The UK Ministry of Defence’s Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) organisation has awarded Thales UK a GBP 250 million (EUR 300 million) contract to upgrade, maintain and support the communications systems of the Royal Navy’s warship and submarine fleet, the company announced on 12 February 2025.
The 10-year long contract for Maritime Communications Capability Support (MCCS) will upgrade the Royal Navy’s internal and external fleet communications, strengthening the UK’s continuous at-sea deterrent and supporting global operations.
Replacing the previous Fleetwide Communications contract that Thales has overseen for the past seven years, the MCCS arrangement is estimated to save the Royal Navy up to GBP 30 million in through-life costs over the next decade.
“Communication systems on Royal Navy units are a critical component of a platform’s ability to operate and fight,” DE&S noted in a press release. “To meet and sustain global commitments requires resilient and enduring support contracts to maintain mission-critical equipment at the highest levels of operational capability and availability.”
The contract will secure more than 100 high-skilled jobs at Thales sites in Portsmouth, Plymouth, Crawley, Reading and Bristol, but as part of the contract Thales UK will also provide ‘waterfront’ office services, as well as recovery for ageing equipment and inventory management, ensuring spare part availability and ongoing defect repairs as required.
A key element to the contract is fostering closer collaboration between DE&S, the Royal Navy, and Thales UK, effectively delivering a ‘one defence’ team which reduces bureaucracy while boosting efficiency.
“First and foremost, this announcement ensures the Royal Navy continues to have effective and secure communications equipment with continuous support from Thales, which has Europe’s largest team of marine communications engineers, supporting its vital work keeping the UK and our allies safe,” Commodore Phil Game, Director of Sense, Decide & Communicate at DE&S, was quoted as saying in a Thales press release. “Crucially, we have looked at outcomes from other successful defence programmes and applied the lessons learned from those, in particular cutting unnecessary red tape and bureaucracy, allowing Thales much more freedom to get the job done.”
The CEO of Thales UK, Phil Siveter, added, “Building on seven years of trusted partnership, we are proud to provide the technical excellence and on-the-ground support that keeps ships, submarines and installations operational and mission ready. By working as ‘one team’ across the Naval Enterprise, we are driving innovation and systems integration to place the Royal Navy at the cutting edge of defence technology for the next decade.”
