The Ministry of Defence has announced the signing of a new mega-contract, with an estimated value of £9 billion, with Rolls Royce for the delivery and the in-service support of nuclear reactor cores for the new SSBNs of the DREADNOUGHT class as well as the upcoming SSN-AUKUS class of attack submarines.

The new deal brings together a number of existing contractual arrangements and progresses the procurement of new reactors for SSN-AUKUS, delivering estimated efficiencies of more than £400 million over the eight-year contract.

UNITY will create more than 1,000 new jobs while safeguarding 4,000 existing roles involved in the design, manufacture and support services to nuclear reactors to power our submarines. The new contract takes over what has so far been known as “Core Delivery Capability”, a Major Project which was launched years ago to procure the PWR2 Core H reactors for the ASTUTE class SSNs and the new, larger and more powerful PWR3 core for the DREADNOUGHT class.

Core Delivery Capability in its previous form was going to end in 2028 but the progress of SSN-AUKUS ensured the need to evolve the agreement towards a new contract. The revision of the project took place during 2024, first under the previous government and, after the July Election, under the new Labour administration.

UNITY delivers a unified solution that includes continued support of the build and commissioning of the new DREADNOUGHT-class SSBNs, in-service support for the ASTUTE-class reactors and the production of the first cores for SSN-AUKUS. Under the tri-national project, the Rolls Royce PWR3 reactor will serve as propulsion core for the new SSN, with Rolls Royce building in Derby the cores for the Australian boats as well as the UK ones. The reactors will then be delivered to Barrow-in-Furness where BAE Systems will integrate and “seal” them into the relevant hull section ahead of delivery to Australia.

Thanks to AUKUS, Rolls Royce’s nuclear business in Derby is headed for unprecedented growth and the Raynesway production site in Derby will double in size with a major new construction program soon to start. Earlier this month, Rolls Royce picked AtkinsRéalis and Mott MacDonald, globally renowned engineering and development consultancies, as partners for the design phase of the new fissile facilities to be built.

In the near future, Rolls Royce will select the construction partner that will physically build the new facilities to the agreed design. All reactor cores for the ASTUTE class have of course long been delivered and installed, with only one submarine, the future HMS AGINCOURT, left to be lowered into the water. The work on the PWR3 cores for DREADNOUGHT is also well advanced: the new SSBNs will enter service in the early 2030s and all major hull blocks for the first-in-class are already inside the construction hall in Barrow-in-Furness.

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