LONDON — A contract for the completion and delivery of the Royal Navy's fifth Astute-class of nuclear hunter-killer submarines has been signed by BAE Systems and the British Ministry of Defence. The contract covers the design, remaining build, test and commissioning of HMS Anson.
Neither BAE nor MoD spokesmen were able to say exactly how much the deal was worth but the company said Nov. 19 the contract increased took the overall value of work on the submarine to £1.3 billion (US $2 billion).
BAE says this most recent contract is worth about a third of the overall £1.3 billion (US$2 billion) total cost of the submarine.
The boat has been under construction since 2010 at the Barrow-in-Furness naval yard of BAE and is scheduled to start sea trials in 2020.
Two of a fleet of seven Astute-class submarines are currently in operation and a third boat, HMS Artful, left the BAE yard for sea trials in August.
The remainder of the fleet are all in various stages of build with long-lead items for boats six and seven already being ordered.
Defence Procurement Minister Philip Dunne, during a visit to BAE on Thursday, said the new contract "provides significant financial savings of £50 million to the taxpayer but also secures thousands of jobs in Barrow and across the UK supply chain."
MoD officials said the £50 million represented the size of the reduction negotiators had achieved in contract talks with BAE.
Email: achuter@defensenews.com
Andrew Chuter is the United Kingdom correspondent for Defense News.
