The British Navy announced that on July 29, 2022, a baptism ceremony was held in Portsmouth and the transfer of the new experimental vessel X 01 Patrick Blackett to the fleet. The vessel, which received the prefix XV (Experimental Vessel), was specially built to provide testing in the interests of the British Navy of the latest technologies and autonomous and unmanned systems. conducted by the naval group of advanced projects and research NavyX.
New experimental vessel of the British Navy X 01 Patrick Blackett (c) of the British Navy
The vessel was built by the international (headquartered in the Netherlands) shipbuilding group Damen Shipyards Group at its Dutch shipyard Damen Shipyards Gorinchem in Gorinchem based on the project of the popular small vessel providing offshore oil and gas fields Damen Fast Crew Supply (FCS) 4008. In fact, as you can understand, the British side bought and refitted one of the vessels built by Damen of the basic project. The project to acquire a pilot vessel for NavyX was launched by the British Ministry of Defense in August 2021, and in January 2022, the Damen FCS 4008 project vessel under construction was selected and purchased as the basis. It was transferred to the Gorinham shipyard to the British side for further refitting in March. The total cost of the purchase of the vessel (excluding VAT) was 9,333,151 pounds sterling.
The ship arrived at Portsmouth from Gorinham on July 27. Interestingly, on July 29, a "dog-like" robot was used for the ship's baptism ceremony, but the bottle of champagne launched by it did not break on board the ship.
The vessel was named in honor of the English physicist Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett (1897 - 1974), who began his career in the Royal Navy, and during the Second World War was the head of research groups on anti-submarine warfare and operations research, and since 1942 - Director of Operations Research at the Admiralty. In 1948, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the study of cosmic rays. In 1965-1970, Blackett was president of the Royal Society (British Academy of Sciences).
The Patrick Blackett vessel has an empty displacement of 270 tons and a length of 42 meters. The maximum speed is stated to be 20 knots, which is less than that of standard civilian vessels of this project (25-30 knots), which apparently indicates less engine power. The crew is five people and consists of Navy personnel. There are reserved places on the deck of the vessel for the installation of two standard containers with target equipment with the possibility of connection via special interfaces.
New experimental vessel of the British Navy X 01 Patrick Blackett (c) of the British Navy
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