UK warship to be largely built in Spain as H&W yard 'not ready'

A UK warship will now be largely built in Spain because the Harland & Wolff (H&W) shipyard in Belfast is "not ready", a Spanish shipbuilding firm has said.

Navantia, Spain's state-owned shipbuilder, leading the £1.6 billion Fleet Solid Support (FSS) programme, confirmed that most of the construction of the first of three Royal Navy vessels will now take place in Spain.

Originally the midsection of the first ship was to be built in Belfast, but that has now moved to Cádiz in Spain.

Donato Martínez, chief executive of Navantia UK said the move was because H&W's facilities were still "undergoing upgrades" after the yard was rescued after it fell into administration last year.

Navantia is the major partner in the FSS programme to build three naval logistics vessels with Harland and Wolff as subcontractor.

Harland and Wolff's main site is the historic Titanic shipyard in Belfast and it also has yards at Appledore in Devon and at Methil and Arnish in Scotland.

Navantia, which is owned by Spain's government, has its main shipyard in Cádiz, southern Spain, where the majority of its 4,000 employees are based.

'Shuffled a little bit of things'

"The facilities were not ready in Belfast," Donato Martínez said in an interview with the Financial Times.

"We shuffled a little bit things for ship one into Spain, and we moved from Spain things for ships two and three."

Under the original plan, the ship's midsection was to be built at H&W's Belfast yard, with the bow constructed at H&W's Appledore facility in Devon and other sections in Spain, before final assembly in Belfast.

But under the revised plan, the bow will be built in Devon, while the midsection and the remainder of the first ship will now be constructed in Cádiz.

All three vessels are still to be assembled in Belfast.

'Ensure timely delivery of the vessels'

In a statement to BBC News NI, Navantia said that following their acquisition of Harland & Wolff, "some adjustments are being made to the programme to ensure timely delivery of the vessels".

They said this is to "allow the planned recapitalisation investment in the Belfast shipyard to be completed".

"It will be necessary to increase the proportion of FSS ship one build in Spain which will be offset by greater UK content for ships two and three, supporting our vision to enhance UK sovereign shipbuilding capability now and into the future."

"For all three ships, the Appledore scope (in Devon) is unchanged," they added.

A Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesperson said that the "overall build strategy for the FSS programme remains unchanged" and that all three ships will still be assembled in the UK.