UK shipbuilding has been boosted after the Defence Secretary announced that the three new support ships for Royal Navy aircraft carriers will be made by British-led teams. A competition to build the new £1.5 billion Fleet Solid Support vessels to support HMS Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales as part of the Carrier Strike Group, which will undertake its first operational deployment next year, will launch in spring 2021. While it will invite international companies to collaborate with UK firms, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) stressed that the successful manufacturing team must be led by a British company. Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, said: "Shipbuilding has historically been a British success story, and I am determined to revitalise this amazing industry as part of this Government's commitment to build back better. "The Fleet Solid Support warships competition will be the genesis of a great UK shipbuilding industry and allow us to develop the skills and expertise for the shipyards of tomorrow." Lord Admiral Alan West, a former First Sea Lord, said: "I am delighted that the Treasury has at last seen sense and realised that ordering ships offshore is not the best thing either financially or in maintaining skills. This is very good news for British shipbuilding." The announcement comes after The Telegraph revealed that British shipbuilding companies would be favoured for Government contracts under plans being considered by Boris Johnson's defence review. The Integrated Review is understood to be considering changes to EU-derived rules that prevent the UK from prioritising domestic firms as part of a push to boost the UK shipbuilding industry at the end of the post-Brexit transition period.
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