Navantia wins Royal Navy’s Fleet Support Ship Contract: A £1.6 billion contract has been awarded to ‘Team Resolute’ to manufacture the vessels providing munitions, stores and provisions to the Royal Navy’s aircraft carriers, destroyers and frigates.
With Navantia UK as prime contractor, the team comprising also Harland & Wolff and BMT will supply three Fleet Solid Support (FSS) ships for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.
With 216 metres long and more than 39.000 displacement tonnes, FSS will be the biggest ships built by Navantia.
The majority of the blocks and modules for the ships will be constructed at Harland & Wolff’s facilities in Belfast and Appledore. Build work will also take place at Navantia’s shipyard in Cadiz in Spain, with the final assembly for all three to be completed at Harland & Wolff’s Belfast yard, said UK’s ministry of defence..
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Navantia’s FSS Ship. (artistic impression).
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Navantia will support, mentor, and transfer its knowledge, skills and Shipyard 5.0 technologies to its partners.
“The programme will contribute significant social and economic value to the UK, boosting local shipbuilding and developing a solid local supply chain,” Navantia said in a statement sent to Defence Star.
The ships will be the second longest UK military vessels behind the two Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers. They will have commonality with the RFA’s Tide class fleet tankers, also built to a British BMT design.
The majority of the three ships’ build will take place in the UK, and the contract will increase industrial productivity, and develop the domestic supply chain and workforce while improving the industry’s environmental sustainability.
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Navantia’s FSS Ship. (CGI).
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Production is due to start in 2025, with recapitalisation and yard improvements starting immediately. All three support ships are expected to be operational by 2032.
The FSS fleet will be the first ships built by Harland & Wolff in Belfast since MV Anvil Point was launched in 2002.
Strengthening shipbuilding in England and Northern Ireland, this contract will complement the existing Type 26 and Type 31 frigate programmes DE&S manages in Scotland.
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