Barrow Shipyard and its National Supply Chain

Ministry of Defence announcements show that £525m is being invested in modernising Barrow’s shipyard to enable it to deliver world-class nuclear-powered submarines, particularly the new Dreadnought Class, creating foundations for the future of the industry, its nationwide supply chain and the communities in which the skilled labour force live and work.

A huge network of British companies contribute between 80% and 93% of the total build or each submarine. It is therefore essential that national road and rail communications are improved particularly in Cumbria to facilitate efficient operation of the national and international supply chain that needs to be connected to deliver this “national endeavour”.

Barrow is the only site licenced for design, build, test and commissioning of nuclear-powered submarines. A task it has delivered for the nation since 1958.

Between 1992 and 2002, the Barrow workforce was reduced from 13,000 to 2,900.Since 2004, the UK government’s commitment to the submarine programme has enabled a vibrant investment in nuclear capability at Barrow .

The workforce currently is around 8,700. It is supported by several thousand contractor, defence and other support staff.

Around £300m each year in wages goes into the local economy.

Foundations for the Future

BAE Systems is investing £525m as announced by Ministry of Defence in new shipyard capabilities . There are 32 different parts to the modernisation programme.it is being implemented at the same time as development of three UK submarine programmes – Astute, Dreadnought and Maritime Underwater Future Capability are being delivered at Barrow and by the supply chai.n

Some images of the planned new investment are shown below.