On one of the recent open threads, the subject of decommissioned North Sea oil and gas infrastructure came up, and if there were any defence applications for any of it.
An interesting subject that is worth a post of its own.
The decommissioning process will be a massive, multi-billion Pound activity with some novel engineering; current ideas seem to focus on complete removal, or, at a pinch, using some of it for carbon capture or offshore wind.
The Royal Academy of Engineering produced an excellent report with all the background you could want, click here to read, but briefly, there are about 600 installations that will need decommissioning in some manner.
There are many different types of platform and the visible platform is like the proverbial tip of the iceberg, much more exists on the sea bed,
 The question was, are there any defence applications?
A few ideas;
- Training facility for special forces
- Radar or sonar platform
- MCM range
- Submarine rescue test area
- An ideal place to put a certain Able Seaman (that was a joke by the way)
- Instrumented test range far away from land
- Search and rescue helicopter refuelling station
- or perhaps somewhere to put migrants awaiting processing (another joke by the way, just in case you were wondering)
Or is the whole notion bonkers?
Some of the facilities are single platforms, some will likely be complexes of multiple platforms.
I don’t know why, but Ekofisk (image above) reminds me of the WWII Maunsell Forts, like Red Sands below, in much shallower water, of course.
And just in case you were wondering about the weather, have a spot of Rod Stewart
Or a video without the musical backing!
I’m not advocating losing any surface combatants, I merely asked/stated would it be worth losing a T26 for? As we all know there will be no funding bonanza for the MOD in the foreseeable future so undoubtedly we will need to cut back else where to fund such a platform.
The oil companies have a lot of kit attached to their rigs to facilitate deep diving , saturation and tri-mix , do we already share these facilities? My Dad was qualified diver in the RN as part of his job . I distinctly remember him taking me and my brothers to a Portsmouth Navy day where he went into a big glass tank in the old school brass hard hat suit , 40+ years ago but still clear. He did his initial qualification in Preston docks with zero visibility had him losing his grip on the guide rope in the tide and being dragged back to do it all again. Assembling / dismantling various bits of kit in a pollution filled dock in the winter he said was his most challenging experience. As TD says we need to practice securing and making safe offshore structures so why not have one of our own , either in situ or removed to a inshore location.
“As much as I’d love to taunt NAB with the idea of slashing the number of T26, and replacing them with Army-manned oil rigs”
Never happen. You can’t fit a big enough drill square on a platform……..
Agree with you Brian, but I think as an interesting under and above sea level training and development environment, one or two would be a very valuable addition to the estate
Folks here seem to want to create a bunch of static frigates and destroyers; but don’t all the weapons, sensors, and sailors to operate them account for the greater bulk of the cost of a warship? So what would you achieve?
You don’t save any money. You’re still paying for all the systems, you’re still paying for all the crew. It can’t go anywhere, but it still has engines to power all the toys. And now you have to buy a bunch of support vessels and helicopters to service and supply the platforms too.
If you wanted a BMD platform, or whatever, that didn’t need to keep up with a Navy task group, why wouldn’t you use a cheaper and more practical long-endurance commercially available hull rather than a rusty old oil rig? You could then drive it back to the dockyard for maintenance and supply much more easily. It could be repositioned easily, including moving it completely out of area as required – next month you might prefer your sensor/defence platform to be parked in the eastern Med rather than the North Sea.
As much as I’d love to taunt NAB with the idea of slashing the number of T26, and replacing them with Army-manned oil rigs, I just can’t see the practical benefits of folks’ ideas.
And we already have that data, oil rig companies have been doing it way longer with a lot more units than the military. Not much to gain there.
Could another use for the rigs be service points for unmanned anti-submarine underwater/surface drones , assuming they ever happen . Being in central in the North Sea any range issues ( think mid Atlantic gap WW2) could be covered . Shore based units from around Europe’s shores will inevitably at first have limited range and a refueling , rearming , servicing base would free up a hull. The offshore industry uses rigs for servicing of their Unmanned Underwater inspection vessels already so little to learn there. Just an idea.
@ Simon.
Even 50nmi. is better then the alternative, 0.0nmi…
@ Not a Boffin.
Even “Long-Term” exposure on a Static Platform can yield valuable data…
I’m more worried about the testimony that the rigs take a lot of beating deployed. If you get that much equipment damage, it might not be worthwhile at all, you’ll be constantly refurbishing the rigs. Not to mention their strategic effectiveness is marginal, if you are using them as anti-sub platforms, all the subs have to do is go around them, the maritime surveillance picture can be patched together from a combination of surface, air and land based radar platforms, so what they can give isn’t really much.
You would have to have a lot of activity to justify manning some oil rigs as refueling points. Who’s going to man and maint them all? I’m not sure anyone has ever run such a system. I don’t count the odd few refuelling stops either.
If Merlins are in the area isn’t that what their T23/T26/T45 working in parallel is for?
Regardless, I’m sure four hours at 50nm is just one combination available for a mission, with or without the probe on the front.
ToC,
Wouldn’t we need to keep two Merlin harassing a sub?
Isn’t the effective range (for a 4-hour hunt) a mere 50nm?
I agree however that there may be working rigs and/or other ships, but surely keeping some of the old rigs operational, that happen to be strategically distributed, could be of value.
ToC,
Wouldn’t we need to keep two Merlin harassing a sub?
Isn’t the effective range (for a 4-hour hunt) a mere 50nm?
I agree however that there may be working rigs and/or other ships, but surely keeping some of the old rigs operational, that happen to be strategically distributed, could be of value.
North Sea isn’t that large, helicopters can operate from shore fairly easily. If you really need a lillypad at sea chances are there’s a working rig, support vessel or frigate (inc. allies) in the vicinity. Next batch of Rivers may be in the area too.
Could the rigs provide lillypad-like services for Merlin to provide ASW prosecution following detection by Triton or similar? I’m not sure what the relative distances between rigs actually are but they seem to cover a fair area.
Maybe this is what David Niven was suggesting?
Could the rigs provide lillypad-like services for Merlin to provide ASW prosecution following detection by Triton or similar? I’m not sure what the relative distances between rigs actually are but they seem to cover a fair area.
Maybe this is what David Niven was suggesting?
Ballistic Missile Defence and Carrier Battle Group. Basically the THADS and Carriers.
sorry but what’s a BMD and a CBG?
Everyone’s using there TLAs (Three-letter acronym) today.
BMD / AAW platform makes sense to me, would be less so if we had more T45s, but we don’t and the ones we do need to be part of the CBGs.
There’s only going to be one SBX and it’s not because the rig is more expensive…
Found another one
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Towers
Three offshore radar stations used by the US airforce
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea-based_X-band_Radar
The Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX-1) is a floating, self-propelled, mobile active electronically scanned array early-warning radar station.
An oil rig with a radar station on it, so it can be done.
What about a platform with all the kit off a type 45 destroyer on it?
Long range AA platform basically.