Experts have warned that failing to fix the skills crisis could cause challenges in meeting demand from Government plans to hike defence spending to three per cent by the next Parliament.
Andrew Kinniburgh, director general of Make UK Defence, the manufacturers lobby group, said there are around 10,000 vacancies in the UK sector currently, including thousands of welders.
He told The i Paper: “We’re desperately short of welders. If you look at somewhere like the Clyde, BAE Systems, all the signage is in Polish and English.
“They’re all fighting for the same people. And then imagine if you’re an SME trying to attract a welder, it becomes even more difficult.
The British Army Ajax armoured vehicle (Photo: Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images)
Despite the shortage of builders and engineers, Britain is still set to spend billions of pounds more on defence in the next decade to prepare for what Keir Starmer called a “dangerous new era” in world history in light of the Ukraine war.
The EU has outlined plans to bolster defence capabilities by €800bn (£660bn) increase to production as European governments scramble to rearm amid a looming threat from Russia.
Submarine welders have been in such short supply that pay of up to £80 an hour has been offered, it’s understood.
Construction work on HMS Venturer(top) and HMS Active at Babcock’s dockyard in Rosyth (Photo Andrew Milligan/PA Wire)Colleges were also losing money on engineering apprentices as the money they received from the Government levy funds was less than the cost of training, he added.
BAE, with the new Royal Navy submarine-hunting frigates, and Babcock, who are constructing the Type 31 frigates at its Rosyth dockyard, are among firms using robot welders to speed up production.
“This same type of innovation on the Type 31 Frigate programme is enabling us to deliver productivity levels that are two and three times better than they were, for instance, on the [Queen Elizabeth Class] aircraft carrier programme, which itself was groundbreaking at that time.”
There are also 148 Challenger 3 tanks expected to be in service by 2030, while 589 Ajax armoured vehicles being assembled at Merthyr Tydfil are due by the end of 2028.
British Challenger 2 main battle tanks during a training exercise in Poland (Photo: Cpl Rebecca Brown, RLC/UK MOD)But only four per cent of this spending went to SMEs in 2023-2024, with the Government last week announcing a new hub to allow smaller firms better access to the defence supply chain.
In December, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) war-gamed how the military and industry could sustain personnel on the frontline when faced with constant supply chain disruption and intense fighting.
He told The i Paper: “We’ve suggested in the Defence Industrial Strategy that we almost create shadow factories, a little bit like in World War Two, so you have capacity in the supply chain ready to go.
From 1935 onwards, shadow factories were built across the UK with automotive plants converted to produce Spitfires, Hurricanes and Lancaster bombers.
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Their skills can be used for designing hypersonic missile engines, nuclear warheads or torpedo systems, but higher salaries in the City of London were luring would-be recruits away.
Affinity’s tradespeople maintain the Grob 120TP, Embraer Phenom and Texan planes at RAF Cranwell, RAF Buxton, Heath and RAF Valley
The talent pool had also reduced significantly due to post-Brexit rule changes from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) meaning only licensed aircraft engineers with a UK licence could be hired.
“Ultimately, if the skills gap isn’t closed, and we don’t invest as a country into engineering, it will become a challenge in order to maintain what we currently have and the fleets that we are wanting to invest in,” she said.
“We are working closely with Skills England to make sure the defence sector has the skills it needs to thrive, and this will be an important element of our upcoming Defence Industrial Strategy.
“The Defence Industrial Strategy will mobilise the private sector to help face down global threats, direct more public investment to British businesses and create jobs and growth in every nation and region of the UK. With a strong UK defence sector we will make Britain secure at home and strong abroad.”
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