VT ties up £30m Navy patrol vessel deal

WARSHIP builder VT has landed a £30m contract to build the Royal Navy a new helicopter-carrying offshore patrol vessel to be used to police the waters round the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.

The deal will create 100 jobs and safeguard 400 more in Portsmouth. VT, the former Vosper Thornycroft, is to start building the 80-metre vessel in June.

It will be handed over to the Navy in the autumn of 2006 and is scheduled to enter service, after trials, in the spring of 2007.

The contract, awarded by the Ministry of Defence, is via a public-private partnership agreement. After its construction, the vessel will be chartered by VT to the Navy for a period of six years.

The value of the deal is enhanced by VT retaining the 'contractor logistics support' contract to make sure the vessel is available for duties for 300 days a year. As a result, the new ship will effectively replace the Navy's two existing Castle Class vessels, which currently carry out the same job.

Paul Lester, chief executive of VT, said: 'The project will utilise excess capacity at our main shipbuilding facility.'