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voor de liefhebbers van de bouw van huidige duikboten :)

The Manufacturer Magazine - BAE Systems Submarine Solutions Profile - October 2008

BAE Systems Submarine Solutions is diving deep into its processes and structures to ensure the UK’s Astute submarines programme delivers affordable capability and the most advanced submarines ever operated by the Royal Navy. Ruari McCallion went swimming with the tide...

This time, access to the submarine would be different. The contortions of getting into and around the bridge fin– the bit that sticks up from the middle of the boat – were not on the agenda. The tour was to be of the whole boat, if required – the
huge, dark, cigar shape of Astute, ‘boat one’ of the Royal Navy’s
Astute class of submarines. It has been largely fitted out, although you can’t tell from the outside, which is covered with dark rubbery material. “Acoustic deadening,” said Aaron Iddon, my guide and area manager on Astute’s construction. We watched a worker doing something to the cladding. “Finishing off,” said Iddon, and that’s all the information that was to be forthcoming. 

That’s the strange thing about touring a submarine construction
facility. Almost everything you look at is secret, confidential
or innovative in some way. The planned seven submarines of the Astute class will be the UK’s defence spearhead in the first half of the 21st century, and secrecy is part of the edge – but here was BAE Systems conducting a tour. It’s a bit of a contradiction but there is a message to convey: BAE is on an improvement journey to ensure that these boats are being built better, progressively faster and more effectively than any of their predecessors...

Thanks to Nautical Mile :)