Imagery shows the first section of a ship, the third of eight Type 26 Frigates HMS Belfast, in the new Janet Harvey Hall at the BAE Systems Maritime shipyard in Govan, Glasgow, for the first time.
The Govan shipyard in Glasgow has reached a significant milestone with its new ‘frigate factory’—officially named the Janet Harvey Hall—now hosting its first ship block, belonging to HMS Belfast.
A big milestone for Clyde shipbuilding this week, as the first block of what will become HMS Belfast rolls into the new Janet Harvey Hall, which is now nearly complete.
This will be the first time a ship has been built fully under cover in the Govan shipyard’s 160-year history. pic.twitter.com/mIKU7Jy7mZ
— Paul Sweeney (@PaulJSweeney) December 22, 2024
Named in honour of Janet Harvey, who joined the Clyde shipyards as an electrician during World War II, the hall pays tribute to her trailblazing role in a male-dominated industry. Harvey’s legacy as a pioneer in shipbuilding was further recognised when she was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Engineering by Glasgow Caledonian University at the age of 96. She passed away on Armistice Day in 2023, aged 101.
Paul Sweeney, Glasgow Labour MSP and a former BAE Systems shipyard employee, described the facility as a transformative development. “This new hall will probably become the largest building by enclosed volume in Glasgow, if not Scotland, and will make a dramatic impact on the Clydeside skyline,” he said. Sweeney also spoke on the competitive edge this facility brings, stating, “I hope that the competitive advantages it brings will help to reassert Glasgow’s global reputation for having shipbuilding capabilities that are of the highest quality.”
The Janet Harvey Hall is designed to accommodate the construction of two Type 26 frigates simultaneously, providing a controlled environment that shields the shipbuilding process from adverse weather conditions. This advancement overcomes historical constraints that prevented the construction of full ships longer than 75 metres under cover at Govan.
The construction of the facility has involved over 6,000 tonnes of steel and 20,000 cubic metres of concrete. Once fully operational, the hall will feature two 100-tonne cranes and two 20-tonne cranes, enabling up to 500 workers per shift to focus on frigate construction. The site is expected to sustain approximately 1,700 jobs in Scotland and 2,300 jobs across the wider UK supply chain, significantly boosting both the local and national economy.
The vast new hall is part of a £300 million transformation project aimed at revolutionising shipbuilding on the River Clyde.
Jen Blee, Business Operations Director of BAE Systems’ Naval Ships business, commented previously, “It’s fitting that a pioneer such as Janet will remain synonymous with our efforts to re-imagine complex shipbuilding on the upper Clyde. Today, women like Janet are much more commonplace in our yards than they once were, and their numbers and impact continue to grow.”
Janet Harvey is shown below.
Janet’s niece, June Cofflet, expressed the family’s pride, saying, “Janet would have been absolutely delighted to have the ship build hall named after her. She was so very proud of the work she did during the war. As a family, we are delighted that BAE Systems has chosen our aunt’s name to go on the ship build hall; it is a real honour.”
The project is expected to sustain approximately 1,700 jobs in Scotland and an additional 2,300 jobs across the wider UK supply chain. The image below shows how it will look.
The Type 26 frigates are designed for anti-submarine warfare, high-intensity air defence, and can be adapted for roles such as humanitarian aid and medical support. The new facility will ensure that these ships are built efficiently and to the highest standards, and a bit quicker too.
No fan of he last government but certainly shipbuilding didn’t do to badly. Investment at Barrow, Govan and Rosyth. H&W were investing before being denied a loan guarantee and being bought out. Exports of T31 to Poland and Indonesia. Canada and Australia building T26, and interest from Norway over the past year. Roll Royce investing of the back of AUKUS. Even CL built a ship. Hopefully this momentum can be built upon further enhancing competitiveness of shipbuilding in the UK.
I’ll second all that. Better late than never to rebuild the Navy and dramatically speed up their ship’s construction.
Quite – stuff started happening.
Boris may have been a clown but he understood RN’s needs better than his predecessors or successors.
Ben Wallace was Tory defence minister and seemed sensible. Told uk industry there are steady ship orders but you have to invest in your facilities as reported in the esteemed ukdj
I know that we are all desperately searching for any kind of silver lining, but if you say stuff like naval shipbuilding is doing okay when it isn’t, that’s just a green light for more of the same.
Over the last 20 years the RN and RFA have brought into service 31 vessels greater than 100 tons, (8 built abroad). Over the next 10 years we expect 23 vessels (before 2035). That’s 54 vessels over a 30 year “cycle”, around 44 mostly UK built. In the last three years alone, we have decommissioned or laid up 22 vessels, 21 UK built. We have been building at a rate less than a quarter of the recent effective disposal rate. So I don’t think UK shipbuilding is doing particularly well at the minute.
Frigate design exports might be a highlight, but not actual new ship exports. Over the last 20 years there were 3 new OPVs exported and 1 FIAC ordered.
I urged the foundations that have been put down to be built on. And don’t underestimate the frigate design exports it results in a lot of valuable kit being exported to be fitted these foreign built hulls.
Fingers crossed you are right. There’s talk in the government about using budgets to control the number of MOD staff rather than artificial headcount limits. This is very sensible and I hope we see that kind of flexibility applied to shipbuilding. Flexible thinking backed by the Prime Minister could actually help. That’s what I’m asking Santa for, as 3% is as likely as gold, frankincense and myrrh in my Xmas stocking.
I thonk its also important the government keeps an element of competition between yards, this has worked and got yards thinking how they can becomemore efficient. The challenge is with limited work and no exports it’s how to make each tender a competition.
I thought the government was going to speed up building these ships.
or has this not started yet, after all our enemies may not be so patient. just a thought.
merry xmas everyone..
The process had been speeded up as far as is practically possible with some Modules / Blocks being outsourced. The new Build Hall will increase efficiency a lot more.
You could say it’s “a new ship off of the ol’ block”! Merry Christmas to all in ukdj 🇬🇧 from 🇦🇺. May 2025 be an even better year ahead!
Brilliant if 15 years later than it should have been built.
Seeking a bit of clarity as a former “Pongo” who know little to nothing of modern shipbuilding
Is the new shed taking modules from next door and other places and then “assembling” a complete ship in an “environmentally controlled space”, (as they do for subs in Barrow) or are they building it from the ground up.
Cheers
Plate line feeds to the old sheds where the micro assemblies are consolidated into blocks that are sent to the new shed.
The key difference now is that is more space to have more blocks being worked on.
Fact to bear in mind is that steel fabricating the blocks isn’t the time consuming bit. It is preposition them and snagging that is where the time goes and where the trades pressure really exists. As for this you are largely using construction trades with the ultra low level of knowledge and teeing that makes UK construction the nightmare it has become.
There is clearly a bit of a wriggle in here as the first block is in the shed before the builders have ecmven vaguely finished.
There are no high level lights; scaffold and netting to the roof; walking to the sides is incomplete and general builders materials and mess everywhere.
If you look closely that area around the hull section is blocked off so BAEs don’t have full possession of the shed. I’m quite surprised that the contractors feel they can do this from a CDM perspective…..which makes me think that the block is just parked there as they needed to get it out of the old sheds where and into the new big shed?
Hi SB,
Your comment made me have a closer look at the picture and I see what you mean. The mobile cranes are clearly still working on the shed and the external panels are not fitted to the front of the shed all the way up to the roof.
My impression is that the far end of the hall is slightly more ‘complete’, the external paneling appears to go all the way up to the roof line for example. It will be interesting to the see how they complete the shed with the block situated where it is. I can see what could be electric trunking to the right of center of the image over the overhead crane. It shows up as an additional longitudinal feature mid way between the more obvious longitudinal roof structure, but it is clearly only in place at the far end of the shed. This suggests to me that the construction focused on that end of the shed in advance of the module being rolled in, perhaps to limit the need for the redeployment of those mobile cranes..? Whatever those additional longitudinals are I recon this was planned sometime ago suggesting a remarkable level of close cooperation between constructors and BAE Systems. That’s quite the ‘parking space’.
Merry Christmas CR
Tvm for the excellent phots George. 👌, Seasons greetings to y’all on UKDJ. 🎄🎅🎉❄️🙃🕳️Btth.
Find it strange how UKDJ seem very harsh and critical when writing about H&W’s problems, yet when it has articles about BAE it seems to miss mentioning the lateness of this programme (continual slip amd problems with engineering change throughout) and the overspend going into it (poor leadership at senior level, poor cost management behaviours, poor cost saving culture).
Assume its just an oversight but always seems to be the same “waaay! Go BAE” mantra from yourselves and Paul Sweeney. Yet the narrative is always critical of others. Frustrating to read to be honest having seen first hand how poor BAE is run, and how it would be in so much trouble if it didnt seem to guarantee itself hugely overpriced contracts.
Are you talking about the Type 26 programme or the shipbuilding hall when mentioning continual slippage?
Both… Unfortunately
Any video of the block being moved into the hall?