(NSI News Source Info) LONDON - March 20, 2009: The British government says it is going to push ahead with a plan to change the way it supports Royal Navy surface warships by 
creating an alliance involving dockyard companies Babcock and BVT Surface Fleet.
The two sides have been exploring the creation of an alliance and other options to restructure the industry since 2006. Now, though, the government has announced it has signed a non-legally binding accord with the warship support yards to fully implement an alliance by 2011.
The Surface Ship Support Program is part of a wider restructuring of Britain's naval shipbuilding sector initiated by the government as part of its 2005 Defence Industrial Strategy. In the last couple of years, that has seen BAE Systems and the VT Group merge their surface warship building yards in England and Scotland to form BVT, while Babcock has acquired the DML nuclear submarine update and surface warship facility at Devonport in southwest England to add to its existing operations at Rosyth and Faslane in Scotland.
With the Royal Navy's surface fleet shrinking in numbers, the yards have fiercely competed for surface warship maintenance work. In some cases, they even had to take part in MoD-organized reverse electronic auctions, requiring the yards to cut their prices via a computer. The winner was the last company standing.
Under the new alliance arrangement, competition has been abandoned. Instead, the warships, ranging in size from aircraft carriers down to mine-warfare vessels, will be parceled out in batches with ships assigned to docks on an individual basis within each batch.
In a ministerial statement released March 18, Defence Secretary John Hutton said he expected the alliance to initially become operative later this year with the surface ship support program then being implemented in phases.
"It will commence with a proof-of-concept phase to allow demonstration of success against agreed criteria as a prerequisite for moving to subsequent phases," Hutton said.
The British say the move will help retain operational support and system upgrade capabilities in local yards.
creating an alliance involving dockyard companies Babcock and BVT Surface Fleet.
The two sides have been exploring the creation of an alliance and other options to restructure the industry since 2006. Now, though, the government has announced it has signed a non-legally binding accord with the warship support yards to fully implement an alliance by 2011.
The Surface Ship Support Program is part of a wider restructuring of Britain's naval shipbuilding sector initiated by the government as part of its 2005 Defence Industrial Strategy. In the last couple of years, that has seen BAE Systems and the VT Group merge their surface warship building yards in England and Scotland to form BVT, while Babcock has acquired the DML nuclear submarine update and surface warship facility at Devonport in southwest England to add to its existing operations at Rosyth and Faslane in Scotland.
With the Royal Navy's surface fleet shrinking in numbers, the yards have fiercely competed for surface warship maintenance work. In some cases, they even had to take part in MoD-organized reverse electronic auctions, requiring the yards to cut their prices via a computer. The winner was the last company standing.
Under the new alliance arrangement, competition has been abandoned. Instead, the warships, ranging in size from aircraft carriers down to mine-warfare vessels, will be parceled out in batches with ships assigned to docks on an individual basis within each batch.
In a ministerial statement released March 18, Defence Secretary John Hutton said he expected the alliance to initially become operative later this year with the surface ship support program then being implemented in phases.
"It will commence with a proof-of-concept phase to allow demonstration of success against agreed criteria as a prerequisite for moving to subsequent phases," Hutton said.
The British say the move will help retain operational support and system upgrade capabilities in local yards.
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