Babcock’s Rosyth shipyard has been selected to manufacture complex submarine assemblies for the US Navy’s Virginia-class Block VI attack submarines, marking a significant expansion of UK involvement in the American submarine industrial base. Although currently limited to a small engineering contract, the move is an important step towards deeper AUKUS-era integration between the UK and US submarine sectors.

The partnership, originally announced by Babcock and HII in December 2025, allows Rosyth to support construction work for Virginia-class SSNs being built at Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia. HII described it as the “first Virginia-class outsourced contract” awarded to Babcock for Newport News submarine work, a notable achievement given the strict controls surrounding US nuclear submarine production.

CMC foundation

This builds on years of UK-US cooperation through the Common Missile Compartment (CMC) programme that supports both the Royal Navy’s Dreadnought-class and the US Navy’s Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines. Rosyth has already developed specialist expertise in manufacturing Tactical Missile Tube Assemblies (TMA) for both SSBN programmes, work that required major investment in advanced welding, quality assurance and digital manufacturing capability. The RN and USN adopted a common missile compartment architecture for their next generation of strategic submarines in order to share design costs and diversify supply. Each Dreadnought submarine will carry 12 Trident II D5 ballistic missiles arranged in three quad-pack compartments, using launcher technology shared with the larger Columbia-class that will carry 16 missiles.

By 2020, Babcock had secured contracts covering 75 missile tube assemblies for the programme, supporting around 200 specialist manufacturing jobs across Rosyth and Bristol. Further contracts followed in 2025, covering additional missile tube work for the Columbia-class programme, reinforcing Rosyth’s position as an established supplier within the US strategic submarine industrial base.

Industrial base

The precise details of what Royth will manufacture are unsurprisingly vague, but the work is unlikely to involve reactor technology or pressure hull fabrication, which remain tightly protected under US Naval Reactors regulations. More likely candidates include structural assemblies, equipment foundations or auxiliary submarine modules integrated into the wider build sequence.

Capacity constraints in the US is a major factor behind the decision to involve British industry more directly in Virginia-class construction. American shipyards are simultaneously attempting to increase production of Virginia-class attack submarines while building the new Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine fleet and supporting future AUKUS submarine transfers to Australia. Workforce shortages, supply chain disruption and production delays have left both General Dynamics Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding struggling to achieve planned build rates. Bringing in trusted allied industrial capacity is increasingly viewed as one of the few practical ways to relieve pressure on the system.

Rosyth offers several advantages from the US perspective. The yard already possesses nuclear-certified infrastructure, large modular construction halls, heavy lift capability and a workforce experienced in high-integrity submarine manufacturing. Its role in assembling the QEC aircraft carriers also demonstrated an ability to manage large-scale modular naval construction programmes.

SSN maxxing

The Block VI represents the latest iteration of the Virginia class, featuring enhancements in stealth, efficiency, sonar arrays, propulsors and seabed warfare tools. These boats will be fitted with six 25.6m long Virginia Payload Module (VPM) canisters, with four positioned amidships and two forward. Each canister can accommodate seven Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles (TLAMs), giving the boats a total strike load of more than 40 cruise missiles. SSN-AUKUS will be fitted with Vertical Launch cells, almost certainly utilising the same VPM design, although the number is not yet public.

Described as a “small initial engineering contract”, the first steps are already underway in Rosyth, likely focused on certification, tooling, manufacturing integration and workforce preparation before larger-scale production begins. The agreement represents something more substantial than a routine subcontract. Beyond simply sharing technology or weapons systems, British industry is now directly contributing to the construction of the US Navy’s principal attack submarine class.

For Rosyth and Babcock, successful delivery could open the door to wider involvement in future submarine manufacturing, including SSN-AUKUS production and sustainment work. The agreement remains relatively modest in scale for now, but it is another indication that AUKUS is beginning to evolve from a political framework into a genuinely integrated allied submarine enterprise. Babcock’s expanding submarine manufacturing expertise will also position them to contribute significantly to the SSN-AUKUS programme in future, which will place high demands on industry.