Navy

Royal Navy’s Spearfish Torpedoes In £270m Upgrade

The Ministry of Defence has awarded a £270 million contract to upgrade the Royal Navy’s Spearfish heavyweight torpedoes.

The deal with BAE Systems comes after the MOD awarded the company a £600 million contract to run Portsmouth Naval Base and a £70 million Type 45 destroyer support contract earlier this year.

The MOD says the torpedo upgrade will sustain jobs in the UK and ensure that Portsmouth will retain the capability of manufacturing torpedoes for another 10 years.

A computer generated image of a Spearfish torpedo

The Spearfish programme currently supports 60 jobs in Portsmouth, where the torpedo is designed and manufactured, and an additional 40 new skilled engineers will be recruited to work on the programme, according to BAE Systems.

The company also added that hundreds of jobs will be sustained in the company’s supply chain.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said: "This contract award is good news for the Royal Navy, the UK and the city of Portsmouth, where around 100 engineering jobs will be created or sustained"

"Portsmouth continues to play a significant part in defence as illustrated by this contract award and has a bright future ahead of it thanks to recent investment such as the £600 milliion contract to run the naval base, sustaining thousands of jobs, and the upcoming £100 million of infrastructure work to prepare the city for the arrival of the Queen Elizabeth Class Carriers," he added.

The Spearfish Upgrade includes a new warhead, a change to the fuel system to improve safety, full digitisation of the weapon and a new fibre optic guidance link.

They are carried by the Royal Navy’s Astute, Vanguard and Trafalgar Class submarines and can target both underwater and surface threats.

Once the torpedo has been fired Spearfish homes in on its target using sonar and will be controlled by the submarine after launch via the new fibre optic link.

Cover picture Copyright BAE Systems