Babcock International and the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) have entered into a new contract to optimise the Royal Navy’s Trafalgar Class submarine availability and reduce its maintenance costs.

The new contracting for availability (CfA) approach to the Trafalgar submarine is part of the warship support modernisation initiative (WSMI) agreement between the MoD and Babcock.

The CfA approach analyses the current availability of the submarines, identifies the factors that impact on the delivery of fleet time support maintenance periods and factors through a joint improvement programme.

Areas that require improvement include planning, monitoring and control, cost performance, risk management and facility management interfaces.

Methods established in the programme for the continual improvement of submarine safety include performance measurements, tools, models and reporting structures.

Babcock Devonport operations director Gavin Leckie said the goal of CfA was to deliver greater assurance of T Class submarine availability, at reduced cost, on a sustainable basis.

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