BAE Systems Maritime

1. 1824 Birkenhead Iron Works
2. 1828 Naylor Vickers and Company
3. 1847 W G Armstrong and Company
4. 1851 J and G Thomson
5. 1852 Randolph Elder and Company
6. 1870 Yarrow and Company Limited
7. 1871 Barrow Iron Shipbuilding
8. 1872 The Barrow Shipbuilding
9. 1884 Barclay Curle Shipbuilders
10. 1885 Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering
11. 1897 Vickers Limited
12. 1899 John Brown and Company
13. 1903 Cammell Laird and Company
14. 1919 The Blythswood Shipbuilding
15. 1927 Vickers-Armstrongs Limited
16. 1955 Vickers Armstrong (Shipbuilders)
17. 1968 Upper Clyde Shipbuilders
18. 1968 Vickers Limited Shipbuilding Group
19. 1973 Govan Shipbuilders
20. 1977 British Shipbuilders Corporation
21. 1986 Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering
22. 1991 BAeSEMA
23. 1995 Marconi Marine (VSEL)
24. 1999 BAE Systems

From 1st January 2011, BAE Systems has brought all of its naval businesses in the UK under a single management structure, BAE Systems Maritime. This brings together Mission Systems, Submarine Solutions and Surface Ships. Each of the three Lines of Business will retain a strong identity and responsibility for their own performance. The Maritime Business Units will focus on improving competitive advantage across the business, such that we are better placed to address present and future market opportunities in the UK and overseas.

Surface Ships is one of three businesses that form BAE Systems Maritime, along with Mission Systems and Submarine Solutions. Founded on almost 150 years experience in the delivery of complex warships, Surface Ships is a through-life enterprise that crosses the traditional boundaries of shipbuilder and support services provider. As a single integrated company, we bring engineering resources together with manufacturing, systems integration and support infrastructure to deliver effective capability management to customers across the entire ship life cycle.

We are the UK's premier designer, manufacturer, integrator and services provider delivering highly capable naval ships and supporting infrastructure to the UK Royal Navy and customers around the world. We offer a full range of naval vessels with through-life support factored into the design from the outset. This means we can deliver affordable cutting-edge maritime platforms to meet individual customer needs ranging from aircraft carriers to rigid inflatable boats and fast interceptor craft.

In bringing together high-end engineering expertise, an established record in maintenance and repair, and significant experience in ship reactivation and upgrade, we are able to ensure our customers' vessels are available whenever and wherever they need them. This is complemented by our comprehensive dockyard services including facilities management, logistics, inventory management and waterfront services, freeing our customers to focus on meeting their operational commitments.

Our business is underpinned by a long-term partnering agreement with the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) that embeds a shared vision and common goals for the future of the UK's complex warship sector. This same focus on partnerships is pivotal to our relationships with customers and industry partners around the world. As an international partner, we develop tailored technology transfer packages to strengthen industrial capability and skills to deliver cost-effective solutions to meet future naval requirements in the markets we operate.

With operations in Glasgow, Portsmouth and Filton, near Bristol, we employ over 7,000 people and offer the facilities, skills, platforms and services to excel as a trusted and innovative through-life partner to meet our customers' evolving needs. Submarine Solutions is home to the design, build, test and commissioning of the Astute class - the Royal Navy's latest and most capable generation of attack submarines. In total seven of these state-of-the-art vessels will make up the fleet, each weighing a mighty 7,400 tonnes. Though the business is split across nine UK locations, it's at the shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness that the majority of its 5,000 employees are based. Steeped in history and boasting a rich heritage, it's been adopting pioneering approaches to submarine construction since the late 1800s.

This is continuing with both the Astute class, and the successor to the Vanguard class of nuclear deterrent submarines, for which Submarine Solutions is the industry lead. As part of a collaborative team, its engineers are currently working on concept designs for the new boats. Submarine Solutions is also playing a role in the new Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers with a small team involved in the design of lower block sections for the mighty vessels.

Its employees possess a range of unique skills across various high-calibre disciplines, required to deliver one of the world's most challenging engineering projects. Coupled with that is a collection of unrivalled facilities, such as the Devonshire Dock Hall, which at 51m high, 260m long and 58m wide is the largest construction hall of its kind in Europe. It also boasts specialist test and commissioning facilities, such as the Submarine Machinery Installation and Testing Establishment (SMITE) and Warspite, which both allow modules of all sizes and complexity to be built, outfitted and pre-tested before being delivered to the DDH.

Mission Systems aims to be the trusted partner for the delivery of through-life mission systems and services. BAE offers integrated maritime mission systems that support mission success. BAE create value through-life, bringing expertise in naval command & information systems, torpedoes and radar that deliver continuous operational advantage to UK and international customers.

At Mission Systems we offer the benefit of more than 50 years of experience and excellence in integrated maritime mission systems. BAE has delivered, and continue to support, every major surface ship and submarine combat management system, torpedo and radar in the UK Royal Navy. BAE's flexible state-of-the-art naval command & information system solutions give our customers the information superiority they need to help them make mission critical decisions. BAE torpedoes offer unparalleled performance, assuring crucial operational advantage and mission capability through life. BAE is at the forefront of radar technology, delivering sensor systems that give commanders superior situational awareness and targeting solutions.

BAE leads the design, manufacture and integration of the mission system for the Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers. BAE provides the Type 45 Destroyers with the radar, combat management systems, gun control and meteorological systems that help give them devastating capability. This capability is echoed in the next generation nuclear-powered Astute class attack submarines which benefit from state-of-the-art combat management systems and torpedoes.

BAE's customer focus and program execution expertise gives us the confidence to embrace the challenges of the future. For example, BAE is part of the Naval Design Partnership tasked with developing the Type 26 Global Combat Ship. Our use of cost effective commercial solutions and technology increases system performance, through-life support and simplifies technology refresh.

Along with the skills of Surface Ships and Submarine Solutions, Mission Systems demonstrates the comprehensive and formidable naval capability BAE Systems has to offer. Everything we do - including the way that BAE does things - is geared towards delivering total performance.