Babcock continues submarine work

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LONDON, May 22 (UPI) -- Britain's Babcock Engineering Group will provide through-life support for the design of new Royal Navy Trident submarines.

The contract from Britain's Ministry of Defense is worth about $23.7 million.

"The cost of design and procurement of a submarine is outweighed by the cost of its through-life support, and decisions taken early in the design phase will impact any platform throughout its life cycle," said Babcock Director Integrated Management Services Andy Nicholls. "These early phases, when the design remains fluid, represent by far the best opportunity to influence the design from the point of view of whole life cost, including maintenance and support as well as manufacture.

"The objective is to identify the impact of design decisions on supportability so as to optimize the balance between supportability, performance, unit production cost and cost of ownership."

The next generation "Successor" nuclear-deterrent submarines will replace the existing Vanguard class, and the ministry has signed collaborative agreements with BAE Systems, Babcock and Rolls-Royce for the design phase.