By Dominic Chopping
The U.K. secured a deal worth $13.5 billion to build at least five new warships for the Norwegian navy.
The 10 billion pound ($13.5 billion) agreement for Type 26 frigates, designed for anti-submarine warfare, is set to be built at BAE Systems’ Glasgow shipyards and represents the biggest ever British warship export deal by value, the Ministry of Defense said on Sunday.
Norway’s purchase forms part of a plan to strengthen security along NATO’s northern flank that will see the two nations jointly operate a combined fleet of 13 anti-submarine warfare frigates in northern Europe.
The deal will put more warships in the North Atlantic to hunt Russian submarines, protect critical infrastructure, and keep both nations secure, British Defense Secretary John Healey said.
Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said the deal would strengthen both Norway’s and NATO’s ability to patrol and protect the maritime areas in the region.
“This is of great importance to Norwegian, British and allied security in these times of global instability.”
Norway has been considering frigate vendors since November last year and chose the U.K. ahead of France, Germany and the U.S., with Store noting that all four countries provided strong and competitive proposals.
For the U.K., the order will support 4,000 jobs across the British supply chain until well into the 2030s while providing a 10 billion pound boost to the U.K. economy, the Ministry of Defense said.
The frigates are specifically designed to detect, track down and combat submarines and both the Norwegian and British vessels will be as similar as possible to allow efficient joint operation while reducing costs and making joint maintenance easier.
Keeping the vessels similar will also open the possibility to perform joint training of personnel, and potentially even use Norwegian and British crew interchangeably–something the two nations will look into further, Norway’s Defense Minister Tore O. Sandvik said.
The countries will also explore the possibility of utilizing unmanned platforms on board the vessels.
Delivery of the ships to Norway will start in 2030.
The news buoyed the entire U.K. defense sector in early trade, with shares in BAE Systems and Babcock up 2.6%, Rolls-Royce up 2.2% and QinetiQ up 1.3%.
Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
09-01-25 0513ET