British Defence Firms Leading Push To Repair Equipment For Ukraine
Ukrainian tanks (Credit: PAUL GROVER / Alamy Stock Photo)
2 min read
British firms are set to lead an international push to repair armoured vehicles and other vital equipment for use back on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Writing for The House, John Healey, Defence Secretary states that “with the support of international partners, we believe we can get half of all out-of-action Ukrainian vehicles – around 1,500 vehicles – back onto the frontline.”
The new project – led by the UK – forms part of the government’s £450m package to support Ukrainian troops announced earlier this month.
This comes as defence insiders complain manufacturers are paying over the odds to train welders as the sector battles with a dwindling pool of skilled workers.
As the government ramps up defence spending there are around 10,000 vacancies in the UK sector currently, including thousands of welders. Companies are having to pay to send employees abroad for specialised welding training, or to teach them new skills for reaccreditations at home.
The government is spending £5bn on 623 Boxer armoured vehicles, which are being manufactured between Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land’s (RBSL) plant in Telford and KNDS’s site in Stockport. However, with Boxer produced to German standards of welding, Rheinmetall has had to send British employees to Germany to retrain.
Andrew Kinniburgh, director general at Make UK Defence said there has been a lot of “train the trainer work” – where employees are sent abroad to learn the skills they can then teach back in the UK.
Pearson Engineering, a Newcastle based defence manufacturing firm helping to produce the UK’s Boxer vehicles, has also sent welders to Germany for training. Pearson welders have now retrained to the equivalent level of ‘6G’ – a British welding standard – in Germany.
“They’ve all had to train their welders to German standards of welding, which are broadly similar to the British ones, but slightly different,” said Kinniburgh. “You have to go through the reaccreditation, so it’s been quite an overhead for our members.”
Sean Murphy, client and business development manager at National Skills Academy Nuclear, said that if the UK lacks good welders generally, removing a percentage to do additional training, retraining, or reaccreditation “puts more pressure on the remaining pool”.
A spokesperson from Babcock – which builds warships, submarine components and land vehicles, among other equipment types – said that shortage of some skills remains “an ongoing challenge across the country”.
