The Ministry of Defence has reaffirmed its commitment to establishing an “always on” supply line for shipbuilding, as outlined in the Strategic Defence Review 2025, according to a written parliamentary response by Defence Minister Luke Pollard.
In a statement issued on 17 October, Pollard referred to a previous answer given by the former Minister for Defence Procurement and Industry during Commons questions in June, in which Graeme Downie MP had raised the issue.
“As outlined in the Strategic Defence Review and in the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, the Government are committed to supporting an ‘always on’ shipbuilding industry by leveraging our buying power through public procurement and seeking to export our capabilities to friendly nations,” the earlier response stated.
Pollard added that this commitment has since been reinforced through the publication of the Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS), which highlights the central role of the British shipbuilding and maritime technology sector in sustaining national capability and economic growth.
The government now plans to publish a dedicated shipbuilding and maritime technology action plan to fulfil the DIS commitments. This will aim to maintain production continuity, strengthen domestic supply chains, and ensure a sustainable industrial base capable of meeting Royal Navy requirements and export opportunities. The “always on” model seeks to avoid the cyclical surges and lulls that have historically disrupted British naval construction, instead promoting steady work flow and continuous innovation across design, build, and maintenance phases.
Here is an idea how about a buy some much needed kit action plan? rather than all these meetings, commities, projects and press releases and long winded statements and bugger all else.
Oh, the MOD are “developing a shipbuilding action plan”. That’s alright then. I’m probably being foolish but I thought it was a case of ordering ships from the private sector and then letting them build them without interference so that they wouldn’t take ten years to build.
A shop building plan that sees continuous build is a great idea.
It’s so good it won’t survive contact with the first sacred cow once reform comes in and starts cutting.
*ship
Do any of them have an interest, other than a sound bite, when they think it’s required.? I doubt it.
I don’t think Reform will be cutting shipbuilding more likely to increase it ! For a start knowing the lifespan of our carriers and the time it takes to design and build them we should be looking at that immediately. The nuclear deterrent is a joke if you don’t have boats at see 24/7 so we need to sort that one too !
Farage will cut everything to give his rich friends a tax break
There is a V class at sea 24/7 as is, they are having to pull long patrols due to the known issues, and will have to serve longer because of the delays in their replacement but they are operational.
Last week Reform did a 180 on their cast iron promise not to increase Council Tax, across I think all of their Councils.
Never trust a Klutz Collective in a clown car.
I hope its better than the Army A vehicle and TUL TUM plans over the last thirty years……
I doubt it m’lord….
Let’s not get negative this is needed, another surge of shipbuilding is needed but what we don’t want is the continuation of the death spiral of boom bust in which money is wasted having to regenerate industrial capabilities..that reduce the amount of money to buy new ships and increase the cost of each ship.. this always on model is what has allowed Italy with a far small shipbuilding budget to completely outbuild the UK and have a larger and more modern major surface combatant fleet.
So always on is important for both the future number of ships the RN can afford to buy the quality of the ships, their affordability and how likely British shipping is able to leaver international commercial opportunities.. countries only want to buy ships that are being build.. not take the risk of a ship that is not in existence.. Italy sells hulls directly from its products slots for its navy..its navy even works up the ships ready for the customer. That is why it’s been successful at selling complex warships in a very tight marketplace.
Now we have an always on plan we need to see exactly what ships will be ordered to make sure it’s always on… Time for money where mouth is… very specifically in the BABCOCK T31 line.. so I expect the RN to be ordering 1 new T31 or variants every 18 months for the foreseeable.
So legislation to make sure each ship line always has an order is good.
‘so I expect the RN to be ordering 1 new T31 or variants every 18 months for the foreseeable.’
I’m not sure. I think they’ll push very hard for export opportunities, and we may get a couple, but I don’t think there’s much evidence to suggest any new frigate purchases are in the pipeline. That said, the answer from the minister does mention leveraging the domestic buying power to support ship-building, so it could be that, should no more exports be secured, we’ll see extra orders in a similar vein to the River-class OPVs in order to support the yards.
Just joining dots, but I suspect a batch 2 T31 order is planned, an order of 6 is the most expedient way to get to the 25 escorts number that slipped out around the SDR, which I expect to eventually be confirmed.
But it also seems likely that there’s commercial leverage in holding back the announcement: Perhaps we order 3 AAW biased ships and split the detailed development cost with Demark? Perhaps our CIP/upgraded version selects systems from SAAB offering some industrial balancing with Sweden? Frustrating as it is, it’s not to see potential logic in holding off public announcements.
Well if the stupid idiots hadn’t been buying Korean and now spa ISH ships then we would still have some ship building capacity. If you as the British tax payer funded government will not buy British what the f**k do you expect, business will fail or at the very best be owned overseas. 60 years of DELIBERATELY buying everything from ships (support ships), bullets, guns, shells, planes, helicopters, lorries, cross country try vehicles, yanks,, even uniforms from abroad and you are going to kill ALL your industry. Hell we are even buying cap badges from the Chinese, ai would put a pound to a pinch of shit they contain tracking devices
Well said sir, i have asked alot of people the question of how many MOD vessels does USA build outside America mmm NONE, Germany … NONE. French … NONE and the list goes on.
What is the true cost of the ships built overseas for the UK and the reliability ?
We need to train people now otherwise all our shipbuilding workers will be retired.
Not just ships but cars, lorries, tanks, vans, everything.
As a statement of the bleedin’ obvious this is World Class. As an ex-shipbuilder I can say that if the politicians (of any party) had ever consulted with people who are in contact with the real world they would have arrived at this epiphany several decades ago. IF the conversion to common sense is genuine, there is reason to welcome this statement, but it needs action not more words. Rant over!
Why not commence planning type 26,31 and 32 batches 2,3 and 4, with the timely updates that future RN need, also develop planned ratios on manned to unmanned warships. We may have to consider the need to build vessels in all parts on the UK, bringing alive a once proud industry, more employment opportunities and greater prosperity to those parts of the Country that has sorely missed the betterment of there community. If warships have to be build in the UK why not change RFA vessels to HMS thus increasing building numbers, maintaining workforces and also the ability to arm these ladies where necessary. On the subject of new opv’s make them larger with hanger facilities and bigger gun and missile capabilities