LONDON (Jan 24): Britain said on Friday it had awarded Rolls-Royce a £9 billion (US$11 billion or RM48.8 billion) contract to design, make and provide support services to nuclear reactors that power its fleet of submarines.
The eight-year deal will strengthen the Royal Navy's continuous at-sea deterrent — under which at least one nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine patrols the seas at all times — while also boosting the Aukus defence pact with the United States and Australia, Britain's ministry of defence said.
The new contract, called Unity, streamlines previous ones, incentivises cost-efficient production and would support work on the Dreadnought class of nuclear submarines, it added.
"This investment in Britain's defence will deliver a long-term boost to British business, jobs and national security," Defence Secretary John Healey said in a statement.
"This deal ... will support high-skilled UK jobs who equip the thousands of submariners that keep us all safe," Healey added, ahead of a visit to Rolls-Royce's nuclear reactor production facility in Derby, central England.
The Unity contract is expected to create 1,000 jobs and safeguard 4,000 others, the government said.
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