The first barge shock test for the F110 frigate programme has been successfully completed, Navantia announced on 14 November 2024.
The test, which was conducted on 31 October, will allow the shock qualification of the diesel generator, main switchboard and fuel purifier module that will be installed on the five frigates that Navantia is contracted to deliver to the Spanish Navy out of its Ferrol shipyard.
The successful completion of the shock test, which submits the operating equipment to three underwater detonations of increasing severity, represents a historic milestone for Navantia, as it is the first time that Navantia has co-ordinated the execution of this type of test.
The test was carried out on the Shock Test Vehicle STV02 barge that Thornton Tomasetti Defence Ltd (TTDL) uses for this type of trial at its Limehillock facilities in Scotland.
The working team included representatives from Navantia and TTDL, as well as from the manufacturers of the tested equipment: Navantia Engines, along with Rolls Royce (MTU) and Alconza, for the diesel generator; Elinsa for the main switchboard; and GEA Westfalia for the fuel purifier module.
Also present were representatives from the F110 Program Office of the General Directorate of Armament and Material (DGAM); the US company Element (formerly NTS), which acts as a third party for the Spanish Ministry of Defence, ensuring the correlation between the test carried out in Scotland (British standard) and the one that would be carried out in the United States (MIL standard); as well as a Canadian technologist who has been advising Navantia on vulnerability issues for more than 25 years.
The Navantia and TTDL teams are now working on dismantling the equipment from the barge, already shock qualified, and assembling the next equipment, the electric propulsion motor and its frequency converter, which will be shock tested on the STV02 barge at the end of November 2024.
