During Lords questions, the Ministry of Defence faced direct criticism over a procurement decision that will see two dozen support vessels built abroad rather than in UK yards.
Lord Beamish challenged the Government on the recently awarded Defence Maritime Services Next Generation contract, under which Serco will acquire 24 tugs and pilot boats from Damen in the Netherlands.
He asked why this order was being sent overseas despite the national shipbuilding policy’s commitment to maintaining a steady flow of work into domestic yards. He added that the Dutch firm had “recently been bailed out by the Dutch Government”, arguing that the UK should instead follow Berlin’s decision to cancel a Damen frigate contract and redirect work to national industry.
Lord Coaker, the defence minister, did not defend the choice directly. He promised to “look at the specific example that my noble friend has raised” but pointed to other recent procurement wins as evidence of progress for British yards. He cited the Type 26 order from Norway as a major boost, calling it “the sort of example that we want to build on”. That shift to a positive case avoided addressing Beamish’s core concern on whether the MoD had undermined its own industrial strategy by purchasing the small vessels offshore.
The exchange also drew a broader point on systemic procurement problems. Lord Robathan argued that excessive bureaucracy often slows down decisions intended to favour domestic manufacturing. He urged the Minister to “look carefully at how we can get rid of some of the bureaucracy surrounding defence procurement.” Coaker acknowledged the concern but gave no specific commitments.
Are these 24 just Tugs, or for other support types as well. Because I count 24 current Tugs. If this is to replace varied other vessels that operate from Faslane, Portsmouth, Devonport, Greenock ( for Faslane ), Falmouth, Gibraltar, and BUTEC at K of L, then it is yet another cut as I count around 60 Tenders, Tugs, Pilot boats, and such in use.
The current fleet that replaced the varied RMAS vessels are SD named, Serco Denholm, who had the contract before Serco took over the lot, but are still have the SD name, such as the bigger assets SD Victoria and Northern River.
Typical evasive answer. Maybe the Dutch offered them cheaper?
Presumably these are £50 million each and will take ten years to build…
I’m all for letting the Dutch build the tugs if it means we can focus on building Frigates, Destroyers and Submarines…
So no answer. Who answered the tender? Capacity availability? Time period? I wonder what cl will fill the empty hall, now that the Merseyferry has been floated out.
Fabricating sections for T26?
Plenty of that to go round.
I’m not sure that the UK well placed for tugs etc as we haven’t done that for over a decade as far as I know.
Better of focussing on the big stuff which is enough of a struggle without going all spatter gun.
If this is an actual order with ink on the paper and money changing hands it will be something at least as every other procurement story seems to never actually be true just a plan or an aspiration.