BAE and VT to build the £3.9 billion future aircraft carriers
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Manufacturing News, Source : TheManufacturer.com
Published : 26 Jul 2007 9:26
The UK’s largest warships, two 65,000 tonne aircraft carriers, are to be built by a new joint venture between BAE Systems and VT Group. The order will ensure the future of naval shipbuilding in the UK for the next 10 years.
Two new announcements yesterday will define the future of naval shipbuilding in the UK for the next ten years. UK shipbuilders, BAE Systems and VT Group, have come together in the long awaited joint venture to create a world class company which will work in partnership with the MoD to build and support surface ships for the Royal Navy. BAE and VT between them account for 85 per cent of UK naval shipbuilding. The agreement is a key part of the MoD’s long term defence industrial strategy.
Meanwhile, the MoD simultaneously announced that it is placing a £3.9 billion order to build two ‘future aircraft carriers’ with the new joint venture and an alliance of companies. The two new ships, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, are expected to enter service in 2014 and 2016 respectively and will be based at Portsmouth. They will be the largest surface war ships ever to be built in the UK.
The Carriers will be built in separate blocks at BAE’s Govan and Barrow shipyards, at VT’s shipyard in Portsmouth, and at Rosyth which is owned by Babcock. All these blocks will then be assembled at Rosyth.
Following on from the Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2006 in which France paid for use of the carrier design, industries in both countries are now exploring opportunities for further collaboration, including sharing of procurement of equipment and support.
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