National Shipbuilding Strategy Dinner

Members of the SMI team were recently invited to a dinner onboard HMS Victory in the Historic Dockyard, Portsmouth, which brought together bodies supporting the National Ship Building Strategy.  Over dinner, the host Rear Admiral Paul Marshall invited fellow hosts to pose a question to the guests. The Chief Executive of the National Shipbuilding Office Rear Admiral Rex Cox started off the discussion, outlining the strategy and then asked the guests where they thought quick wins could be made. Key points made included the need for a joined up industry and Government approach emphasising the enterprise-wide nature of the strategy.  

The importance of a clear pipeline of work and the need for a steady drum beat of orders in order to enable investment, allied to vitally important access to finance including in the domestic market was emphasised.  Leveraging cross sector innovation to tackle the decarbonisation challenge was also discussed and it was noted there are great business opportunities in production ready designs allied with series builds. How to attract and retain skilled workers was discussed and the growing importance of decarbonisation and sustainability as a key motivator of today’s workforce highlighted. This was a very high profile dinner and SMI’s attendance reflected our role and profile in the NSbS. SMI will be keeping at the heart of the debate and ensuring the NSbS includes all aspects of the shipbuilding enterprise, especially the supply chain and skills.