Fleet solid support ship

But essentially, I guess the sort of energy and the new things that we're doing here is we will be building three ships for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, so for the Royal Navy.

It's referred to as FSS, but it's basically Fleet Solid Support, which means they're supply ships for the Navy.

But also down in Ecuador, they focus on slightly smaller vessels, or in this case are actually building parts for FSS.

Arnish is a fabrication yard, and then we have Methyl as well, which actually has the experience in fabrication, but is also developing its naval shipbuilding capability.

When you joined from Airbus after all those years, the sense of relief there must have been when you got that contract, when you saw the future was kind of opening up.

What was that like?

Okay, so the fleet solid support, the contract had already been won prior to me joining.

But I guess we had the contract, then Harland and Wolfe was all looking very shaky, to be honest, and then shook entirely.

That acquisition included all four of Harland and Wolfe's yards, Belfast, Appledore, Methill and Fyvan Arnish on the Isle of Lewis.

It protected more than a thousand jobs and ensured the continuation of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary's Fleet Solid Support Ship Programme.

We don't have time to go into it today, but it's important at least to know that although Novantia was created in 2005, it traces its roots back more than 300 years to the Royal shipyards established for the Spanish Navy.

As one of the young people beginning a career in modern shipbuilding, Jack offers a perspective on the skills, technology and opportunities that are shaping Britain's maritime industries today.

It's sort of somewhere in the middle, isn't it?

So as part of the Nuvantia UK family, we're one of the four sites.

So you've got Belfast, Appledore, Arnish and Methyl and we were awarded a few years back the Fleet Solid Support Contract for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.

So at the minute we're building three of the RFA vessels.

Queen Elizabeth in July assumed the role of NATO command ship for the Allied Response Force the first time a British carrier has performed that NATO mission.

A keel ceremony for the first of three Fleet Solid Support Ships for the British Navy was held September 3rd at Navantia UK's shipyard in Appledore, Devon.

Fabrication of the RFA Resurgent began in December and sections of the ship also are being built at Navantia's primary shipyard in Cadiz, Spain.

All sections will be barged to the Harland and Wolfe Shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland for final assembly and delivery.