Fantome, one of the final two 15 m Sea-class work boats, delivered to the Royal Navy. (UK MoD)
Atlas Elektronik UK (AEUK) has delivered the last of 35 Sea-class work boats to the Royal Navy (RN).
Announcing the milestone on 18 July, the UK Ministry of Defence's (MoD's) Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) organisation said the handover of the last two units, Merlin and Fantome, to the RN's Fleet Hydrography and Meteorology Unit in Devonport officially completes the seven-year Vahana replacement programme and signifies the full operational capability of all the vessels.
Under Project Vahana, AEUK was awarded a GBP48 million (USD63 million) contract by the MoD in February 2017 for the supply of 33 work boats in various sizes (with options for up to five additional craft) to replace ageing vessels that entered service in the early 1990s.
Known collectively as the Sea class, the boats have been delivered in three sizes – small (11 m), medium (15 m), and large (18 m) – to perform a wide range of functions, including diving training and dive support, explosive ordnance disposal, officer training, passenger transport, Arctic exploration, hydrographic survey, and logistic resupply. The new boats are operated from UK ports and RN surface vessels.
AEUK's Sea-class range is based on a common platform with interchangeable capability modules that enable the boats to be rapidly reconfigured for different taskings. According to AEUK, the boats can be reroled within a matter of days, depending on the change of role.
The flexible, modular design and common systems have the added benefit of significantly reducing the training, spares, and documentation burden for all the systems.
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