Speaking at the annual Sea Power Conference in central London on 14 May 2024, UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps asserted that the UK “is seeing a new Golden Age of shipbuilding”.
Most notably, Shapps announced that the UK will build “up to six new warships capable of rapidly landing commandos onto beaches across the world”. These are to be known as Multi Role Support Ships (MRSS) and will be specialist warships designed to rapidly deliver the Royal Marines Commando Force by sea to conduct special operations.
Shapps also declared that the UK will not scrap or mothball the Royal Navy’s two landing platform dock (LPD) ships: HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark. In mid-2023 HMS Albion was put into to a state of ‘reduced readiness’, while in March 2024 the UK MoD announced that HMS Bulwark would also be placed in reserve. This had effectively mothballed both ships prior to their planned out-of-service dates of 2033-34.
The new MRSS vessels “will be highly flexible warships, able to deploy on a wider variety of operations, and designed to carry vehicles, aircraft, insertion craft and a broad range of uncrewed systems for complicated missions”, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) stated in a press release. “They will also be able to act as primary casualty receiving ships, providing urgent medical care to our forces wherever they are deployed.”
The MoD stated that it has entered the concept phase of the MRSS programme and will work with industry as part of early market engagement ahead of developing the vessel design.
In line with the UK’s National Shipbuilding Strategy, there will be up to six MRSS built overall, which will replace current capabilities, including the two LPDs, three landing ship dock (auxiliaries) and the aviation support ship RFA Argus, in the early 2030s.
With the ongoing building of Type 26 and Type 31 frigates in Scotland, Astute- and Dreadnought-class submarines in Barrow-in-Furness and Fleet Solid Support ships in Belfast and Devon, Shapps declared that, “with up to 28 ships and submarines being built or in the pipeline, this is a new Golden Age for British shipbuilding”.
The shipbuilding announcement follows UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announcing on 23 April 2024 that the UK will increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030.
A press release by the UK MoD quoted the Royal Navy’s First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Ben Key, as saying, “I am delighted that the Secretary of State has cemented the future of our Royal Marines by committing to this new class of up to six amphibious vessels. These will be the most capable amphibious warships the nation has ever owned, designed to be fully interchangeable with our closest allies in Europe, and in NATO.”
However, not all sectors of the UK naval shipbuilding industry are as healthy as Shapps’ declarations would suggest. The ongoing economic viability of Belfast-based shipyard Harland & Wolff, which is under contract as part of the Team Resolute consortium to build three Fleet Solid Support (FSS) ships for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA), is under some doubt.
Team Resolute – which comprises Harland & Wolff, UK maritime design house BMT and Spanish shipbuilder Navantia – was issued with a GBP 1.6 billion (EUR 1.87 billion) contract to build the FSS vessels in January 2023.
However, Harland & Wolff stated in September 2023 that it required a GBP 200 million loan guarantee from the UK government’s UK Export Finance (UKEF) initiative to refinance a credit facility, warning, “Should the company not be successful in raising these additional funds and continues to retain its current cost base, a material uncertainty exists that may cast significant doubt on the group’s ability to continue as a going concern.”
According to reporting from the UK’s The Times newspaper on 15 May, UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is expected to block this financial support package. If Harland & Wolff were to fold as an enterprise, the FSS vessels would instead be built at Navantia’s shipyard in Cadiz.
In his speech at the Sea Power Conference Shapps also announced that the Royal Navy Type 23 frigates HMS Argyll and HMS Westminster, which have a combined service of 63 years, will be retired. HMS Argyll, which is the longest-serving Type 23 frigate in the Royal Navy, has been sold to BAE Systems and will be used to support apprentice training in line with the government’s agenda on skills and shipbuilding capacity.
