Babcock has set out an expanding international maritime portfolio anchored by its Arrowhead 140 frigate design and submarine support work, the company stated in its full-year results for the twelve months to 31 March 2026.
The centrepiece of that effort is a Maritime Partnership Programme framework agreement signed in November with the Indonesian Government, worth up to £4 billion. Babcock said Indonesia has since signed a Letter of Intent for two further Arrowhead 140 frigate licences, expected in the coming months, while negotiations continue on the contract structures for the broader programme covering maritime defence, security and modernisation. The company described the agreement as reinforcing its position as a trusted government delivery partner on what it characterised as strategically important international programmes.
The Arrowhead 140 design, which forms the basis of the Royal Navy’s Type 31 Inspiration Class frigates being built at Rosyth, is also under consideration in Denmark, where Babcock said it is awaiting an announcement from the Danish Government on its preferred naval platform. In Sweden, the company confirmed it was not selected as preferred bidder for the Luleå Class surface combatant programme following a decision in late May 2026, where it had offered the smaller Arrowhead 120 design. In Poland, Babcock signed a strategic cooperation agreement with PGZ SA covering naval design, construction, maintenance, military aircraft sustainment and strategic asset management for the Polish armed forces.
The submarine side of the business saw equally significant international movement. Babcock’s partnership with US shipbuilder HII expanded during the year to include authorisation to support the Virginia Class nuclear submarine build programme, with the company now cleared to manufacture complex submarine assemblies at its advanced manufacturing facility in Rosyth. Babcock said the initial engineering contract is under way and “could expand materially over time.” The two companies’ joint venture, H&B Defence, also secured its first contract under the Australian Submarine Supplier Qualification pilot programme, which Babcock described as Australia’s gateway into the US submarine supply chain. The first Australian supplier received a Request for Quotation for the Virginia Class programme through that route in August 2025.
In Canada, Babcock signed a teaming agreement with Hanwha Ocean focused on in-service support for the Canadian Patrol Submarine Project, the procurement under which Canada intends to acquire its next-generation conventionally-powered submarines. Hanwha is one of two shortlisted suppliers. The company is also continuing work on the Extended Docking Work Period for HMCS Victoria under the Victoria In-Service Support Contract, and supports the Fleet Maintenance Facility Cape Scott where HMCS Windsor’s docking period is taking place.
South Africa marked a new entry point as Babcock secured what it described as its first defence contract in the country, covering the survey and refit of two submarines at Simonstown Dockyard alongside spares and product supply contracts. The company called this a major strategic milestone and its entry into the South African defence sector.
Domestic naval support work also saw movement at the year’s end as Babcock agreed a six-month bridging arrangement with the UK Ministry of Defence under the £3.5 billion Future Maritime Support Programme to maintain continuity of nuclear submarine fleet support and naval base management services. The MOD has signed a Letter of Intent to finalise the multi-year replacement contract, known as Gateway, by October 2026. Babcock also secured a two-year extension covering critical Royal Navy surface ship maintenance and infrastructure support. The Mission Systems business secured its third renewal contract supporting in-service Royal Navy submarine effector systems, worth £110 million over nine years.
Looking further ahead, Babcock pointed to what it sees as significant long-term opportunities tied to the AUKUS partnership, including supply chain, training, infrastructure and support related to Australia’s developing nuclear submarine capability under Pillar I. The AUKUS partner nations signed the first Pillar II project in May, covering enabling systems for Uncrewed Undersea Vehicles. Babcock continues to deploy specialists to Australia to support Astute Class submarine maintenance ahead of Submarine Rotational Force-West activities from 2027.
Chief executive David Lockwood, who is due to retire later this year, set the results against a shifting global environment. “Against an increasingly uncertain geopolitical backdrop, Babcock has delivered continued strategic and operational progress,” he said, as quoted in the press release, adding that the group had secured “important contract wins that further strengthen our position in defence and nuclear markets, where long-term demand is increasingly structural.”
On the civil side of Marine, Babcock’s Liquid Gas Equipment business delivered 42 projects covering cargo handling and fuel gas supply systems for LPG, LNG, CO2 and ethane carriers during the year, including the cargo handling system for what the company described as a world-first CO2 carrier. The business booked its 150th ecoSMRT order for LNG reliquefaction technology and secured its first contracts for ammonia fuel gas supply systems using its ecoFGSS-FLEX technology.
At group level, Babcock reported revenue of £5.18 billion, up 8 percent organically, with Marine sector revenue rising 2 percent at constant currency to £1.59 billion. The company’s contract backlog stood at £9.8 billion at year-end, down from £10.4 billion a year earlier, reflecting trading on large multi-year orders won in the prior year. Babcock also announced a further £200 million share buyback to be completed during the current financial year, following completion of an earlier £200 million programme in April.
Starmer says he has “restored trust on Defence”!!!
Almost spat my tea on there.
One the one side, your part, just a short while ago, were trying to get a communist into Downing Street, who’d have happily disarmed the UK even more. You were an “acceptable” figurehead who didn’t want unilateral nuclear disarmanent so you were chosen. So there’s that. A positive start.
On the other hand, you never published the DIP, you remained unable to expand Defence to the levels needed, and industry is still in a state of limbo, the cuts have continued, the spin has continued, and the Tory policy of shoving other non military spending into the “Defence” budget has continued, trying to fool the public that the military is being properly resourced.
Trust on Defence, my foot….
And at the end, the usual spectacle of hugging the Wife to get everyone feeling sorry as you’re clapped out of Downing Street and another professional politician is parachuted in to take your place.
What a charade.
No wonder the public are rebelling, and an oh so convenient excuse to delay the DIP even longer, yes?
Don’t love professional politicians, far from it, Cameron never had a true job in his life, but the record with non professional politicians is so far, a disaster around the World and Farage will be another to add if he ever makes it there. It’s why the public are in such confusion themselves and have as few unified ideas about what they want as the actual people they vote in. Everyone talks of fundamental change but there is no agreement on those fundamental changes or even their direction we need to go beyond nebulous desires to be better off and a growing economy, other than arguably immigration. Even that has little true agreement about how to solve matters in polls.
👍 a shame Healey and Carns didn’t wait another week or so. With useless Reeves hopefully also going they may have stood a better chance to secure the defence funding we need.
Chicken and egg. Healey and Carns not resigning might have left Starmer with enough support to stumble on. Will be good to see the back of Reeves. However, the parliamentary Labour Party remains the same, and will be emboldened by having a left winger in charge, so I don’t think it’s necessarily all good news for defence.
I suspect we’ll get some short term cash until Burnham crashes the economy then we’ll face more cuts. The moment Russia and Ukraine sign a peace treaty of any sort I reckon we’ll see the left of the PLP call for immediate defence cuts and restoration of the foreign aid budget.
Good news of course but is there any news on an Arrowhead order from the Danes?
Later this year it will be announced. Babcock has floated the idea of them being built in Denmark however, to revive Danish ship building to that point would be costly and extremely time inefficient at a time where they want to rapidly replace the IVHD class with something that actually works before the next crisis flairs up.
Off topic, but of interest as the Americans try and deal with the Ayatollah’s nearl bomb grade HEU
The combined US-Israeli bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites in June 2025 crippled it’s atomic infrastructure, but failed to destroy its highly enriched uranium. Before the strikes, the IAEA estimated Iran held 440.9kg of 60% enriched uranium. This crucial material has survived entirely due to the strategic incompetence of Donald Trump, whose erratic public bragging and joint threats with Netanyahu ruined the critical element of surprise.
By repeatedly broadcasting the top-secret military timeline on social media weeks in advance, Trump gave the IRGC an explicit early warning. The IRGC exploited Trump’s blabbering to execute a rapid evacuation plan. Days before the June 13, 2025 attacks, the 441kg stockpile was hastily salvaged, split up, and dispersed across multiple hidden locations, to avoid a single catastrophic hit
Satellite imagery captured a frantic fleet of 16 heavy cargo trucks smuggling the uranium out of the Fordow plant near Qom. The inventory was divided into smaller batches: a large portion was rushed into the deep granite caverns of Pickaxe Mountain at Natanz, while some of the specialized cylinders containing the remaining gas were tracked entering the south tunnel gate of the Isfahan complex and elsewhere. Iran successfully scattered its near weapons-grade material into several fortified mountain networks, safely below the blast radius of American bunker-buster bombs.
Following the bombings, Trump’s operational failure became a total intelligence black hole. The Ayatollahs locked out IAEA inspectors and deactivated cameras. By mid-2026, satellite tracking revealed the IRGC had used heavy earth-movers to deliberately collapse and mine sixty-nine tunnel entrances, trapping the safely dispersed HEU deep underground. As the current, tense, 60-day negotiation window opens, Trump’s big mouth has left the West completely blind, negotiating with a regime that has kept its nuclear bomb-making material intact.
“Change” is a vogue word repeated since I saw Brown vehemently ranting about it.
“REAL change” he was saying.
Real change will occur when we have people in charge of the country who are professionals in their fields. Who has any experience amongst MPs of running a big business? The UK IS a business, not a plaything to be subjected to your chosen ideology.
Agree about Farage. Yet, he will try to action dealing with illegal immigration, IF the blob don’t sabotage, which I also believe in and is the main reason I will continue to vote for him until a grown up arrives in the Tory party. I obviously won’t be voting for Labour Tory as they’ve caused the problem in the first place and the Lib Dems would be even worse.
I don’t repeatedly vote for failure.
My apologies, this was meant for Spy further up thread, not a stand alone post.
Reading the posts regarding the UK Government and viewed against the dwindling UK defence forces only confirms the opinion held about the globe that the UK is an ungovernable basket case and something of a joke.