Steel will be cut on the first SSN-AUKUS submarine next year, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed, marking the start of construction on the fleet of up to 12 next-generation attack submarines that will replace the Astute class in Royal Navy service.
The timeline was confirmed by Defence Minister Luke Pollard in a written answer to Conservative MP Stuart Anderson, who asked for the expected delivery date of the boats. “As set out in the Defence Investment Plan, we will procure up to 12 next-generation SSN-AUKUS nuclear powered, conventionally armed attack submarines. On current plans, we will cut steel on the first SSN-AUKUS submarine next year, with the aim to deliver the first UK submarine into service in the 2030s,” Pollard said, as quoted in the answer, adding that planned in-service dates for Royal Navy submarines are withheld as disclosure “would, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability, effectiveness, or security of the Armed Forces.”
The answer of course restates rather than breaks the programme’s public timeline, with the Strategic Defence Review having committed to up to 12 of the boats and the late 2030s long indicated for the first delivery, but it puts the start of construction at Barrow-in-Furness within a defined window for the first time in a parliamentary answer, and confirms the aim of a 2030s service entry while declining to be drawn on anything more precise.
SSN-AUKUS is the future attack submarine being developed with Australia and the United States under the AUKUS partnership, designed in the UK and incorporating American technology, with boats to be built at BAE Systems’ Barrow yard for the Royal Navy and in Adelaide for the Royal Australian Navy.
The class will be the largest and most capable attack submarines Britain has operated, carrying the mission of hunting adversary submarines and shipping, protecting the deterrent and the carrier force, striking targets ashore and, increasingly, operating across the seabed warfare domain, and the up to 12 figure represents a substantial expansion over the seven-boat Astute class it succeeds.
Preparation for the build has been under way for years, with billions committed to the design phase and to expanding the Barrow yard, where the final Astute-class boats are still completing, and the Defence Investment Plan placed the programme within the £15.1 billion transformation of Faslane confirmed this week, which Defence Minister Pollard recently said ready the base for more submarines than it has hosted in a very long time as Astute, Dreadnought and eventually SSN-AUKUS boats arrive.
Steel cutting next year would begin the physical construction of a class the Royal Navy expects to operate into the second half of the century, with the industrial challenge of delivering it alongside the Dreadnought programme at the same yard among the most demanding tasks British industry has taken on.
Do we reckon build time could be reduced compared to the Astutes ?
Could we see it in service with a 10 year construction time, so 2037/2038!
On the one hand I would imagine it would be quicker as Barrow is in a much better place now regarding skills and workforce than when we started building the first Astute. On the other hand AUKUS might be a more complex boat, which would naturally take longer to build.
Structurally it will be very similar. Its the sensor and IT systems that are more complex. Therefore hull build should be the same or better due to improvement at Barrow etc. Just hope the fit out goes ok.
Back in 2023 BAE Systems were going to build a new pre paint out fitting facility called the Ramsden dock facility, “BAE Systems expanding Barrow submarine facility”, UKDJ, George Allison – May 17, 2023.
It seems that that plan was shelved in 2023 and the company ‘restrategised’ for awhile and is now planning on building logistics hub with some component production and support facilities on a former gas storage site formerly own by Associated British Ports (ABP). Meanwhile the Devonshire Dock Hall is being refurbished while the last of the Astute’s and the Dreadnoughts continue to be built. This upgrade is supposed the go on from 2026 to 2031.
From what I can gather the old gas works is being site cleared and ABP applied for a closure order for part of the adjacent Ramsden dock suggesting work is about to get under way on the new logistics site.
Given the original plan was for a new facility to be ready right about now, but instead a refurbished DDH and logistics hub are yet to be started,I am left wondering if the down scoping and delays in building the new facilities will have an impact on the submarine build schedule?
Finally, if you don’t know how the Barrow looks have a butchers at Google Earth. It’s hemmed in by water and housing estates – the production systems planners must have had a nightmare trying to work out how to maintain current production effort on the Astutes while trying to increase capacity for the SSN-A program.
Cheers CR