Miscalculations at the engineering stage have been blamed for a two-year delay in delivery of the first of four submarines commissioned from Spain\’s state-owned shipbuilder Navantia.
Last month it emerged that the Isaac Peral sub – part of the new S-80 series and named in honour of the Spanish man credited by some as the inventor of the underwater vessel – was at least 75 tons overweight, an excess that could compromise its ability to surface after submerging.
‘an excess that could compromise its ability to surface after submerging’
A classic of its kind!
MoD has been ‘this bad’, but not in exactly the same context.
I must admit, I laughed and laughed when I read that one!
I genuinely had Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language” open in another tab when I read that.
It’s a design well suited to a submerging economy. Poor old Spain; they wisely kept out of the Second World War but now the jerries have nabbed them just the same.
Durrr! Fink, I’ll shurrup on this one!
I’m not sure it’s a lot worse than either the Nimrod vintage aeroplane club or the 3-4 billion to quoted to install a catapult onto a ship that was meant to be designed for it.
The Conqueror tank was a good one. In WW2 our tanks were woefully undergunned and under armoured. So the next generation over compensated. The Conqueror looked great but was so heavy it virtually couldn’t move and spent nearly all its miserable short service life being towed away by recovery vehicles.