Babcock has been awarded a contract by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) to manage the Refit Support Group for the Royal Navy’s Type 23 frigates, the company announced on 24 April 2024.
The contract, which follows more than five years of close working between the Royal Navy-led Refit Support Group and Babcock, frees up Royal Navy personnel for frontline operations and creates new roles for 40 Babcock engineering technicians and managers at its Devonport facility, who now take responsibility for routine maintenance, addressing emergent defects and contracted upkeep projects. Babcock staff will thus be taking end-to-end responsibility for the upkeep and regeneration of Royal Navy Type 23 frigates.
Babcock’s Type 23 Refit Support Group engineering technicians will work alongside Babcock’s Upkeep project teams to ensure vessel systems are maintained and regenerated. The move is targeted to deliver improved platform availability through more seamless management of upkeep activity. It has already contributed to success in assisting Royal Navy staff and the Upkeep project team in delivering the Type 23 frigate HMS St Albans back to sea three months ahead of schedule.
Royal Navy Captain Dan Peskett, the Type 23 Strategic Class Authority in the MoD’s Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) organisation, was quoted as saying in a Babcock press release, “This new approach demonstrates the continued evolution of the Type 23 Refit Support Group and recognises Babcock as our trusted partner for deep maintenance. It also provides the opportunity for seamless integration between Ship’s Staff roles and upkeep delivery driving improved schedule adherence and risk mitigation. The delivery of the Refit Support Group by Babcock also allows our valuable Royal Navy engineers to be made available for other roles where they are needed.”
Babcock’s marine support technical director, Martin Burns, added, “Our team has delivered Refit Support Group full operating capability to plan, building on our longstanding Type 23 frigate support capability. This innovation, in collaboration with our Royal Navy and DE&S customers, is a great step towards de-risking Type 23 upkeep programme delivery, as demonstrated with St Albans, enabling our thorough understanding and control of material state during upkeep as well as releasing Royal Navy personnel to support fleet operational priorities.”
As of 1 April 2023 the Royal Navy was operating 12 Type 23 frigates, although since then HMS Montrose was decommissioned on 17 April 2023, while in May 2023 the latest refit of HMS Westminster was suspended, with the ship likely to be decommissioned.
