Defence minister Luke Pollard has opened Resurgent Hall at Harland & Wolff in Belfast, adding 5,000 square metres of fabrication space for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary’s new support ships, as Navantia UK raises its investment across its four yards from £115 million to £157 million, according to the company.
The hall includes robotic plasma-cutting equipment, refurbished cranes and a new mechanised panel line, and forms the centrepiece of almost £100 million being invested in Belfast since Navantia bought Harland & Wolff in January 2025. The company is also refurbishing the Samson and Goliath cranes, and said Belfast will now have the facilities to compete for future naval and commercial work.
Donato Martínez, chief executive of Navantia UK, said: “Shipbuilding is returning to Belfast. We are turning Harland & Wolff into one of the most advanced shipyards in Europe. Our new fabrication hall will be equipped to build state-of-the-art ships to serve and defend the UK for generations to come. We’ve named it Resurgent Hall for a reason. Jobs, investment and activity are resurgent in shipbuilding. Belfast is at the heart of that revival, and the Fleet Solid Support programme is the first of many projects we aim to deliver here for the Ministry of Defence.”
Pollard, the Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, said: “Few sights in the UK are more evocative of our industrial heritage than the Samson and Goliath cranes, and it’s fitting that this new hall sits on the shoulders of these iconic giants. Belfast continues with its proud shipbuilding history by building the modern shipbuilding capability the country needs today, with this new fabrication hall at the heart of it. Navantia’s £157 million investment across its UK yards shows what sustained investment in shipbuilding delivers: good jobs, growing skills, and the support ships our Navy needs.”
Sarah Owen, Minister for Northern Ireland, said: “Standing in Navantia’s state-of-the-art fabrication hall is a great reminder of the scale of UK Government defence investment in Northern Ireland, with £460 million spent here by the Ministry of Defence in the last year – equivalent to £240 per person. This impressive facility is a key milestone in the UK Government’s Fleet Solid Support (FSS) programme, which has invested around £100 million in Belfast alone. Navantia is building on Belfast’s historic shipbuilding legacy while supporting hundreds of skilled jobs and apprenticeships, ensuring that it remains at the heart of the UK’s defence industry while boosting economic growth.”
Keith Bethell, the National Armaments Director Group’s Maritime Director, said: “The opening of the Resurgent Fabrication Hall is a clear sign that growth in UK shipbuilding is happening right now, in Belfast. This investment is renewing our industrial capability, creating skilled jobs and apprenticeships, and strengthening the supply chains that underpin our national resilience. It gives us the modern capability we need to deliver the Fleet Solid Support ships for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and lays the foundations for Belfast to compete for future UK naval and maritime programmes.”
The £1.6 billion programme will deliver RFA Resurgent, RFA Reliant and RFA Resourceful, which will supply ammunition, stores and provisions to Royal Navy vessels and carrier strike groups, and are due to enter service in the early 2030s. Steel cutting began at Appledore in December 2025 and the keel of Resurgent was laid in September. Appledore is building the bow sections of all three ships, while Belfast will handle major fabrication, final assembly, systems integration and testing.
Navantia UK supports more than 1,300 jobs and over 340 apprentices across Belfast, Appledore, Methil and Arnish, and aims to support 750 apprentices by 2030. The UK Defence Journal reported in March that the investment in the Belfast hall was intended to support a processing capacity of 450 tonnes of steel per week.
