£48m Royal Navy Vahana workboat order completed

The final Vahana workboats, part of a £48m thirty-five vessel contract awarded to Atlas Elektronik (AEUK), have been delivered to the Royal Navy.

The seven-year programme was awarded by Defence, Equipment & Support (DE&S) to replace outdated vessels, the fleet used for diving, surveying, and training operations. AEUK manufactured 34 boats at its site in Dorset, with one (HMS Magpie) sub-contracted out to Safe Haven Marine in Ireland.

Constructed to a versatile, modular design, the new boats known as the ‘SEA Class’ are based on a standardised hull that is interchangeable, allowing them to be adapted for different tasks. With the ability to carry differing payloads and providing improved speed, operational range and navigation equipment, the 15m long Vahanas workboats play a vital role for the Royal Navy.

The handover of the last two boats – Merlin and Fantome – to the Fleet Hydrography and Meteorology Unit in Devonport marks the contract’s completion and signifies the full operating capability of all vessels.

Rosy Copping-Bull, project manager for DE&S Boats, said: “We are very pleased to have worked with AEUK to deliver these 35 Vahana workboats over the past seven years. These boats are an essential part of the Royal Navy’s military operations thanks to their improved capability. All 35 vessels will be vital to the security of our nation and will be instrumental in helping it prosper now, and in the future.”

The new boats are operated from UK ports and Royal Navy surface vessels, and are used for several roles from logistics support, officer training, hydrographic survey, and passenger transport, to dive support and training. The contract, known as Project Vahana, was first announced in September 2017, with the new vessels required to replace boats made in the early 1990s that had reached the end of their service lives. Around 60 UK jobs were sustained through the contract.

Royal Navy Commander Peter Ware, fleet navigating officer, said: “The acquisition of Vahana craft has played an important step in the modernisation of a range of operational and enabling capabilities across the UK defence maritime operating environment and will provide an important platform upon which we can continue to build towards further integration of autonomous systems and delivery of effect in remote environments.”

Wesley Galliver, head of surface ship systems at AEUK, said: “This significant milestone is a testament to the hard work and commitment of the whole team over the last seven years. We are immensely proud to have delivered a range of 35 SEA Class vessels including HMS Magpie, with interchangeable capability modules, allowing the Royal Navy to rapidly reconfigure them for different operational roles. Through this commonality, the training, spares and documentation burden for all systems has been significantly reduced. A further strength of the SEA Class range is that it is fully compatible with AEUK’s autonomy engine enabling an unmanned capability when the need arises in the future.”

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