New £1bn Royal Navy support model to be finalised soon

A new support model for the Royal Navy worth around £1 billion will soon be unveiled by the Ministry of Defence (MOD).

The Common Support Model (CSM) will support the Royal Navy’s growing fleet of warships and sustain over 1,000 British jobs, the MOD says, by providing a framework for comprehensive support across the Royal Navy fleet for decades to come in one new overarching arrangement.

It will maintain the brand new Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers, along with all existing warships, and will be able to incorporate future ships such as the Type 26 and Type 31e.

The new model is set to improve the performance of service providers by having them adopt a common approach across all classes of complex warships. The move aims to boost the performance and speed of all support, no matter what the ship, as well as make savings in equipment costs with the model providing a one-stop-shop for services required.

More than 1,000 UK-based jobs will be supported by the new model, including at BAE Systems and Babcock in Portsmouth, Bristol, Devonport and on the Clyde, as well as Thales in Crawley and AGI Ltd in Poole.

Ten of the 16 agreements included in the model, worth a combined £794 million, have already been signed, with the remaining six set to follow in the coming months.