Babcock highlights Rosyth capacity for more shipbuilding

Babcock International sees Rosyth as central to the future naval programmes, with both space for expansion and the ability to support export work on the Type 31 frigate and potential Multi-Role Support Ships (MRSS).

John Howie, Babcock’s Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, said the company has already secured planning consent for the next stage of Rosyth’s development.

“One thing Rosyth is really lucky with is space,” he noted. “If we really needed to, we’d fill in the hole at the end of the yard, put concrete down and put sheds there as well. Space isn’t really our issue.”

The bigger challenge, he said, was finding and training the workforce. “Can you get the right numbers of people? Shipbuilding traditionally used transient contract labour from Western Europe, that’s much harder today. However, on the plus side, we’re running the biggest ever apprentice programme we’ve had, investing in graduate programmes and reskilling. One of the most successful things has been the production support operative programme, which we’ll now roll out across the country.”

Howie argued that MRSS lends itself to the same collaborative model used on the carrier programme. “You need an assembly yard who can manage the customer and deal with the complex security issues, but you also need a network of yards that can contribute volume to get time and cost down.” Rosyth, he said, has the space and infrastructure to act as that lead assembly yard, with scope to bring in other yards for block build and support.

I asked Howie about the export dimension: with interest in Type 31 coming from 17 countries, how many of those might expect work to be done in the UK? He replied: “To put a percentage on it, I can’t remember all the 17. I would say there is a mix. There’s at least a good handful of countries that would expect to build in the UK. There’s probably another handful that might expect the UK to do block build — you’ll build blocks, ship it out, or do the flat packing of the other structures and send out. And then there’s those countries that clearly want to build it themselves, like Poland. But actually, I’m quite pleased how many people look at UK build. My origins are in shipbuilding, and everybody used to want to build it themselves, because it was seen as nation building. There has been a bit of a change.”

He also linked Rosyth’s capacity to Babcock’s export ambitions. Despite the challenges of designing a frigate through the pandemic, Brexit and inflation, the programme has already secured international orders. “Before we’d even built the ship, we’d sold it to Poland and Indonesia. We’re now talking to Sweden, Denmark, New Zealand, Chile and around 17 countries in total. Contract award to the delivery of five ships in a decade — we can’t find another yard anywhere in the world doing that.”

The size and modularity of Type 31, he said, also help Rosyth’s case. “It was designed to be easy to manufacture and highly modular, which makes it better for automation and robotics. That also means when we export it, countries that want to build at home can, but others are still looking at UK build or block build.”

Howie concluded that while other UK yards have a role to play, Rosyth’s scale and investment position it at the heart of both domestic programmes and exports. “Space isn’t our issue. The issue is skills, and we’re tackling that with apprenticeships, re-skilling and new entry routes. That puts us in a strong place for MRSS and beyond.”