MoD plans UK shipbuilding blueprint

The future of Britain?s beleaguered shipbuilding industry is to be decided by a Ministry of Defence study that will determine the placement of billions of pounds worth of naval orders. The investigation was ordered by the defence secretary after concerted pressure from shipbuilders, who fear the industry could be crippled by a boom and bust in Royal Navy spending.

The study will be drawn up alongside a separate report into the capacity and capability of British shipyards already being prepared by the Rand Corporation, an influential American think-tank. Industry leaders said they expected the work to form the basis of a new British industrial policy for warship building. The study could recommend changing the timing of large programmes such as the £9 billion aircraft-carrier project, the Type 45 destroyer contract, the Future Surface Combatant programme and Military Afloat Reach & Sustainability, an umbrella deal for logistics ships.

Details of the policy may provide a blueprint for consolidation of the industry. Sources think it unlikely BAE Systems will proceed with the sale of its naval shipyards on the Clyde and the nuclear submarine yard at Barrow in Cumbria until the study has reached its conclusions, although a company spokesman said yesterday that it continued to study all options for the future of the yards.