The Ministry of Defence has signed a new £177 million contract to support thousands of boats used by the British Armed Forces, according to DE&S.

The Boats In-Service Support (BISS) agreement, negotiated by Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S), the procurement arm of the MOD, enables spares, repairs and maintenance for 115 different classes of boat – around 2,200 individual watercraft in total.

“Boats maintained by the contracts provide essential support to the defence of the UK’s security and interests, including craft which support the Continuous At-Sea Deterrent and the Queen Elizabeth Class carriers.”

Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said:

“Our armed forces rely on having the finest kit available and this multi-million-pound contract ensures the thousands of vessels used across the entire British military will be maintained and repaired to the exceptionally high levels demanded by our service men and women.”

According to the announcement, contracts signed under the agreement include:

  • Four contracts with BAE Systems worth a total of £112 million to support Royal Navy, Royal Fleet Auxiliary, British Army, Royal Marines, and MOD Police boats, supporting 55 jobs in Portsmouth;
  • Three contracts with Babcock worth a total of £49 million for support to boats based overseas and to training craft, supporting 27 jobs including those in Bristol, Dartmouth in Devon and Gibraltar;
  • A £4.6 million contract with Griffon Hoverwork to support boats used by the Royal Marines, supporting 12 jobs in Southampton;
  • A £4.3 million contract with Holyhead Marine to ensure the continued availability of boats essential to UK submarine operations, including the Continuous At-Sea Deterrent supporting eight jobs in Holyhead and Faslane;
  • Two contracts with Marine Specialised Technology Ltd, worth a total of £7.6 million, to support diving operations and to maintain inflatable craft.
George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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12 COMMENTS

      • Simply because there was such an internal document I found on the internet some years ago.

        The boats operated by DSF made for interesting reading.

        It’s surprising how often the left hand of MoD does not know what the right is doing.

        • Hopefully this will bring greater visibility and hopefully we can reduce the number of classes.

          I wonder how many the new workboats could replace.

  2. I’d like to think most of this money pays for the cost of servicing and replacing the equipment. I have no idea if the figure represents value or not, so long as it guarentees capability so we are not stripping 1,000 boats for parts to support the other 1,000.

  3. Is it not time to develop small attack boats with the capability of taking considerable enemy fire? The latest advances in lightweight armour plus reactive zones would enable the RN to carry out deeper recon. Not necessarily the return of the torpedo boats of WW2, but equiped to be capable of hitting the enemy hard. They must be able to be airlifted and stored on amphibious ships, carriers, and destroyers. These boats should be built in considerable numbers and some of which, based at forward bases in a state of readiness. These new boats would go some way to matching the small craft, used by the Irains in the Gulf?

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