BAE Systems to deploy robot welders amid staff shortage

ROBOT welders are being used to build Royal Navy submarine-hunting frigates as a shortage of workers threatens to delay a crucial delivery.

BAE Systems has deployed the machines to a naval shipyard in Glasgow to weld metal panels for Type 26 warships, bolstering the workforce as they race to deliver the next-generation vessels. The robot welders will double the number of steel panels the company can produce at its Scottish facilities, bosses said.

It emerged as BAE confirmed it was likely to deliver the third of four initial Type 26s for the Royal Navy slightly later than hoped because of setbacks from the Covid pandemic and a shortage of steel workers.

The delay underlines the skill shortages that are affecting the defence industry as Western governments push to ramp up production in the wake of the Ukraine war.

An increase in sickness claims has contributed to a jump in the number of people classed as economically inactive since the pandemic.

Glasgow has a higher than average rate of people neither in work nor looking for a job. Some 103,000 Glaswegians were economically inactive in the year to September 2023. Sir Simon Lister, managing director of BAE’S naval ships business, said the welding robots would help to compensate for a national shortage of metal workers, rather than replacing any of the existing 900 welders – some of whom are being retrained to operate the new machines.

The robot welders are made by Finnish company Pemamek.

BAE is also bringing in staff from abroad and has outsourced some steel work to other companies. A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “The Type 26 programme remains on track to deliver eight cutting-edge warships, bolstering our anti-submarine warfare capabilities into the 2060s.”

BAE was allowed to continue working on the frigates during the Covid pandemic but social distancing slowed down progress. BAE was then hit by a shortage of welders in the pandemic’s aftermath as it sought to make up for lost time.