The Diplomat
The Norwegian Ministry of Defence’s Directorate of Material Procurement (NDMA) has congratulated Navantia and its subcontractors on the successful completion of the tropicalisation of the F311 frigate “Roald Amundsen”, the second of the Fridtjof Nansen Class (F310) that Navantia designed and built for the Norwegian Navy between 2000 and 2011.
These works, contracted in July 2020, significantly improve the F311 frigate’s cooling capacity, which will allow it to sail in much warmer ambient and water temperature conditions than those existing in the Norwegian Navy’s traditional operating environment.
The modification, which took place between January and June this year, consisted of replacing the three refrigeration plants and modifying and increasing the engine room air cooling equipment. The installation of this new equipment has also entailed the replacement of piping, ducts, wiring, electrical panels, etc., which has made this programme a great challenge both for the development of all the necessary engineering, and for the execution of the work, both dismantling and installation, which will be carried out between Ferrol and Norway.
Another major challenge of this programme is the platform on which the engineering has been developed. The F310 was developed with computer tools that are currently inoperative, so the decision was taken to develop the programme in Siemens NX in order to align it with Navantia’s new digital platform. To this end, 3D models of the necessary blocks were migrated and the construction engineering work was developed in this tool.
The entire contract has been carried out under strict health protocols due to the Covid-19 pandemic, from restrictions on travel and meetings to quarantines for personnel deployed to Bergen, which has been an additional challenge for the workers. The NDMA has praised the skills of the entire team in adapting to the situation.
In the words of Commander Espen Holtar “during this project, Navantia has been an indispensable and reliable partner, with the knowledge and ability to meet the agreed requirements and new ones as they have arisen”. He also stressed that “the NDMA will use this project as a model for other future projects on the Nansen class frigates”.
Miguel Diaz, the engineer responsible for the work in Norway and liaison with the Navy, highlighted the support and collaboration of the entire Navantia team and its subcontractors such as Quest Global, Imafer, Soamar, Electro Rayma and Bulbo.
“We have been rated by the NDMA with a 9.5 out of 10, for the fourth consecutive year, and this has been possible thanks to a team of extraordinary professionals who have carried out their work demonstrating a very high level of competence and a high level of qualification and capacity,” he added.
