Rolls-Royce today welcomed the announcement that the Australian Government would be investing in its ongoing AUKUS preparations. This supplements the expansion funding already committed by the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD).
To meet the growth in demand from the Royal Navy, which includes AUKUS delivery commitments, work is already underway to double the size of the Rolls-Royce Submarines site in Raynesway, Derby.
Now jointly funded by UK MOD and the Australian Department of Defence, the expansion work announced last summer will create over 1,000 new jobs in Derby across a range of disciplines, including manufacturing and engineering. It will also see new manufacturing and office facilities being built on recently acquired land surrounding the existing Raynesway site.
In March 2023 it was confirmed that Rolls-Royce Submarines would provide all the nuclear reactor plants that will power new attack submarines as part of the tri-lateral agreement between Australia, the UK and US.
Rolls-Royce Submarines President Steve Carlier said:
“Last year we were proud to welcome the Hon Richard Marles MP, Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, and UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, to our Raynesway site to showcase some of the world-class manufacturing and engineering capabilities we have developed over the last 60 years. This commitment of funding to our existing expansion work shows the trust Australia places on our nuclear expertise and our ability to deliver. We look forward to working with the Australian Submarine Agency to support them in building their own fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.”
Grant Shapps MP, UK Secretary of State for Defence, said:
“In a more dangerous world, today’s announcement symbolises the huge confidence our close partner Australia has in our world-leading defence industry, including companies such as BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce. Through these collaborations, British industry will grow, and thousands of jobs created across the country, delivering security and prosperity to our two nations.”
To further ensure a steady pipeline of future talent into the industry, Rolls-Royce opened a new Nuclear Skills Academy in Derby in 2022. It will provide 200 apprenticeships each year for at least the next decade.
Rolls-Royce Submarines currently employs more than 4,000 people and designs, manufactures and provides in-service support to the pressurised water reactors that power every boat in the Royal Navy’s submarine fleet.
Rolls-Royce is currently supporting the existing Astute and Dreadnought boat build programmes through the delivery of reactor plant and associated components. Additionally, it provides frontline support across the world for reactor plant equipment from its Operations Centre in Derby and supports the submarines when in the Barrow-in-Furness shipyard and the naval bases at Devonport and Faslane.
Rodney will be v proud. 😀
Totally agree here mate, also believe that if the MOD?RN get this right, this is our way to a small increase in SSN numbers for the RN, 8-10 is certainly achievable, and at a push perhaps 12!
If not 12, then cerainly 8/9 SSNs and buy some 5/6 SSKs off the shelf (A26 perhaps) and we are back in business in the undersea world.
If there are savings to be had with shared R&D and development costs there must be a chance?
Though I just saw an bomber come back after a 200 day patrol??? WTF? That won’t help retention to man all these extra boats.
Mate 200 odd days is V hard work on one of those. Longest I ever did was around 105/6 days several times and that was not very nice to say the least. Mentally a real battle just to keep on top of things, especially boredom, as life on a bomber isnt meant to be exciting ala ‘Red October!!’ Tinned food and powdered milk from about just over half way through the trip. No daylight/sunlight for 6 odd months, not nice at all. In fact, they are getting a real shitty deal, even if they were paid 3-4 times what they… Read more »
Send the 700 odd MPs out, see how they like it?
I can’t begin to comprehend how anyone can endure that for 200 days. It’s positively Medieval and I just have to wonder what the limiting factor is ? Is it when someone needs medical attention, food becomes critical or you run out of Bog Roll (seriously that would be horrid).
Given the vital roll of CASD just what has to happen (short of a major failure) before a Captain says enough ?
It boggles my mind, but respect to the Crews who do this and have done for 57 years.
Yes its interesting when you actually think about it. Guests of HM prisons certainly enjoy a better lifestyle than those sailors deployed on SSBN patrols. A bit of a quirk in the Navy is that you can run low on food and introduce rationing if required (Conqueror returned from the Falklands with 1 sausage left in her freezer when she arrived in Faslane), but cannot under any circumstances actually run out of Bogroll. Believe its still a keel hauling offence!! The medical side is somewhat more challenging to deal with. SSNs dont normally carry a Doctor (only on certain Ops),… Read more »
No we need Aukus and at least 12-15. That is the number of SSNs we need now and for the future. Staying clear of SSKs that lack the endurance or deployment speeds of an SSN.
Our nuclear powered attack submarines are an area where the RN and USN have a massive qualitative edge over China and Russia. We need to maintain that edge and maximise our leverage by building enough submarines to ensure our potential enemies cannot simply beat us by attrition.
Morning Mr. Bell and a fine one it is too. Wouldnt disagree that we need more SSN’s then we are currently going to receive (7 Astutes by late 2026). AUKUS is a real positive for UKPLC and the RN in particular, as I can see us getting 8-10 SSNs out of it, if I were feeling really optimistic perhaps 12! Anything more is imo extremely unlikely mainly due to manning and sustainment costs/ issues over actual build costs. However I would gladly swap 2-3 SSNs leaving a force of 8/9, and receive 5/6 SSKs in their place. Not everything we… Read more »
Rodney ?….. as in ABCRodney ? AndrewM ? Ian Malone ? Rodney ABC? Ian ????? It’s hard to keep up with peoples names on here at times…. just sayin.😎
Trotter… You plonker 😉
Yes mate, ABC. Our SME here regards the industry side of this.
Rolls-Royce Submarines would provide all the nuclear reactor plants that will power new attack submarines as part of the tri-lateral agreement between Australia, the UK and US.
… needs a slight correction. RR will not power the US subs.
And yes Danielle, Rodders will be happy.
Daniele, please DB. I’m not a girl.😉
Sorry!
Lol it’s fine. With my spelling I get it a lot.
Sorry for my absence but am presently up in Yorkshire for a break b4 the screaming hordes arrive. And as “her indoors” would actually like me to not be posting much this week, I’ll make this brief (for me). Yes Daniele I am delighted for all those still actively involved in the U.K Nuclear Submarine industry. But far more importantly I am just so chuffed for the 000’s of young people who will be Apprentices at BAe, RR, Clyde Union Pumps and now the cat is finally out of bag Sheffield Forgemasters. Secondly to you DB, did you perhaps go… Read more »
Rodders, just struggle with your ‘toilet’… gives you 10mins a day 🙂 Daniele figured out who I was… I went to Comp and completely underachieved at Ulverston, near Barrow and stood alone UNDER Invincible as she was launched… I’m 59 this year, do the maths. Polite of you to mention pollies of the first decade… perhaps remiss of you to not mention Lord Hutton, who as Defence Sec was prepared to fall on his sword if things were not sorted; and they were, even if that wAnchor Corbyn took control covertly. There were some good Labour people back in the… Read more »
It wasn’t the Toilet it was the all singing, all dancing dual flush cistern. It started to leak down the pan after 4 years, wife says “I’ve spoken to the plumber who put in and it’s a known problem and only way to fix it is a new cistern. But we don’t need a plumber your always saying you don’t get your hands dirty these days so you can do it”. Which idiot uses a flat round gasket made of semi porous silicon at the bottom of water filled tank ? The Germans may make decent cars but they can’t… Read more »
What I meant was struggle ON the toilet – it’s worth 10 minutes of privacy 😉 😉
The Government did the UK a dis-service when our ‘battleships’ were scrapped – the tourism the American ones generate is worth a pretty Bob but those ships were immense.
Anyway, my 10 mins of privacy are over, back to the wife 🙁
The Good News keeps on coming…. This is huge for “Global Britain”… huge for Employment and huge for keeping the UK at the leading edge of defence….. only question I have is what will happen with the spent fuel at the end…. ? Will it be Australia’s problem or ours ?
As far as I am aware it’s going to be ours.
The Queue will be very very long by then I guess….. something like 18 at the moment, including the R’s still sat around in Devonport and Rosyth….. at least 5 more with the V boats and Triumph in a decade or two…. not to mention the Ass Toots……. Kicking the can down the road seems to be the thing…..
To be fair Australia does have some very large and sparsely populated deserts and is geologically stable…..
Ah but yeah but no but…. They also have a history of not allowing Nuclear armed Warships to dock….. or so my hazy memory seems to recall…. 🤔
I know NZ had that policy, but not sure about Aus …….
Well, Astutes and USN attack boats are going to be working from there – they actually are – the difference is between ‘powered’ and ‘armed’
On that, I would agree with you.
Mate there is no chance Aussie environmentalists are going to allow even a gram of spent nuclear fuel remain in Australia, even if there’s nothing there beyond rocks and dust
Actually they aren’t and that’s because Australia has been operating research reactors since the 1950’s. HIFAR was the 1st and initially used HEU, the 2nd and presently used one is OPAL and uses LEU, neither produce power but ISOTOPES for medical purposes. So at present on the reactor site they have 5000m3 of Spent Nuclear fuel and other grades of waste in storage. Presently they are looking to build a long term Nuclear Depository. Australia has 33% of the worlds deposits of uranium ore, is the worlds 3rd largest producer but has banned nuclear generated electricity due to environmental concerns.… Read more »
I can tell you that it is actually in the terms of the AUKUS treaty that we will build, fuel and commission the sealed reactors. The US will provide the HEU, but Australia is responsible for the all the resultant Nuclear waste for their boats. Hence Australia is actively identifying its own deep geological waste repository. If I were a betting man (which I’m not), I’d guess that refuelling (if needed), de fuelling will be done here. Fuel reprocessing in France or US and then back down under.
Potential future problem for RR and BAe. When highly skilled people are sent over to Adelaide to assist in the establishment of the their own submarine construction industry WILL THEY WANT TO USE THE RETURN TICKET.
Always has to be folks who dream up ridiculous negatives on every story. Welcome to miserable Britain.
Strange reply…..I would have thought there is a ‘positive’ in there, particularly for the Aussies.
He’s “New”…😎
That underlies every article on this site.
The only test of whether Brits are happy is if they aren’t. Moaning: Our missing Olympic sport.
They will if they want their bits reattaching 🤪 Seriously there has been a lot of speculation about why there are so many new Training Centres of Excellence and the numbers envisioned.
Best way to get them up and running is teach them the theory and then how it really works. Best way of learning is by doing. So they can be reverse Transported over here.
Would love to know why the tax payer pays to get these deals over the line. Very little money comes back to the UK and even less to the treasury. So so much better ways to spend our tax dollars, we are basically subsidising Australia and yet they screwed us hard with the trade deal.
On this occasion i think you are missing the benefit to the UK economy as a whole…. Investment and Employment being two major factors, Knowledge and capability at the cutting edge of design and research being two more…. plus on top of that, every person and Business engaged in this fantastic project will pay Taxes back into the economy…….. this is huge, don’t dismiss it so easily mate.
I still see no benefit. The UK and US are paying for the r&d and Australia is getting cheap home built vessels. Where is the value? Yes some of the parts will be built here but they would have anyway without millions of uk tax payers money being spent on it. Look at the stats uk defence companies add something like a thosaund of a percent to the economy. Same as the while fishing brexit mess, a sector that is a rounding error to the economy.
Didn’t you see the “BAE double size of Barrow site” but? How is that not UK investment? We’re building the back ends plus reactor, arguably the most complicated and expensive but.
Good for BAe they are making extra profit, I go back to how much do they add to uk plc, and its peanuts, certainly way less than the millions spent of public money to win them the contract. No question some of that money will flow back to the economy through taxes and jobs but its not millions.
The data is all there, just check the national audit office.
I smell fresh Troll 🤔
Not really, it seems from replies below that he just cares more about farming than defence.
Perfectly reasonable if you’re a farmer, but an argument between a submarine builder like yourself and a farmer about submarines will always be fun to watch.
I should have been a farmer, instead I spent over 40 years trying to design and build the perfect Elastic Band Ball. If a farmer can’t understand that what he produces and sells then goes on to generate more money as it gets nearer to the end user then who can ?
Very little money coming back to the UK? Have you any idea how much this will bring into Rolls, Shef Forge master and a 100 other UK companies, everything from Admiralty authorized material suppliers to tooling manufacturers? The value of the Nuke pod is off the charts
Yes, but have you seen the actual figures, most of that money goes to offshore holding companies and ultimately shareholders most of which are based overseas. Yes it will give a few hundred jobs for a population of 50m that isn’t even a round error.
Anything that adds value to the economy is great, but value for investment is tiny and better spent else where. Never got why we didn’t link this to the trade deal and actually got a decent deal. Australia needed us as the French deal was bad for them and we didn’t max on that.
OK before I answer can you clarify if you are U.K or US because that will determine my answer.
British. We have a trade deal with Australia that is going to destroy local farmers, so much so that the government made it not come into effect for 10 years so they were safely out and yet yelled about it. Australia needed these subs and so it was a card we should have played to get a proper trade deal.
Or just said we’ll you want our tech, so they will be built in UK yards. Take it or leave it.
OK M8 you threw me with the Tax Dollars. I actually doubt that the folks who negotiated the AUKUS deal knew anything about the Trade deal or vice versa. Both are very important but our Government system doesn’t do well with joined up thinking. Both teams would be working in isolation and be given a very narrow brief to carry out, and ensure it was Top Secret or Confidential. But this post is about the positive knock on effects this deal has on the overall economy. And you are right it isn’t Millions, it’s actually Billions of £’s of income,… Read more »
Hi folks hope all is well.
Do we know the name of our class of new subs? There’s much about Aukus, however, nothing about the new name the UK is going to give them.
Cheers
George
That’s a long way in the future and will probably not emerge till the 1st Boat is actually ordered and announced.
At present the move is away from calling them SSN(R) or AUKUS to SSN(A) !
It will change next week.