UK Shipyard Babcock Secures First US Virginia-Class Submarine Outsourced Contract

Babcock’s Rosyth shipyard in Scotland has been awarded a modest initial engineering contract to produce complex assemblies for the US Navy’s Virginia-class Block VI attack submarines. The award marks the first instance of a British firm supplying components for the US Navy’s primary attack-submarine class, extending AUKUS-era industrial cooperation beyond missile-compartment sharing.

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The deal builds on the Common Missile Compartment (CMC) programme, under which the Royal Navy’s Dreadnought-class SSBNs and the US Navy’s Columbia-class SSBNs share a common missile-bay architecture. Since 2020, Babcock has delivered 75 missile-tube assemblies for the CMC, supporting roughly 200 specialist jobs at Rosyth and Bristol, establishing a foundation for the present Virginia-class involvement.

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The partnership involves Babcock International (Rosyth shipyard), Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) and its Newport News Shipbuilding division, the US Navy, and General Dynamics Electric Boat, which co-builds Virginia-class hulls. All parties face capacity pressures as the US expands its submarine fleet.

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2020: Babcock secures contracts for 75 CMC missile-tube assemblies. Dec 2025: Babcock and HII announce the Rosyth contract. Later 2025: Additional missile-tube work for the Columbia-class awarded. 2026: Small engineering contract for Block VI assemblies commences.

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Babcock’s contribution includes 75 missile-tube assemblies and supports about 200 specialist jobs. Block VI submarines will carry six 25.6 m Virginia Payload Module (VPM) canisters, each holding seven Tomahawk missiles, for a total strike load exceeding 40 cruise missiles. Rosyth’s facilities feature nuclear-certified infrastructure, modular construction halls and heavy-lift capability.

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The contract helps alleviate US shipyard capacity shortfalls caused by production of Virginia-class attack submarines, Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarines, and upcoming AUKUS transfers to Australia. Integrating trusted allied industrial capacity is seen as a practical way to sustain build rates and deepen the UK-US submarine enterprise. Rosyth’s experience includes assembling the QEC aircraft carriers, demonstrating its capacity for large-scale modular construction.

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HII characterised the award as a historic first for a Virginia-class contract awarded to a foreign supplier, highlighting the rarity of foreign involvement in US nuclear-submarine production.

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No dissenting viewpoints or formal criticism were identified in the source material.

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Sources do not specify which exact assemblies Rosyth will fabricate; they are unlikely to involve reactor technology or pressure-hull sections, which remain US-controlled. The number of VPM cells that future SSN-AUKUS submarines will carry has not been disclosed.

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• “first Virginia-class outsourced contract” — Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII)

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• “small initial engineering contract” — Source description of the Rosyth award

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Successful delivery could open pathways for broader UK participation in SSN-AUKUS production and sustainment, further embedding the allied submarine supply chain across the Atlantic.

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