Rolls-Royce announced that its Mission Bay Handling System (MBHS) was selected for Batch 2 of the UK Royal Navy’s Global Combat Ship variant, the Type 26 City-class frigate. The contract, signed with programme prime BAE Systems Surface Ships Limited, is for five MBHSs to be manufactured at Rolls-Royce’s Canadian Naval Handling Centre of Excellence in Peterborough, Ontario. Rolls-Royce is the global leader in specialised naval handling systems. Our handling systems experts have been providing solutions to the naval industry for more than 35 years. The company MBHS offers an integrated solution for handling and stowing cargo, munitions, unmanned and manned offboard craft. This new contract brings the total number of MBHSs awarded for the Type 26 programme to eight, as the company was previously selected for three in the Royal Navy’s initial batch of frigates. The first complete system is scheduled for delivery later this summer. The new work will create numerous highly skilled jobs, increasing the company’s Peterborough workforce by 10%.
Ian Brown, Defence Equipment and Support, UK Ministry of Defence said:”Having been personally involved in the Mission Bay Handling System aspect of this programme from the beginning, it is a great achievement to get to this point. We have a superb piece of equipment unique to the UK Royal Navy that will significantly strengthen our capability. There has been a lot of effort and collaboration and the network this has brought together has been invaluable. I look forward to the future of installing and working on HMS Glasgow, then handing over to the Navy to prove its full capabilities and functionality.”
Jessica Banks, Programme Executive – Naval Handling Systems for Rolls-Royce Defence, said:”This is a huge win for Rolls-Royce in Canada and our team in Peterborough. Our Mission Bay Handling System is perfectly designed for modern naval operations, providing adaptable and flexible integration solutions suitable for a wide range of activities. Rolls-Royce is proud to bring this mission critical capability to the Type 26 programme and is committed to delivering for the UK Royal Navy.”
The Mission Bay Handling System (MBHS) transforms a ship’s mission bay into a multi-purpose, flexible space allowing it to adapt to a variety of operational situations. It offers countless possibilities for ship operators – from storage of all types of cargo, munitions, and containerised mission modules, eliminating the need for a dockside crane. Next-generation surface combatants will carry a variety of manned and unmanned off-board vehicles and modular mission packages. The MBHS has been designed to provide an adaptable and flexible integration solution suitable for a wide range of naval operations, both today and tomorrow. The precisely controlled hydraulic boom will efficiently and safely deploy and retrieve manned/unmanned surface vessels in challenging sea conditions up to sea state 6.
The MBHS enables efficient deployment and recovery of manned/unmanned crafts from both sides of the ship. Containerised mission packages can be moved on an open deck or inside a mission bay, without the aid of a dockside crane. Construction of the very first system for the UK’s Global Combat Ship variant, the Type 26 City-class frigates, is well underway at Canadian Naval Handling facility in Peterborough, Ontario where the system is designed, assembled and tested. This first system will be delivered to the UK in early 2024 and is now fully assembled and operational. In the coming months we will be focusing on software integration as we look to complete factory testing and design validation later this year. This unique, multi-mission system is a key feature of BAE Systems’ Global Combat Ship design.
