An Examination of Significant Issues in Naval Maintenance

This paper summarises qualitative research undertaken within the “In-Service” stage of the lifecycle of Royal Navy surface ships and submarines. Whilst In-Service, Royal Navy vessels will typically cycle through three phases, i.e. Tasking, Upkeep and Regeneration. A series of semi-structured recorded interviews conducted with key stakeholders in each phase identifies and highlights common issues encountered whilst In-Service. Having identified common issues, e.g. risk, obsolescence, manpower availability, etc. additional interviews were undertaken to triangulate the results with other safety critical companies operating and maintaining complex systems, i.e. a power company operating an advanced gas-cooled nuclear reactor, rail infrastructure and Europe's largest regional airline.