In an article penned by Defence Secretary Grant Shapps and published in The Scotsman, the UK government stated that boosting defence spending will substantially bolster Scotland’s economy, particularly its shipbuilding industry.
During his recent visits to the Clyde and Rosyth shipyards, Shapps emphasised the significance of the investment.
“On the Clyde and at Rosyth, thousands of people are working to build the most advanced frigates the Royal Navy has ever seen,” he wrote.
According to Shapps in his article, the defence spending increase will inject over £2 billion annually into the Scottish defence sector, supporting over 12,000 jobs. He elaborated on the economic impact, stating, “This is fuelling jobs and growth, with more than 12,000 Scottish jobs supported through this spending.”
Shapps detailed the ongoing projects in the shipyards: “In Govan, the Type 26 frigates have secured the long-term future of shipbuilding on the Clyde, with eight on order or in construction. On the Forth, five Type 31 frigates are being built in Rosyth, sustaining 2,500 jobs and increasing our export potential.”
In his Scotsman article, the Defence Secretary also criticised the spending plan policies of the Scottish National Party, suggesting they fall short of what is required for national and allied security. “It is in sharp contrast to the SNP Scottish Government, which has pledged only to meet the NATO minimum spend of two percent – without any explanation of how that commitment would be met,” he commented.
O/T Does anybody know what’s being built next to Cammel Laird?
Nothing. CL got the fingers if not whole hands and arms burnt on Sir David Attenborough.
They with their sister company A&P are back to ship repair and some subcontracted fabrication work for BAE on subs and T26.
I understand that they are sub-contracts for modules for the T26 and currently do refits and maintenance. I was thinking about the structure going up next to Cammell Laird rather than ships being built.
Sorry I misunderstood you. The building going up is a 500,000 sqft logistics Warehouse called Arc Royal it will be up for lease q3 2024.
This part of the yard was last used by Cammell Laird as a laydown area for the supply of structures to the Gwynt y Mor windfarm in 2012.
No worries. Thanks. Well, there goes the opportunity for expansion for Cammell Laird if it was needed.
Unless a speed up in production rate is announced then there will be no extra spending on building new vessels in Scotland each year.
Is this a politician trying to sound good before official announcements are made or just spin.
That was announced on 12th April by BAe MD, their target is to reduce T26 end to end build time from 96 months to 60 months and new drum beat of 12 months. It is pretty well what they achieved with the T45.
Which all implies that he knows something we don’t, and my bet would be an export order (Norway !).
As for Rosyth who knows ? I seem to remember that the 1st one was due in the water Q4 2023 🤷🏼♂️
Getting to a drumbeat of one T26 and one T31 per year would be pretty impressive stuff to be honest..getting an order for T26 that is built in the UK would be a solid achievement ..but having the industrial capabilities to put 2 large complex warships a year in the water, is pretty good stuff. When you think at the moment it’s an ambition of the US to be able to get a cadence on their AB production of 2 per year for 2027 ( at present it more one a year) . UK warship building is hitting a bit… Read more »
Hopefully, if the ship building industry sores, it will attract more and more people into the maritime job sector. If we can make the navy’s recruitment process streamlined and back under direct control, as well as modifying some of the silly rules still around, we can boost the amount of ships we are able to man and intern fully support the re-growing industry whilst also supporting national defense. Sailors leaving the navy will be equipped with skills that would allow them to then work in other areas of the sector and hopefully expand the civilian side as well. Maybe it’s… Read more »
Entering a golden age to fall flat on its face. With no order for T32 on the horizon to keep Rosyth going and T83 seeming a distant target with upgrades on T45 running into the early 2030s.
You seem to be counting your chickens before they even been conceived.
Quite how you deduce that is beyond me. MD of BAe isn’t likely to be commenting about what Babcock can produce ! He is talking about what BAe can do on the Clyde using 2 shipyards with a huge history of building warships them. And to be perfectly honest he is sort of rubbing it into HMG (fair play to him), if you give us orders, we will invest and deliver. As for Babcock I’ve said it before, they have never built a single ship before from scratch, so the jury is out until they produce the evidence, That may… Read more »
I said it would be impressive not that they have it…the planned drumbeat for the T31 was one a year…they may or many not achieve that…and the new stated aim for the T26 is to try and get to one a year…let’s save the negative until they show evidence they are going to likely fail.
Or perhaps simply another batch of T-26? Not convinced anyone will have enough ASW frigates to address projected future threats Last batch was negotiated at a relatively bargain price.
It would be good to see a type 26 with an improved air defence capability…as the French have done with the extra FREMs they built.
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If the speed up is due to export orders and not increased numbers of vessels for RN then the suggestion that increased UK defence spending is expanding ship building on Scotland is just spin. With respect to construction at the Clyde shipyards used by BAe increased spending would mean either additional T26 orders or advancing the date for the start of production of T83. A drum.beat of 12 months with a 25 year lifespan implies 25 BAe supplied vessels by the early 2050s. Rosyth had similar potential, so 50 frigates or destroyers by the early 2050s about three times the… Read more »
Just because you have a surge capacity of a 12 month Drumbeat doesn’t mean you can’t slow it down again ! What is the real killer is this is a drumbeat of “Top of the Line” high end Warships just like the T45 before these. To be quite honest I’m not convinced that Rosyth needs to be a builder of 2nd tier warships all the time. If they can build the T31 as a good solid ship then they could build Blocks for future High End builds and keep BAe on its toes. As for a 50 ship surface fleet,… Read more »
24 escorts plus the 5 batch 2 rivers for low risk deployments would be a pretty good escort fleet and closer to what was always required….an upgrade to the SSN fleet would be good but that’s so many years down the line I suspect most of the present geopolitical risks will have already been realised or managed. I don’t think we are going to end up with 8 high end dedicated AAW destroyers…but it would be nice to see AAW capabilities spreed across the whole fleet..CAMM has helped that come a long way…but maybe the last batch of T26s could… Read more »
OK, time for another ignorant question from across the Pond. Based upon historical precedent w/ the contract(s) for the QE class carriers, is it feasible or infeasible for the current government to bind the next government to weapons purchases? If the Tories face certain defeat in the next general election, why not order everything imaginable, w/ massive penalty clauses for cancellation by HMG? Hell, envision something akin to turning a child loose in a candy store. RAF orders additional E-7s, P-8s, Typhoons, etc. RN orders additional frigates, amphibious support vessels, etc. Army orders everything, including robust GBAD. Labour’s problem to… Read more »
UK governments are extremely loathe to break contracts unilaterally; however, renegotiating them would be fair game. So they could bind the next government within limits if the signatures on the contracts were dry and some money had already changed hands. Perhaps The shipbuilding TOBA in Govan that forced the Conservatives to order the OPVs is perhaps a better example and they might be able to do that in Rosyth without current year expenditure. So why not? The current government wouldn’t just order everything imaginable for two reasons. First they aren’t stupidly irresponsible in their own eyes, especially financially, and I… Read more »
Ah yes ,say the SNP, but are the ships going to be built in Scotland? 😇
No we will build them on the east India docks london…… My arse.
Not sure how to get to the bottom line….🙄
Leave my bottom line alone 🤣🤣🤣
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Does anyone find it odd that everyone talks about export potential of the 31s but the type 26 is making the headlines for exports
Poland is building a variant of T31 (Arrowhead) and Indonesia too.
No I’m not at all surprised, it’s simple economics and market forces. The T31 is based on a 25 year old derived design, its a highly flexible, spacious design and is damned fine as a GP Frigate. But it is decidedly low tech and can be locally built at a far lower cost than we can, and doesn’t need much U.K. sourced Tech to build. The T26 is in another league, it’s right at the top of the Tech league and is designed around U.K. supplied tech. But it starts off as a dedicated ASW design but with huge potential… Read more »
The constellation class is turning into a complete redesign. It’s so far and getting further all the time from the original design.
I like the FREMM in Italian service. It could do with more VLS and little tweaks but no ship is perfect.
The type 26 would have been great for the usa but it couldn’t compete due to not being in service or built in time for the contract award.
The yanks would probably completely redesign it costing twice as much and be years late.
Agreed, really not certain re USN’s issue/problem. Announcing a three year delay at the beginning of a program is not especially propitious. Is it possible USN has contracted the highly infectious F-35 Program virus? 🤔😳😱😉🙄
Talking bs. The only orders not already made are for the replacements for type 45 and astute. Orders which would be getting made anyway and will be nothing new resulting from an increase in spending. Get ready for a whole boat load of spin that the gullible will believe without question.
Normally a speech like this would be accompanied with an announcement of ship orders or a new program. Where’s this £2b coming from and when? What’s it purchasing? Is it new cash?
Going by the record of the government and the cut announced in the spring budget I will go with there is no new money and no new orders.
Still waiting for medium helicopter order, along with a load of other stuff that’s backed up.
You can view this in one of two ways. Currently around £2.1bn a year is spent on surface fleet construction, and most of it is spent in Scotland. Either he’s announcing a doubling of fleet construction expenditure in Scotland, or he’s announcing that what they already spend will continue to be spent, with no increases to cover inflation.
Even without knowing the state of the current budget, which do you think it’s likely to be?