Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering, Ltd (VSEL) was a shipbuilding company based at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria in northwest England that built warships and armaments. The company was historically the Naval Construction Works of Vickers Armstrongs and has a heritage of building large naval warships and armaments. Through a complicated history the company's shipbuilding division is now BAE Systems Submarine Solutions and the armaments division is now part of BAE Systems Land Systems.

History

In 1897, Vickers & Sons bought the Barrow Shipbuilding Company and its Maxim Nordenfelt Guns and Ammunition Company, becoming Vickers, Sons and Maxim, limited. The shipyard at Barrow became the Naval Construction Yard. In 1911 the company was renamed Vickers ltd and became Vickers Armstrongs ltd in 1927 after a merger with Armstrong Whitworth. The latter organisation's shipyard at High Walker on the River Tyne became the "Naval Yard".

In 1955 the name of the shipbuilding division changed to Vickers Armstrongs Shipbuilders, ltd and changed again in 1968 to Vickers Limited Shipbuilding Group. The Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977 saw nationalisation into British Shipbuilders.

Privatisation

The ex-Vickers yard at Barrow was the first shipyard of the British Shipbuilders group to return to the private sector. It was sold, together with Cammell Laird, in March 1986 to an employee-led company, VSEL Consortium. The company was floated on the London Stock Exchange on 1986-07-31.

In 1994 VSEL was subject to two takeover proposals, one from GEC and another from British Aerospace (BAe). VSEL was willing to participate in a merger with a larger company to reduce its exposure to cycles in warship production, particularly following the "Options for Change" defence review following the end of the Cold War. Both bids were referred to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission (MMC) which issued its conclusions and advice to government in May 1995. BAe's bid was approved, while the MMC concluded (with 2 of 22 members dissenting) that GEC's bid was likely to "operate against the public interest". However it was GEC's bid that was approved and accepted by VSEL. In many ways it was British Aerospace who was the most likely partner, with extensive capabilities in naval systems (see BAeSEMA), but no shipbuilding capabilities of its own. GEC already owned Yarrow Shipbuilders Ltd as well the naval systems businesses of Plessey and Ferranti.

Following GEC's purchase VSEL became Marconi Marine (VSEL), part of the company's GEC-Marconi division. With the merger of British Aerospace and GEC's defence business - Marconi Electronic Systems - VSEL passed to the resulting company, BAE Systems as part of BAE Systems Marine. Since 2003 it became an independent division known as BAE Systems Submarines after BAE systems split its ship and submarine building operations. This was renamed BAE Systems Submarine Solutions in January 2007.

Ships built by VSEL

• For complete list see: Ships and Submarines built in Barrow-in-Furness

Submarines

• Swiftsure-class nuclear fleet submarines
• Trafalgar-class nuclear fleet submarines
• Vanguard-class Trident ballistic missile submarines
• Victoria-class diesel-electric hunter-killer submarines
• Astute-class nuclear fleet submarines

Surface combatants

• Three Type 42 destroyers for the Royal Navy plus one for the Argentine Navy
• HMS Invincible aircraft carrier for the Royal Navy
• HMS Ocean helicopter carrier, built at Kvaerner Govan and fitted out by VSEL for the Royal Navy
• RFA Wave Knight Auxiliary Oiler Replenisher (AOR) built for The Royal Fleet Auxiliary
• Two Albion class Landing Platform Docks (LPD) for the Royal Navy

See also