HMS Portland: Fitted with equipment specially-developed by Hamworthy KSE equipment

HIGH-pressure air compressors specially developed by Hamworthy KSE for the Royal Navy have now been sold to the Netherlands Navy as well.

The Fleetsbridge firm's development work and "exhaustive testing" for the Royal Navy has led to orders for four Netherlands Navy vessels built at the de Schelde yard in Vlissingen.

Hamworthy's compressors were supplied to de Schelde for four 6,500-ton air defence command frigates - HMS Zeven Provincien, HMS Tromp, HMS De Ruyter, and HMS Evertsen.

The compressors are designed to provide diesel starting - as well as back-up for the total air supply and missile launching.

In the UK, the compressors formed part of a shipset of pumps and compressor equipment, valued at approximately £350,000, supplied to the frigate HMS Portland.

This vessel was commissioned at Devonport Royal Dockyard in May 2001 and is the 15th - and so far the fastest - of 16 Type 23 frigates completed since 1989, all equipped with Hamworthy KSE pumps and compressors. Hamworthy KSE has supplied equipment including pumps, compressors, oily water separators and sewage treatment plant to other Royal Navy vessels including Type 22 Broadsword Class frigates and several different classes of patrol and ocean survey vessels. All the equipment has been manufactured at Hamworthy KSE's Poole factory.