UK secures £10bn deal to produce Norway with warships

The UK has secured a £10bn deal to produce the Norwegian navy with not less than 5 new warships.

The settlement to supply Type 26 frigates would be the UK’s “biggest ever warship export deal by value”, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) stated, whereas Norway stated it might be its largest “defence capability investment” up to now.

The authorities stated the deal would assist 4,000 UK jobs “well into the 2030s”, together with greater than 2,000 at BAE Systems’ Glasgow shipyards the place the frigates will probably be constructed.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer stated the settlement would “drive growth and protect national security for working people”.

“This success is testament to the thousands of people across the country who are not just delivering this next generation capabilities for our Armed Forces but also national security for the UK, our Norwegian partners and Nato for years to come,” he added.

The deal can be anticipated to assist greater than 400 British companies, together with 103 in Scotland, the MoD stated.

Speaking to the BBC, defence minister Luke Pollard referred to as it the “biggest British warship deal in history” and “a huge vote of confidence in British workers and the British defence industry”.

But the transfer was criticised by some in Norway, together with Tor Ivar Strømmen, a naval captain on the Norwegian Naval Academy, who stated French and German frigates had been superior to British.

“The British Navy builds vessels for one role,” he instructed Norwegian outlet NRK. “It simply has old-fashioned and quite limited air defence.”

The settlement represents a victory for the British authorities and defence business over France, Germany and the United States – which had been additionally being thought of by Norway as attainable distributors.

It will create a mixed UK-Norwegian fleet of 13 anti-submarine frigates – eight British and 5 Norwegian vessels – to function collectively in northern Europe, considerably strengthening Nato’s northern flank.

The warships will probably be constructed on the BAE Systems yard within the Govan space of Glasgow, the place frigates for the Royal Navy are presently being constructed.

Scottish Secretary Ian Murray stated the selection of the UK “demonstrates the tremendous success of our shipbuilding industry and showcases the world-class skills and expertise of our workforce on the Clyde”.

Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, who knowledgeable Sir Keir of the choice to pick the UK in a telephone name on Saturday evening, stated the partnership “represents a historic strengthening of the defence cooperation between our two countries”.

Støre stated the federal government had weighed two questions in its determination: “Who is our most strategic partner? And who has delivered the best frigates?… The answer to both is the United Kingdom.”

The Type 26 frigates bought by the Royal Norwegian Navy will probably be as related as attainable to these utilized by their British counterparts, and have the identical technical specs.

They are particularly designed to detect, observe, and destroy enemy submarines, with deliveries anticipated to start in 2030.

UK Defence Secretary John Healey stated the UK would “train, operate, deter, and – if necessary – fight together” below the defence deal.

“Our navies will work as one, leading the way in Nato, with this deal putting more world-class warships in the North Atlantic to hunt Russian submarines, protect our critical infrastructure, and keep both our nations secure,” he added.

Citing this yr’s strategic defence review, Pollard stated Russia had been recognized “as the principal threat to not just the UK’s security but NATO’s security”.

“A key threat of that is Russian submarines in the North Atlantic,” he instructed the BBC. “These new Type 26 frigates are world-class submarine hunters.”

Eight Type 26 frigates are presently being constructed at BAE Systems’ Glasgow shipyards for the Royal Navy, to switch its ageing Type 23 frigates – whose service life has already needed to be prolonged.

It just isn’t but clear how the Norway deal will affect the supply of the brand new vessels to the Royal Navy.

A UK defence supply stated the plan was nonetheless to ship all 8 Type 26 frigates to the Royal Navy throughout the subsequent decade. Norway has stated it needs its first Type 26 delivered by 2029.

British officers instructed the BBC that the sequencing of supply for each Norway and the UK nonetheless needed to be labored out.

Two of the warships, HMS Glasgow and HMS Cardiff, have been constructed and are presently being fitted out at a second BAE shipyard, Scotstoun. They are attributable to enter service in 2028.

Another three, HMS Belfast, HMS Birmingham and HMS Sheffield, are below building.

BAE has additionally licensed the Type 26 design to Canada and is constructing the warships in Australia below contract.

As a part of a £300m modernisation at BAE Systems, a brand new shipbuilding corridor – dubbed the “frigate factory” – was opened earlier this yr.

The Janet Harvey Hall, named after a pioneering feminine electrician, is massive sufficient for 2 frigates to be constructed concurrently.

The Royal Navy can be shopping for 5 new Type 31 General Purpose Frigates – that are being constructed at Rosyth.