Rosyth shipyard expected to win £1bn Danish navy contract

Douglas FraserBBC Scotland Enterprise and Financial system Editor Getty ImagesHMS Venturer is the primary of 5 Sort 31 frigates being constructed for the Royal Navy by Babcock at RosythThe shipyard at Rosyth in Fife is predicted to win a contract to construct 4 frigates for the Danish navy, value greater than £1billion.The yard, run by British-based defence big Babcock, can be one of many ultimate two bidders for a Swedish navy contract for as much as seven of the identical Sort 31 ships.Competitors for the Swedish contract is with a French shipbuilding agency, which has the vigorous backing of the French authorities.The contracts have been in dialogue for greater than a 12 months and choices are anticipated throughout the subsequent six months.The increase in exports, following a contract to construct 5 Sort 31 ships for Britain’s Royal Navy, marks a fast turnaround for Scottish shipbuilding.It comes after BAE Techniques, which runs navy shipyards on the Clyde at Scotstoun and Govan, final week secured a contract to construct Sort 26 frigates for the Royal Norwegian Navy. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer visited Glasgow on Thursday to mark that success.PA MediaPrime Minister Sir Keir Starmer spoke to ship builders throughout his go to to BAE Scotstoun shipyard in GlasgowThe smaller, less-sophisticated and far inexpensive Sort 31 is a “basic objective” combating ship – additionally identified to the Babcock workforce promoting the design around the globe as Arrowhead 140. At 455ft (139m) in size and at 5,700 tonnes, it’s based mostly on a design already in use with the Danish navy.Every Royal Navy ship is being constructed at a value of £250m on the value set in 2019. That has meant a loss for Babcock on the primary two ships, however it says it’s now bringing prices on the third ship into line with that funds.The primary of the Royal Navy’s Sort 31 ships, to be named HMS Venturer, has already been floated within the Firth of Forth and is in dry dock being fitted out. Two extra are in development, with all 5 resulting from be prepared by 2030.PA MediaThe Sort 31 frigate is seen as a flexible ship mannequin which is designed to take totally different weapons systemsNavies within the Nato alliance are making ready for extra joint operations to counter Russian threats within the North Atlantic, North Sea and the Baltic. Babcock is promoting the Sort 31 as a flexible ship to work throughout totally different fleets. It’s designed to take totally different weapons techniques of a navy’s selecting and to be constructed on a manufacturing line sooner and extra effectively than previous ships.Babcock’s director of the Sort 31 programme, former Second Sea Lord within the Royal Navy, Admiral Sir Nick Hine, mentioned the priorities for purchasing ships has lengthy been “efficiency, value and timing” and that has now been reversed.”It is the ship that navies want,” he mentioned. “It is inexpensive and adaptable and we will ship it in ten years. That is by no means been accomplished earlier than. The longer term for Rosyth appears actually good.”Getty ImagesSir Nick Hine mentioned the long run appears good for the Rosyth shipyardSir Nick has set his workforce the goal of 31 Sort 31 ships being constructed by 2031.That turns into potential by licensing the design to different shipyards. The Babcock design has been bought to the governments of Indonesia and Poland for development in these international locations’ yards. A workforce from Rosyth is at present working in Poland, which is being seen as a useful expertise in seeing how one other shipyard works.Babcock already has an unlimited coated corridor on the Fife dockyard wherein two frigates will be constructed side-by-side with out interruptions resulting from climate.It has plans to construct one other corridor of the identical scale if further orders are gained.Babcock says that the present Rosyth workforce of two,500 may rise to 4,000 whether it is profitable in profitable the Danish and Swedish bids, together with its different work in upkeep of the Royal Navy’s plane carriers. HMS Queen Elizabeth is spending six months at Rosyth, six years after getting into service.The yard providers the Royal Navy’s analysis ships, together with HMS Sir David Attenborough, and the ships Serco operates between Aberdeen and the northern isles.Getty ImagesEarly progress on HMS Venturer in 2023 at Babcock’s yard in RosythBabcock at Rosyth can be working a trial undertaking, begun earlier this 12 months, to dismantle 23 retired submarines which had been powered by nuclear reactors.After greater than 4 many years of delay, the primary such submarine, Swiftsure, has had its reactor eliminated and is at present being taken aside in a dry dock. There are seven subs at Rosyth which are but to be scrapped. Sixteen are saved in Plymouth dockyard, however there isn’t any plan for them to be scrapped there, so if the pilot is profitable, that work is more likely to be carried out in Fife.To satisfy the potential demand for employees, Babcock has been aligning with native faculties on coaching, in addition to recruiting 350 employees aged above 50, typically unemployed and in want of retraining with the title of manufacturing assist operatives.An extra growth of the Rosyth yard’s work is to develop into a 3rd base for the following era of nuclear-armed submarines, the Dreadnought class.The Fife dockyard already has a dry dock sufficiently big for these boats, and the Ministry of Defence has mentioned it desires that to develop into a “contingent” base, along with their Faslane base on the Firth of Clyde.Dalzell steelworks plant in Motherwell is awaiting new contracts The dimensions of the workload now being anticipated holds out the prospect of demand for rolled metal plates from the Dalzell steelworks in Motherwell.That plant has been mothballed awaiting new contracts, amid uncertainty over the funds and viability of its proprietor. An extra assertion about it’s to be made within the Scottish Parliament subsequent week. At current, Babcock is counting on imported metal.David Lockwood, chief govt of the Babcock group, mentioned the enhance in defence spending by Nato international locations together with the UK is welcome for the trade, though a lot of it’s going into governments’ personal navy infrastructure.”It would not all stream down the availability chain,” he mentioned. “It offers us extra certainty that when prospects launch procurements, they may truly end.”Probably the most irritating factor in trade is to spend numerous cash – it is typically hundreds of thousands of kilos to bid – after which the programme will get cancelled resulting from lack of cash.Whereas awaiting ultimate choices from Denmark and Sweden, the Babcock chief welcomed the success of rival agency BAE Techniques in profitable the Norwegian order.He mentioned: “It helps underpin the UK as an exporter of warships to allied nations, which we’ve not accomplished for a very long time.”The UK is able it hasn’t been in for a lot of many years as a shipbuilder.”