On a visit to shipbuilding company, MacTaggart Scott, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has praised the Scottish defence industry and reaffirmed its importance to UK defence.
Hot on the heels of the news that Scotland will be home to all submariners and submarines at HMNB Clyde, the Defence Secretary’s visit is part of his ongoing engagement with Scotland’s defence industry which directly supports 11,000 Scottish jobs, with thousands more sustained.
MacTaggart Scott designs, builds, installs and maintains engineering systems for the Royal Navy – the company’s “shop window” – and 40 of the world’s navies, including the US, French, Canadian, Australian and South Korean. Examples of the company’s expertise include designing the huge lifts to carry jets and helicopters between the flight decks and hangers on the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales. They also design and build helicopter handling systems, and are competing for contracts relating to the new Clyde-built Type 26 on which the first steel will be cut this summer.
The company has also been involved in the build of every Royal Navy submarine since 1915, providing support and manufacturing to a range of specialist submarine equipment, including stealth mast raising equipment for periscopes, optronics and communications equipment, sonar handling gear, hydroplane, rudder and ballast tank valves and actuators for submarines.
The Defence Secretary met with some of the company’s 32 engineering apprentices, which make up nearly 18% of the firm’s industrial workforce.
Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said: “MacTaggart Scott is a terrific example of the benefits that combining innovation, a global outlook and an entrepreneurial spirit can deliver for Scotland as part of the UK.
“They are a leading hub of international naval innovative design, manufacture and maintenance and should also be applauded for investing in our young people through their apprenticeship programme.”
Bill Marsh, Managing Director of MacTaggart Scott said: “Our innovative work for the Royal Navy’s surface ships and submarines provides us with a vital shop window which sees half of our £35m turnover come from export.
“Our ambition is to design, manufacture and install vital equipment and provide through life product support to every single Royal Navy ship and submarine.”
Image: © cornfield / Shutterstock, Inc HMS Queen Elizabeth at the Rosyth Dockyard in Fife, Scotland
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Defence Secretary Michael Fallon HMNB Clyde MacTaggart Scott Royal Navy
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