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NEWTOWN, Conn - Originally intended to be a low-risk, evolutionary follow-on to the Royal Navy's Trafalgar class submarines, the Astute class SSN has become notorious as one of the most troubled UK defense projects since the 1980's, matched only by the Nimrod 2000 program. Due to serious delays and problems encountered in executing this program, the first unit, HMS Astute, is now not expected to be delivered until November 2008 and will become fully operational until 2009 - four years later than forecast when ordered. The problems with this class are so severe that, for the first time since Britain's first SSN, HMS Dreadnought, was built the early 1960's, a very significant American content has been accepted in the design work. The biggest headaches came with the computer-aided design tools, based around CADDS5. Although this was a proven piece of software, it was overwhelmed by the size and complexity of Astute. The Astute was the first submarine designed in the U.K. using a three-dimensional computer model, and the system just wasn't capable of doing it. Even after BAE Systems contacted the software designers and customized the system extensively, it still proved incapable of handling the design work. The computer design tools would "go to sleep" for long periods, or take five minutes to update every time the designers made a change. To make matters worse, the problems with the computer design system hit just about the time a landslide of work arrived in the BAE design offices. As well as winning Astute, BAE Systems was awarded contracts for two large amphibious assault ships and a fleet of auxiliary oilers (the Wave Class).
All this happened at the time the U.K. was changing procurement methods. In some ways this worked to the Astute Program's advantage since the changed procurement practices highlighted the inadequacies of the existing contractual arrangements. GEC-Marconi, then the Barrow yard's owner, had signed on to build the Astute class on what the MoD then called napnoc, no agreed price, no contract, deals. Essentially these were fixed-price package contracts and were, quite simply, unworkable. On 19 February 2003 the MOD and BAE Systems announced that they had reached agreement on the restructuring of the Astute contract. As part of this agreement, all construction was halted while design issues are resolved, and the cost of the Astute submarine program rose by almost US$1.33 billion. Perhaps more significantly, the freeze in production delayed the program by almost three years. By November 2004, the Astute program was reported to be back on track with the computer design problems resolved by General Dynamics providing additional design resources and managerial capacity. Some welding issues have also been resolved.
The plan for future Astute buys will now be re-addressed in the light of the revised program for the first buy of Astute, and the Main Gate submission for the "Astute Subsequent Procurement" (as Astute Batch Two or A2B has been renamed) is expected in early 2006 but an early order for a fourth Astute is now expected in order to sustain the industrial base.
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