Two new support contracts have been secured for the Royal Navy’s versatile Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs).
Two new contracts worth £320 million have been awarded to support the Royal Navy’s Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) fleet. A contract with BAE Systems has been extended to support Batch 1 OPVs. A new contract has been awarded to UK DOCKS MARINE SERVICES LIMITED for global support to the Batch 2 OPVs.
An 8-year contract worth around £250 million has been awarded to UK Docks Marine Services, based in the Northeast of England, which will support the second batch of OPVs – HMS Forth, HMS Medway, HMS Trent, HMS Tamar and HMS Spey.
The contract creates more than 100 engineer, technician, project manager and administrative roles within UK Docks Marine Services, of which 25-30 will be in South Shields and Gosport, with the remaining roles located overseas.
A second contract, worth £70 million over 5 years, has been secured with BAE Systems to sustain the first three Batch 1 OPVs – HMS Mersey, HMS Severn and HMS Tyne – which entered service in 2003. Sustaining more than a dozen UK jobs in Portsmouth, the contract will aim to maintain the high availability of these essential ships in home waters and on deployments around the globe. The contract will also secure spares, repairs and maintenance out to 2028, when the ships are due to retire from Naval service.