UK secures largest ever warship deal from Norway
The £10bn agreement will deliver major boost for British defence industry and Glasgow shipyards
The UK defence sector has beaten out international rivals to land its largest ever warship export deal from Norway, as Oslo and London move to deepen defence ties in the face of increasing Russian aggression in the Arctic and north Atlantic.
The deal, which the UK Ministry of Defence said would be worth £10bn to the UK economy, will see Norway buy at least five British Type-26 frigates that will primarily be built in Glasgow by BAE Systems, with first deliveries expected in 2030.
The US, France and Germany had also been competing for the contract, but Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said the “strategic partnership” with the UK was “the right decision”.
It would “strengthen our and Nato’s ability to patrol and protect the maritime areas in the High North”, he added.
The MoD said, under the agreement, the UK and Norway would operate a “combined fleet” of 13 anti-submarine frigates “to detect, classify, track and defeat hostile submarines”.
Strengthening Europe’s ability to counter Russian submarine activity in the north Atlantic and Arctic has been a key area of focus for US President Donald Trump as his administration looks to Nato allies to strengthen regional defence.
“With Norway, we will train, operate, deter, and — if necessary — fight together,” UK defence secretary John Healey said on Sunday, adding the frigates would help “hunt Russian submarines” and “protect our critical infrastructure”.
“Our navies will work as one, leading the way in Nato,” Healey said.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in a call with Støre said the deal would lead to “unparalleled interoperability for Norwegian and British forces” and comes ahead of an expected new defence agreement between the two countries.
In the past week, UK, Norwegian and US forces, including Poseidon submarine-hunter aircraft, have been active in the north Atlantic in what was reported as an operation targeting the tracking of at least one Russian submarine.
The MoD confirmed the activity was an “operation” rather than a training exercise, without providing further details.
Norway and the UK also collaborate on protecting critical North Sea infrastructure such as gas pipelines, electricity interconnectors and data cables from hybrid attacks, an area of increased concern since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The deal, the largest ever UK warship export contract by value, is expected to provide a major boost for the defence industry at a time when the government has targeted the sector as key to its economic growth plan.
BAE has also licensed the Type-26 design to Canada and is also building the warships in Australia under a contract with Canberra, while Labour has pledged to raise defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP by 2035 from 2.3 per cent in 2024.
Healey said the contract with Norway would support 4,000 jobs in the UK with more than half of those in Scotland at BAE Systems’ shipyards in Glasgow, though one person familiar with the deal said it would sustain existing jobs rather than leading to increased hiring.
Charles Woodburn, BAE chief executive, hailed the deal as reflecting Norway’s “confidence in British industry’s ability to deliver”.
Another person familiar with the deal said BAE’s order book at its Glasgow dockyard was now filled up for years to come, with there expected to be knock-on benefits to other shipyards in Scotland and the UK who could win a higher share of future MoD and international orders.
The Norway deal alone is expected to support 432 companies in the UK, the MoD added, while Norway said the two countries had a “draft agreement” for the UK to guarantee industrial co-operation with Norwegian industry “equivalent to the total value of the acquisition”.