Another significant challenge for UK shipbuilding, aside from the fluctuating fortunes of defence investment and the limited requirement for commercial shipbuilding in the country, was that, should a contract be awarded to an in-country site, much of the workforce had been drawn down after decades of neglect and lack of opportunity.
In a poignant example of the shrinkage of the UK shipbuilding capability, in 2013 BAE Systems ceased the manufacture of warships at Portsmouth Naval Base, bringing to a close 500 years of industrial history at the site. Reasoned as a necessary move in order to sustain shipyards on the River Clyde in Scotland, it nevertheless highlighted a shrinking need for shipbuilding capacity and the UK Government’s political requirements at the time.
Across the country, shipbuilding, outside of that required for the manufacture of naval vessel, was losing out to overseas sites. Even the aforementioned RFA, a civilian-operated arm of the Royal Navy, saw its Tide-class fleet tankers build by DSME in South Korea, before sailing to Cammell Laird for fitting out of key subsystems. The Tide class, ironically, was eventually delivered late, and over budget.
Where success has been achieved, such as the recent win for Harland and Wolff as part of an RFA need for new logistics vessels under the Fleet Solid Support Ship (FSS) programme at its Belfast and Devon (Appledore) sites, workforce generation has been explicitly stated as being one of the main challenges.
In January this year, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) awarded a £1.6bn contract to Team Resolute, comprised of UK ship designers BMT, UK shipyard Harland & Wolff (Belfast and Appledore), with Navantia UK, an arm of Spanish shipbuilder Navantia, acting as prime contractor. Under the terms of the deal, the consortium would deliver three FSS ships to the RFA by 2032.
The new vessels are being constructed to replace RFA Fort Victoria, a three-decade old sole-ship class that offers capabilities of both stores ship and fleet tanker. Once delivered, FSS ships will be deployed to support carrier and amphibious task groups by transporting ammunition, spare parts, food, and other equipment to deployed UK naval assets.
Around £77m from the total contract amount will be invested for infrastructure upliftment at Harland & Wolff’s shipyards in Belfast and Appledore in the UK, which would create around 900 jobs alone at the Belfast facility.
The contract also marks the rebirth of shipbuilding activities in Belfast, where blocks and modules for FSS fleet will be built and final integration of combat systems carried out. An as-yet undetermined proportion of the block builds will also be undertaken at Navantia’s Cadiz shipyard in Spain.
At the time of the FSS announcement, it was expected that production work would commence in 2025, with UK yard recapitalisation and enhancements expected to begin immediately.
However, during scrutiny of the FSS programme in the House of Commons Defence Committee annual shipbuilding report session on 31 January, Royal Navy officials disclosed that generating an expected 1,200-strong workforce in Belfast, up from approximately 100 at the time of the contract award, would be a difficult undertaking.
Vice Admiral Paul Marshall, the senior responsible officer of the FSS programme at the UK MoD, said the “mobilisation” of a 1,200-strong workforce was highlighted as a “key risk” from the outset.
“It is going to be challenging,” said Marshall, adding that it was not an “unnecessary risk” as there was “risk in any complex procurement”.
To achieve this, newly recruited workers at Harland & Wolff will travel to Cadiz for training, before returning to the Belfast and Appledore sites to begin FSS block construction. Trainers from Navantia would also be present at UK sites helping to continue to train and assist UK block manufacture.
Both the Harland & Wolff Belfast and Appledore sites were acquired by maritime engineering company Infrastrata in 2019 and 2020 respectively. Babcock, the previous owners of Appledore shipyard, closed the site in 2019, while Harland & Wolff’s Belfast site had long since ceased marine vessel manufacture.
Doubts were also raised during the committee session as to the decision to award a £1.6bn contract to Team Resolute, of which Navantia created its Navantia UK subsidiary in May 2022 to “reinforce [the company’s] commitment to its UK industrial partners” in the shipbuilding and offshore wind energy sector. The UK manufacturing element of the programme will be heavily reliant on the expertise of Navantia’s Cadiz workforce until the Belfast and Appledore sites are able to operate independently.
With around two years before the start of production work for the FSS vessels, and some workforce training packages acknowledged during the committee hearing as taking a year or more to complete, the ability for the programme to either remain on track or retain its key UK workshare will be dependent on the successful completion of the shipyard recruitment package.
On 1 February Harland & Wolff announced that it had formally signed the manufacturing subcontract with Navantia UK in relation to the £1.6bn FSS warship programme. Under the terms of the subcontract, Harland & Wolff will be responsible for delivering works worth around £700m to £800m through the life of the programme.
