Planned and Reactive Maintenance for Small Boat Fleet
Babcock has been awarded a six-and-a-half year contract by the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) to provide repair and maintenance to small boats used by the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and the MoD Police.
Babcock is one of a number of companies appointed by the Commercially Supported Shipping (CSS) team at Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) to provide in-service support for planned and reactive maintenance to the small boat fleet, including ARCHER-class patrol and training vessels, rigid-inflatable boats (RIB), yachts, static training vessels, small cadet boats and police boats. Work will take place at naval bases such as Devonport and Portsmouth, training establishments and UK overseas territories (Gibraltar, Cyprus, Brunei and the Falkland Islands).
The work will include transport, spares, trials, post-design services (PDS) and reliability monitoring. Opportunities to increase the safety, economy and reliability of the vessels will be realised using the latest machinery, navigation and material technology and equipment.
“Our armed forces rely on having the finest kit available and this multi-million-pound contract ensures the thousands of vessels used across the entire British military will be maintained and repaired to the exceptionally high levels demanded by our servicemen and women,” commented Defence Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan.
“With our network of experienced staff and sub-contractors we look forward to supporting the fleet by delivering an agile support package which will highlight our capability in integrated engineering as well as our commitment to quality,” added Babcock Naval Engineering Director, Simon Knight.
This contract builds on Babcock’s unrivalled depth of naval and engineering know-how with its previous delivery of in-service support to small boats such as cadet boats, dive boats, Mexeflotes and the Gibraltar regional police and patrol boats. With a bespoke team leading the work, Babcock will pull on its engineering experience across Devonport and Rosyth to deliver post design tasks, where necessary, throughout the term of the contract.