Royal seal of approval for sailors' new accommodation

Under a sunny sky The Princess Royal, guest of the Naval Base Commander Commodore Simon Lister, was given a guided tour of a single-living accommodation cabin, communal area, laundry and kitchen before she ceremonially unveiled a plaque for the Cornwell Victoria Cross block, part of the Armada Project single-living accommodation complex.

"It is always a pleasure to see a project like this delivered on time," she said. "My congratulations to everyone involved. I hope everyone enjoys being in it. It is a very special place, especially as Devonport Naval Base is also a historically importance place."

Commodore Lister added:

"It gives me great pleasure to see you here Your Highness, to declare this block open. 'Cornwell VC' is the final phase in the Project Amada accommodation complex. It will be a tremendous facility for everyone coming into HMS Drake. The project has been completed to time and to quality and to cost."

Before welcoming Her Royal Highness as she landed in the Naval Base by royal helicopter flight he said he was honoured she had found the time for her visit with her husband Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence. He said he had met HRH when she visited the Naval Base previously for the re-dedication of the submarine HMS Talent.

The Princess Royal was given a guided tour of the newly refurbished junior rates mess (under the overall project) including the Pier Head Jump room and Splash Bar. She met staff involved in the Armada Project and was presented with a welcoming flower posy by children from the Naval Base nursery.

Lucky Katie (middle name - Anne) Byrne presented the spring posy to Princess Anne, supported by Rewan Waters and Emily Cane - all aged four, from the pre-school group of the nursery. Katie's mother Lorraine Byrne who works in the Naval Base said:

"When Katie was told she would be meeting Princess Anne she was absolutely brimming with excitement at the thought of meeting a 'real' princess and even more so when we told her they shared the same middle name - as Anne is Katie's middle name.

"I and her father are extremely proud that Katie was chosen to meet Princess Anne and we would like to thank Roger's Burrow Nursery for giving our daughter this opportunity which she will remember and cherish for many years to come."

Project Armada is a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract let in October 2004 to Falcon (consortium of Interserve & Innisfree) for 25 years. The contract scope covers delivery of a new warrant officer and senior rates mess and 1,451 single en-suite cabins for all ranks and rates, requiring three major demolitions, four new-builds and three refurbishments. The contract includes full service delivery to the Fleet Accommodation Centre covering catering, cleaning, property repair and maintenance, grounds maintenance, ex-NAAFI sites including the HMS Drake shop, and running the nursery and some off-site security.

The cost to the MOD over the 25 years of the contract is £500 million of which £65 million is for the build programme. The service delivery involves the employment of 400 contractor staff. All the new accommodation was delivered to time and on budget. Cornwell VC is the last of the new-builds and contains 239 cabins. All cabins are en-suite with TV points and cabling permitting occupants to have a contract for broadband and freeview TV. All blocks have kitchens, communal TV rooms and free laundries. The new accommodation is especially appreciated by the junior ratings for whom this is a big change in living conditions.

During her visit The Princess Royal was also the first visitor to a new state-of-the-art Royal Naval training simulator for trainee and serving warfare operators onboard warships. The simulator replicates operations room consoles and trains and retrains sailors and officers in realistic war-fighting scenarios. The Maritime Composite Training System in Devonport is part of a £100 million contract developed in partnership with BAE Systems Insyte and will initially support warfare training for the next ten years. The unit, in Discovery Building, encompasses training for most of the Royal Navy's warships and is compatible with some foreign navies the Royal Navy works with.

In the future the system could advance to link training with ships at sea and enable greater numbers to train simultaneously in as realistic scenarios as possible. The cutting edge technology could also enable training for specific operational theatres and sailing as a multi-ship task force. Operator training will begin from early 2009.