Maria Eagle, Minister of State for Defence, confirmed in response to a parliamentary question from James Cartlidge MP that the UK workshare in the Fleet Solid Support (FSS) ship programme remains unchanged.
She stated:
“The overall build strategy for the Fleet Solid Support (FSS) ships remains unchanged. All three ships will be assembled in the UK, with blocks manufactured in Navantia’s shipyards in Spain and in Harland and Wolff’s shipyards in the UK, retaining the overall UK workshare as originally planned.”
Eagle also reiterated the expected economic benefits of the programme, explaining:
“The value of the individual contracts is commercially sensitive information. It is expected that approximately 60 per cent of the contract value will be with UK companies. The FSS ship contract will create more than 1,200 UK shipyard jobs and around 800 jobs will be sustained in the UK supply chain. There is also substantial investment being made in the UK including around £100 million into UK shipyards.”
She further outlined the responsibilities of the programme’s prime contractor, Navantia UK:
“As prime contractor for the FSS Programme, Navantia UK is responsible for delivery of the contract and is in the process of letting a number of contracts to UK companies, in addition to those already let with BMT and Harland & Wolff.”
Contracts let… well that is a good sign at least.
Cheers CR
There was a time when it looked like this was to be reduced to 2 ships, glad it’s now solid for 3.
If you look at how some other countries order ships they do it in multiples of 3, good examples are Germany and South Korea. Germany has decided to do this going forwards as they calculate 3 is the optimum minimum number needed to ensure availability. One ship active / deployed, One ship in refit / maintenance and One ship Training / Working up.
Having just 1 or 2 ships just doesn’t work well, just think QE and Forts for examples.
60% by value or bulk?
More complex sections will be built in Spain complexity = cost
Of course value of the contracts are commercially sensitive but they’re also being renegotiated to include a rumoured 300m increase. The ability to renegotiate was a condition Navantia put on buying H&W or put it another way, UK government will be funding the Spainish government’s yards purchase of H&W.