Royal Fleet Auxiliary

We've got two of the largest dry docks in Europe.

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.

It makes it real.

And yeah, this is state-of-the-art stuff for the future.

And, you know, this shipyard's here to stay and I guess these three first ships for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary that's going to be their test and if they can deliver these ships well I've no doubt with this investment they've got a bright future but yeah just an amazing facility.

I just told to the two guys as well the offences we've been coming across there's a sense of excitement Yeah, I mean, the shipyard's been here for years and years and years, but it almost feels like a rebirth of it.

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.

I engaged National Historic Ships very early on to gain some support for restoring the ship and fortunately the then director, the late Martin Highton, was hugely supportive and he actually said to me, do you realise this ship is as important as the Great Britain? And it was an amazing statement and I've never forgotten it and it galvanised us into really doing all we could to save Fresh

Spring

and with the support of the National Heritage Memorial Fund because the ship had now been recognised as a memorial of wartime Royal Fleet auxiliary activity, we were able to save her.

And that was the beginning of this journey.

During the ceremony, it was also announced that the second and third ships will be named Reliant and Resourceful.

The ships intended to provide the logistical backbone for the Royal Navy's aircraft carrier operations are to be operated by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, a civilian mariner organization similar to the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command.

And President Trump on September 1st said he intends to nominate current Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Kao to be confirmed in the position.

Kao, a Naval Academy graduate who served as a special warfare officer and retired from the service as a captain, was sworn in last October as Undersecretary of the Navy and has been Acting Secretary since April, when previous Secretary John Phelan was removed from the position.

And of course, the UK Merchant Navy contributes to that bigger picture of the global Merchant Navy.

But also the UK Merchant Navy has a lot of significance for us as a nation because of their role in wartime as well as peacetime and keeping the Royal Navy supplied through the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, taking quite often a prominent role in engagements and suffering the significant losses that come with that.

And Merchant Navy Day is on the 3rd of September because if you go back to the outbreak of the Second World War, the 3rd of September, when Britain declared war, On Germany, it was a few hours after that that the first ship sunk by German forces was a merchant liner, the SS Athenia.

This was a ship with, I think, more than 1,000 people on board and more than 100 people lost their lives as a result of that action.