Babcock wins $707 million HMS Victorious support and upgrade contract
HMS Victorious has been undergoing maintenance and life-extension work. (Photo: Babcock International)
The UK Royal Navy’s Vanguard class of ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) provide the UK with its continuous-at-sea deterrent (CASD) coverage and have done so since 1994 when the boats started to replace the Resolution-class submarines. Second of class, HMS Victorious, entered service in 1995.
Babcock International will undertake a planned deep maintenance and life extension programme for UK Royal Navy’s HMS Victorious Vanguard-class nuclear submarine.
The deal, worth approximately £560 million (US$707 million), will allow the submarine to continue operational patrols into the 2030s. Work on the submarine has already started following a commitment by the UK Department of Defence to authorise early works from July 2023.
HMS Victorious has become the second Vanguard-class submarine to undergo a life extension package at Babcock’s Devonport facility.
Second Sea Lord Vice Admiral Martin Connell said: “The overhaul of HMS Victorious will allow the boat to carry out deterrent patrols until the next generation of submarines, the Dreadnought-class, enter service.”
The Vanguard-class has been under the spotlight recently with a failed missile launch from HMS Vanguard in January and a fire onboard HMS Victorious in 2022.
The class’s replacement, Dreadnought, has been progressing with steel cut for the third of class, HMS Warspite, in February 2023 and the transport-first pressure hull unit for the first Dreadnought-class to Devonshire Dock Hall in Barrow in northern England for outfitting the previous December.
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