The Ministry of Defence has announced more than £2 billion of further funding for the Dreadnought nuclear deterrent submarines, which are under construction at BAE Systems’ shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness. The funding is to enable the third major phase of the programme, Delivery Phase 3, the most significant stage so far in terms of criticality, value and complexity.
The investment marks the latest financial commitment between the Ministry of Defence, BAE Systems and Rolls Royce. It is the initial investment within a planned total of nearly £10 billion for the whole of third delivery phase.
Dreadnought is one of the world’s most complex engineering programmes. More than £1 billion has been invested in advanced technology and upgraded infrastructure at BAE Systems’ Barrow shipyard to enable it to deliver Dreadnought, with £450 million of further investment to be made over the life of the programme.