Retired Lieutenant General Richard Nugee,the Non-Executive Director for Climate Change and Sustainability at the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence,has suggested that the Royal Navy should harden the hulls of some of it's warships to facilitate operations in "disruptive ice".
He should be heartened to know that,despite the impacts on other aspects of performance (which are not all negative),all major warships in An Independent Navy For An Independent Nation shall be built to Lloyds Register Ice Class 1C,not because of the nice weather we have been having but because the Royal Navy has been sailing in icy waters for hundreds of years.
The Royal Naval Harbour Service's Able class berthing tugs shall also be built to Lloyds Ice Class 1C (and to Maritime and Coastguard Agency Workboat Code/Lloyds Register Grey Boat Code Category 2 and Fire Fighting Ship 1) for those rare occasions on which the Royal Dockyards are frozen over by global warming.
The Royal Naval Harbour Service's Aidful class escorting tugs shall be built to Lloyds Ice Class 1B (and to Maritime and Coastguard Agency Workboat Code/Lloyds Register Grey Boat Code Category 1 and Fire Fighting Ship 2) for use in areas such as the Baltic Sea.
The Royal Naval Harbour Service's Racer class rescuing tugs shall be built to Lloyds Ice Class 1A (and to Fire Fighting Ship 3,including the most powerful fire monitors ever to go to sea) to facilitate operations at extreme latitudes.
The Royal Naval Harbour Service's icebreaking tugs Assistance,Confiance,Diligence and Endurance shall be built to Polar Class 2 (and with the same Fire Fighting Ship 3 system as the Racer class) which,in addition to their moon pools and dynamic positioning systems,shall allow them to perform tasks such as survey,construction,salvage and rescue beneath the Arctic ice pack.