Rapidly shifting geopolitics is driving sharp increases in defence spending as a renewed priority for many nations. With incidents at sea occurring from the Baltic to the Middle East, and from the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea, strategic use of existing naval assets has come into sharp focus.
David Lloyd has recently returned to lead LR’s Naval and Government Business following a spell heading up our Energy Transition Programme. With a master’s degree in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from University College London, a lengthy period as an officer in the Royal Canadian Navy, and over 20 years working in various areas of LR’s naval business, he is well placed to understand naval trends and what drives naval decision-making.
Defence spending generally, and naval programmes in particular, he points out, have a sense of urgency about them that has not been seen for many decades. Earlier so-called peace dividends, when countries cut back on defence spending, especially after the end of the Cold War, are now being reversed.
Ageing assets, complex challenges
Large programmes building new classes of naval vessels are being launched by many nations at an increasing rate, typically focusing on frigate and corvette-sized vessels due to their operational flexibility and versatility.
But Lloyd explains that the complexity of designing and building naval ships, coupled with a lapse of shipbuilding experience and capacity in many nations, means long lead times before these programmes deliver vessels ready for service. The result is that many navies currently have fleets of ageing assets that are harder and more expensive to maintain whilst simultaneously facing an acceleration in the pace and number of operations. And demands and expectations continue to rise.
“Many navies face a perfect storm of conflicting operational demands and maintenance and procurement constraints” he explains. “On the one hand they have ageing assets in service, while on the other they face procurement programmes that are not able to deliver new assets for several years yet. The ageing assets face increased challenges in their daily operations, and the systems they have on board may no longer be optimal, especially from a supportability perspective. This impacts asset operational readiness and sustainment, critical measures for any navy to successfully carry their mission.”
Furthermore, in-service naval ships require complex weapons and sensor upgrades, especially now due to the changing nature of warfare, notably because of the recent rise in the use of autonomous systems (drones) across air, surface and sub-surface domains.
But are the platforms capable of supporting these upgrades, and indeed, does their remaining service life merit the investment made?
Top priorities
So how do we help navies with these challenges?
Lloyd sees LR’s naval advisory expertise tackling three key areas of asset life extension. The first is through insight and assurance – gaining a fundamental understanding of the condition of a vessel and how it is currently maintained and how its readiness and availability can then be best maintained; a process oriented towards future operations.
“Apart from the actual physical condition, such as identifying areas of potential structural fatigue, this could include a comprehensive assessment of the maintenance history on the ship, for example, to identify problematic equipment or systems and how maintenance of them has been managed” Lloyd explains. “If there are any potentially unreliable systems or components, we can recommend alterations, upgrades or replacements, or perhaps something as simple as a different maintenance strategy.”
The next priority is to assess and mitigate the impact of obsolescence by identifying high-risk components or equipment and evaluating their long-term operability. LR’s experts assess reliability, availability and maintainability of components and systems as they age, on the lookout for issues that could become points of failure, and then determining their probability of failure and how best to offset the risks involved.
The process often requires talking to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to investigate obsolescence timelines and system alternatives or upgrades that are available today, or within the foreseeable future. Top priorities include the assessment of system resilience, the identification and prioritisation of high-risk components with limited or no technical or commercial support, and the alignment of technical obsolescence risks with forward-looking capability and investment planning.
“Navies obviously already have a very good understanding of their assets because they’ve been operating them for a long time,” Lloyd points out. “But the question is ‘what do you do about it – how do you actually solve the problem?’ so that an ageing asset can still deliver the operational readiness and availability the navies need. And that sometimes means going back to the supply chain and understanding what can be replaced, whether components or entire systems, and then incorporating that change into navy’s supply chain going forward.”
Lloyd describes the third element of LR’s assurance package as a thorough investment appraisal based on modelling remaining lifecycle scenarios. This typically involves the cost-benefit analysis of replacement versus extension options and the development of long-term investment frameworks for senior decision-makers. Investment prioritisation is a key requirement, as is the alignment of capital spending plans with operational and regulatory requirements. Lloyd states “and this of course brings into focus the question ‘How much is a fully operational day at sea with an asset that would otherwise have been unavailable worth to a navy?’”
Distinct value, proven impact
Backed by decades of experience with a wide range of different types of naval combatants and auxiliaries that operate in some of the world’s harshest marine environments, LR stands out for its deep understanding of the conditions in which navies operate.
“We can bring lessons learned from a much broader cross-section of operation than a single navy would typically possess,” Lloyd explains. “And there is also the extensive knowledge we have gained from our classification of commercial assets. With our independence and integrated approach to business, we are well-placed to support the rapid scaling-up of naval investment under way around the globe.”
With over 260 years of ship classification experience and many decades of naval assurance knowhow, LR has provided naval advisory and classification services to a significant number of navies world-wide – a number which grows every year.
The classification society was also instrumental in the setting up the International Naval Safety Association (INSA) and manages its secretariat today – an association that has developed the internationally recognised Naval Ship and Naval Submarine Codes that have been adopted by many navies.
Lloyd concludes, LR’s naval business has been expanding steadily and is firmly set on a steady growth trajectory.
