Navantia to Build First Fleet Solid Support Ship in Spain, Not Belfast

 

Historic shipbuilder Harland & Wolff will not be building the first-in-class of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary's Fleet Solid Support (FSS) vessels because its facility isn't ready for the job, new owner Navantia says. Instead, the first ship will be constructed in Cadiz at Navantia's Spanish yard, a company representative told the Financial Times. 

"We shuffled a little bit things for ship one into Spain, and we moved from Spain things for ships two and three," Navantia UK CEO Donato Martinez told the FT. "The facilities were not ready in Belfast."

He emphasized that the overall program is still on track to deliver all three ships by 2032, as scheduled. The estimated current price is about $2.7 billion for the full program. 

Harland & Wolff is known best as the builder of the Titanic, and has delivered many prominent vessels over the course of its 164-year history. But in recent years it has had its challenges, like many European yards: it delivered its last vessel in 2009, and it has been insolvent twice since 2019. Navantia acquired the shipbuilder out of administration earlier this year for about $125 million, with support from the British government, which wants to see the FSS contract succeed. H&W and Navantia won the contract award jointly, before they became one company. 
 
As the yard's new owner, Navantia says that it is investing in its capabilities to improve productivity and modernize operations, including a new automated panel line and a robotic plasma cutter. The infrastructure project should be completed by June 2026, reports Navy Lookout. 

Even before the rescheduling, Navantia was planning to build the most complicated portions of the ship at Cadiz. But the effects of the rescheduling could be significant for H&W's outlying yards, which were planning to feed blocks to the Belfast facility for assembly. Steel cutting for the bow of the first ship was already scheduled for December 2025 at the H&W subsidiary yard in Appledore, the outlet reported. Work is already under way on a purpose-built barge to transport these blocks, and H&W and its outlying yards have already started hiring up apprentices.