UK awards £1.6bn Royal Navy contract to Spanish-led consortium

The UK authorities has awarded a £1.6bn contract to construct three help ships for the Royal Navy to a consortium that features a state-owned Spanish shipyard, snubbing a rival bid from an all-British workforce.

The choice on Wednesday sparked a livid response from unions and Labour, which has pledged to construct the ships totally within the UK. John Healey, the shadow defence secretary, known as it a “betrayal of British jobs and British enterprise”. 

The ships will likely be constructed by a consortium led by Spain’s Navantia and together with the UK’s Harland & Woolf and naval architect BMT, which was named as the popular bidder for the contract.

It edged out Crew UK, which included incumbent navy shipbuilders BAE Programs and Babcock Worldwide. Two different consortiums had been shortlisted.

The 40,000 tonne Fleet Stable Help vessels will provide the Navy’s plane carriers, destroyers and frigates with gear, ammunition and meals.

The vessels will likely be in-built blocks at H&W’s services in Belfast and Appledore in Devon, in addition to at Navantia’s shipyard in Puerto Actual in Cadiz, south-west Spain. The ultimate meeting of all three ships will happen at H&W’s historic Belfast yard, the place the Titanic was constructed.

The Ministry of Defence stated the contract would create 1,200 jobs at UK yards and about 800 jobs throughout the provision chain. The consortium has pledged to take a position £77mn throughout UK yards as a part of the undertaking.

Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, stated the choice of the consortium as most well-liked bidder was a “fine addition to the UK shipbuilding trade”. 

He added that the federal government was “bolstering know-how switch and key expertise from a world-renowned shipbuilder, essential within the modernisation of British shipyards”.

John Wooden, H&W group chief government, insisted the contract would strengthen “UK sovereign design and shipbuilding functionality, in addition to producing round £1.4bn in nationwide social and financial worth”.

He performed down union fears that work would migrate to Spain, saying the contract would have a “minimal UK content material of 60 per cent”.

The partnership with Navantia, he added, would allow the consortium to “ship the vessels on time and on price range, one thing which UK shipbuilding have by no means managed to do”.

Navantia arrange its UK subsidiary — which is the official prime contractor of the profitable consortium — solely in April. The corporate is owned by the Spanish state by way of Sepi, a authorities holding firm that controls 100 per cent of its capital.

Navantia has pressured its capability to suit vessels with new know-how comparable to 5G gear, hydrogen gas capabilities and “digital twins”, subtle pc fashions that facilitate operations and upkeep.

Gavin Robinson, Democratic Unionist occasion MP for Belfast East, known as the choice “unbelievable information for Belfast and Northern Eire as a complete”.

Steve Aiken, a legislator for the Ulster Unionist occasion and a former Royal Navy submariner, stated the contract was “a really seen approach to get shipbuilding again” within the Belfast shipyard and an important alternative for jobs and expertise. Northern Eire is without doubt one of the most deprived areas of the UK, with the very best expertise hole.

The drawn-out competitors has been controversial from the beginning, with the MoD flip-flopping over the classification of the ships, which had been initially not labelled warships despite the fact that they are going to carry defensive weapons.

The GMB union stated it needed reassurances on the quantity of labor that will be achieved within the UK.

Manufacturing of the ships is because of begin in 2025 and all three help ships are anticipated to be operational by 2032, the federal government stated.