Defence technology company Helsing will open its first UK Resilience Factory in Plymouth, creating high-value jobs and establishing the city as a national centre for marine autonomy, the government has announced.
The announcement came alongside the publication of recommendations from the Defence and Economic Growth Taskforce, a joint initiative between government and industry aimed at unlocking the economic potential of Britain’s defence sector. The report sets out a “Team UK” strategy to boost innovation, private investment, and job creation, especially in high-value defence technologies.
Helsing’s Plymouth facility will manufacture SG-1 Fathom autonomous underwater gliders, part of a £350 million private investment first outlined in the 2024 Trinity House agreement. These AI-powered systems are designed for persistent maritime surveillance and to help protect critical subsea infrastructure.
Described as a “Resilience Factory,” the site will not only serve as an advanced manufacturing centre but also function as a national hub for sovereign technology development in underwater defence. While the term is not a formal industrial category, in this context it refers to a facility that enhances national resilience by strengthening domestic capability in strategically important technologies. That includes reducing dependency on foreign suppliers and anchoring design, production, and support expertise within the UK.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the project reflects the government’s broader ambition to link defence policy to national economic growth. “Through this, and the work of the Defence and Economic Growth Taskforce – including Helsing’s welcome announcement of the first UK Resilience Factory – we are securing our nation and unleashing the economic potential in the Defence sector, benefitting working people across the UK through our Plan for Change,” she said.
Ned Baker, Helsing’s UK Managing Director, said the company is accelerating its investment in response to the government’s policy direction. “We are investing in both by opening the first UK Resilience Factory and accelerating our £350m commitment,” he said. “Together, we can attract further private investment, equipping our Armed Forces and growing the economy.”
The factory will also support the government’s aim to develop regional defence industry clusters. The Defence and Economic Growth Taskforce has recommended a series of Defence Growth Deals to promote investment outside traditional defence hubs.
Defence Secretary John Healey described the initiative as part of a shift in how the UK approaches defence industry policy. “We are building a new partnership with the UK’s outstanding defence industry, with innovators and with investors,” he said. “We will equip our Armed Forces for the future and make defence an engine for economic growth.”
The Taskforce, co-chaired by the Chancellor and Defence Secretary and supported by the Confederation of British Industry and consultancy Oliver Wyman, has also recommended procurement reforms, export support, and increased backing for dual-use technologies as part of a broader Defence Industrial Strategy to be launched later this year.
There’s that word again….change.
Are the UK actually buying any of these gliders?
After a review, subject to, when the economy isn’t going down the tubes…..
The idea of national resilience being linked to having construction factories in the UK is very limited really. The supply chains for any complex equipment are global nowadays. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if some of the raw minerals used to manufacture high end electronic components for our most advanced weapons once came out of the ground in places like Siberia etc.
Sure, final construction here is worthwhile economically and might ensure we have a view shiny things that can be completed in a rush if needed, but it doesn’t mean a thing in the long run unless we have secure global supply chains in place. Lose those, the factory has nothing to put together and we are no better off than if the factory was in the USA or anywhere else in the world.
Global supply chains are all well and good in times of peace but when things start kicking of as they have suddenly you can’t actually guarantee that your widgets made on the other side of the world can get here at all and if your defence relies on said widgets that’s game over.
worse though is that wherever the widget is made, if it relies on rare earth elements (as almost anything electronic does nowadays), there’s only so many places they can be mined out of the ground and there is simply no way round that problem. Like it or not we are now a global economy.
Better give Canada a ring then as they have a lot of alternative sources of vital minerals and their recent deal with Greenland opens up yet more. Hmmm wonder if that’s why Trumpington has his eyes on both.
Excellent. Got the underwater vampires sorted then.