Shipbuilding Policy in the UK: The Legacy of a Century of Decline and its Influence on Naval Procurement

Abstract

While the shipbuilding industry in the UK is at a stage of maturity that would not ordinarily warrant a government strategy, the government has developed what is in essence an industrial strategy to maintain the ability to build warships. This strategy is the responsibility of the Ministry of Defence, and has developed to encompass commercial as well as naval shipbuilding. It aims to reverse the level of industry maturity through the stimulation of competition and exporting, and to improve the procurement process to reduce costs. The strategy is pervaded by a tendency to view the industry in the context of its history and the recovery of past shipbuilding glories – an aim of the shipbuilding industry in the UK for around a century. The fundamental need is to provide the UK with the ability to produce warships that represent value for money to the Treasury, and this does not require the ‘recovery of past glories’. New thinking based solely on objectivity, unconstrained by the past, may increase the potential to achieve this goal. Paul Stott uses a new data set to examine the UK government’s National Shipbuilding Strategy and considers its potential for success. ◼