Future Submarines Integrated Project Team Office Officially Opens

BAE Systems, BARROW, UK: Today marked the start of a new era when Rear Admiral Paul Thomas CB, FREng chairman of the defence nuclear safety committee, officially opened the Future Submarines (FSM) Integrated Project Team office at Barrow-in-Furness. 
 
This element of the Future Submarines IPT will be based on the BAE Systems Submarine Solutions site and will be manned by a collaboration of up to 128 personnel made up from the Ministry of Defence, BAE Systems, Rolls Royce and Babcock Marine. Working with the FSM IPT office in the MoD’s Abbey Wood offices, the team will, over the next two years, develop a concept design for the submarine component of the future deterrent programme. 
 
The future deterrent programme is one of the most significant programmes to be defined, managed and delivered by the UK defence community over the next two decades, and has potential to shape the submarine industry for years to come. The IPT will work closely with external stakeholders in industry to develop and deliver an affordable, sustainable and coherent programme with an associated management framework. 
 
The integrated team is led by Andy Mackinder from the MOD, who said, “This is an exciting day for everyone involved in the future deterrent programme My team has started design concept work on a new class of SSBNs to replace the current Vanguard Class. This office is a significant part of our plans for delivery of this strategically important programme.” 
 
Tony Burbridge from BAE Systems is the deputy IPT leader and industrial partnership leader and will assist Andy Mackinder in this remarkable programme. 
 
The collaborative nature of the FSM team will ensure that the programme is able to focus on establishing the right relationships across industry, embedding the values set out in the Defence Industrial Strategy and its associated Maritime Industrial Strategy.  
 
BAE Systems is the premier global defence and aerospace company delivering a full range of products and services for air, land and naval forces, as well as advanced electronics, information technology solutions and customer support services. With 96,000 employees worldwide, BAE Systems' sales exceeded £15 billion (US $27 billion) in 2006 on a pro forma basis, assuming BAE Systems had owned Armor Holdings Inc for the whole of 2006.