Organisation
Navantia UK opened its Appledore shipyard to employees’ families and friends for a behind-the-scenes open day that included yard tours, a history talk and a virtual welding experience. The event came days after the keel laying of RFA Resurgent, the first of three Fleet Solid Support ships for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, as the yard continues a £15 million investment programme within a wider £157 million spend across four UK sites.
Harland & Wolff Belfast has welcomed 66 new apprentices as Navantia UK steps up investment at the yard. The recruits will train across shipbuilding and support roles while Belfast prepares to assemble, commission and deliver all three Royal Fleet Auxiliary Fleet Solid Support ships.
Navantia UK says maritime advantage is increasingly determined by persistence rather than platform count. In a piece by Simon Jones, the company argues that uncrewed vessels can help navies maintain presence across the North Atlantic and other contested waters at lower cost and with greater availability.
Navantia UK has laid the keel of RFA Resurgent at its Appledore shipyard in North Devon, formally starting assembly of the first of three Fleet Solid Support ships for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. The milestone came with the lowering of the first block in Appledore’s dry dock and the placement of a commemorative coin beneath the section for good fortune.
Navantia UK has started recruiting 28 skilled workers for its Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, including 21 welders, five platers and two pipefitters. The hires will support three 39,000-tonne Fleet Solid Support ships for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, with a further 66 apprentices due to start in September.
Rear Admiral Matthew Stratton visited Navantia UK’s Appledore yard in North Devon last week for an update on the Fleet Solid Support programme, the yard’s modernisation and the LASV75 concept. Appledore is building the bow sections of three Royal Fleet Auxiliary supply ships, with final assembly, systems integration and testing due in Belfast.
Penzance Naval Base closed on 15 March 1919 after four years of wartime service. The base, set up in 1915, convoyed 11,000 vessels to and from France and lost 35, according to the account in the source. Patrol boats were said to have saved 582 lives from vessels sunk in convoy.