Claire Young

Centre of Excellence for pumps opens at Babcock

News
Attending the opening of the Centre of Excellence:(Left to right): Jeff Lewis (Director, Systems & Equipment, Babcock); Gordon Richardson (Babcock Whetstone Assembly Manager); Roger Gillespie (Managing Director, Equipment Solutions, Babcock); Jonathan Gilchrist (DES Ships FWE MET); Peter Ashford (DES Ships FWE MET Fluid System Group Output Leader); Mike Barbour (Babcock Whetstone Senior Project Manager for Pump Support); Neal Lawson (head of DE&S FWE)
Attending the opening of the Centre of Excellence:(Left to right): Jeff Lewis (Director, Systems & Equipment, Babcock); Gordon Richardson (Babcock Whetstone Assembly Manager); Roger Gillespie (Managing Director, Equipment Solutions, Babcock); Jonathan Gilchrist (DES Ships FWE MET); Peter Ashford (DES Ships FWE MET Fluid System Group Output Leader); Mike Barbour (Babcock Whetstone Senior Project Manager for Pump Support); Neal Lawson (head of DE&S FWE)

Babcock, in conjunction with the FWE Maritime Equipment Transformation (MET) team, has made a significant investment of £750k in the Centre of Excellence, which provides a specialist repair and test capability for high integrity seawater pumps. These mission-critical pump systems are deployed in all operational classes of Royal Naval submarines.

The new Centre of Excellence brings together pump repair and testing facilities from around the country into a single centralised facility, providing vital support services for Main Circulating Water Pumps (MCWPs) for all operational classes of submarine.

Babcock senior project manager Mike Barbour said: “The creation of the facility underpins the well established partnering arrangements between Babcock and the FWE MET team, and signifies a major commitment to maintaining the long-term operational capability required by the fleet. The centre of excellence is a showcase of what can be achieved and secures the ongoing work for the team of 15-20 specialist assembly technicians and engineers at the Whetstone site.”