of the Muara Naval Base and the purchase of 3 British-built Corvettes from BAE Systems Naval Ships, Scotland. The contract was awarded to GEC-Marconi in 1995 and the Nakhoda Ragam class OPVs were launched in January 2001, June 2001 and June 2002 at the then BAE Systems Marine yard at Scotstoun. These have been completed but have not been delivered from BAE Systems Naval Ships in Scotstoun due to claims by the Royal Brunei Navy that the ships fail to meet the required specifications.

The ships are armed with MBDA Exocet Block II anti-ship missiles and MBDA Seawolf surface to air missiles. The contract dispute is the subject of arbitration.[12][13] Currently the Sultan of Brunei is intending to sell three corvettes built by BAE Systems for £600 million. When the dispute was settled, the vessels were handed over to Royal Brunei Technical Services in June 2007.[14] In 2007, Brunei contracted the German Lürssen ship yard to find a new customer for the three ships, as of 03/05/2011 the vessels remain unsold and laid up at Barrow-in-Furness.[15]

[ian531]

Thanks Buspilot

That makes interesting reading. Sounds like an expensive court case!

Ian

[davel]

£600m, small change to the Sultan of Brunei!