Defence Minister Harriett Baldwin last week recognised the vital contribution that businesses of all sizes from the East of England have made to the construction of the Royal Navy’s largest ever ships.
HMS Queen Elizabeth, the nation’s future flagship and the first of Britain’s two new 65,000 tonne aircraft carriers, will be formally commissioned into the Royal Navy by Her Majesty the Queen next week.
But the construction of the 280 metre-long ship, even larger than Norwich Cathedral, would never have been possible without the essential work undertaken by small and medium sized enterprises (SME) from around Britain.
Businesses such as Ipswich based Tex Special Projects Ltd whose 15 engineers and support staff provided structural engineering and glazing systems for both carriers.
Defence Minister Harriett Baldwin said:
“On behalf of Defence, the government and the whole of the United Kingdom, I would like to thank the hundreds of businesses around the country for the millions of hours they’ve spent equipping our ships in what has been an immense nationwide enterprise”.
She added “Their Herculean efforts showcase our great British talent and saw HMS Queen Elizabeth complete her 2017 sea trials with flying colours as she prepares to project our interests right across the world.”
