Fleet Support Limited (FSL) is a British company formed to run

HMNB Portsmouth His Majesty's Naval Base, Portsmouth (HMNB Portsmouth) is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Clyde and HMNB Devonport). Portsmouth Naval Base is part of the city of Portsmouth; it is loc ...

's Fleet Maintenance and Repair Organisation (FMRO) on a commercial basis. The FMRO was an agency of the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

responsible for repair and maintenance of

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

vessels. FSL performs this task but also undertakes commercial work such as shiprepair, refitting, conversion and hull fabrication. FSL also carries out heavy engineering work and

nondestructive testing Nondestructive testing (NDT) is any of a wide group of analysis techniques used in science and technology industry to evaluate the properties of a material, component or system without causing damage. The terms nondestructive examination (NDE), n ...

for the marine and engineering sectors.

History

FSL was founded as a joint venture between Vosper Thornycroft (now

VT Group VTG (formerly VT Group) is a privately held United States defense and services company, with its origins in a former British shipbuilding group, previously known as Vosper Thornycroft. The British part of VTG was integrated into Babcock Interna ...

) and GEC-Marconi. GEC's 50% share passed to its successor

BAE Systems BAE Systems plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Aerospace industry, aerospace, military technology, military and information security company, based in London. It is the largest manufacturer in Britain as of 2017. It is ...

in 1999. In July 2008 BAE Systems and VT Group merged their military shipbuilding businesses to form BVT Surface Fleet. This included FSL, which was rebranded as BVT Surface Fleet Support Limited. In 2009 this became BAE Systems Surface Ships, with complete ownership passing to BAE Systems and the company being renamed BAE Systems Surface Ships Support Limited. In January 2012, BAE Systems Surface Ships Support was restructured, joining with parts of Insyte to become BAE Systems Maritime - Maritime Services. A Biber German

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

midget submarine A midget submarine is any submarine under 150 tons, typically operated by a crew of one or two but sometimes up to six or nine, with little or no on-board living accommodation. They normally work with mother ships, from which they are launched an ...

on display at the

Royal Navy Submarine Museum The Royal Navy Submarine Museum at Gosport is a maritime museum tracing the international history of submarine development from the age of Alexander the Great to the present day, and particularly the history of the Royal Navy Submarine Service fr ...

was restored to working condition by apprentices from Fleet Support Limited on a

sandwich course A sandwich degree, or sandwich course, is an academic degree or higher education course (also known as tertiary education) involving practical work experience in addition to academic study. The work experience is often referred as an industrial pla ...

in 2003 under the guidance of Ian Clark. The restoration featured on Channel 4's salvage squad.

References

External links

Fleet Support Group
on

Bloomberg L.P. Bloomberg L.P. is an American privately-held financial, software, data, and media company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was co-founded by Michael Bloomberg in 1981, with Thomas Secunda, Duncan MacMillan, Charles Ze ...

BAE Systems subsidiaries and divisions Companies established in 1996 BAE Systems facilities Companies based in Portsmouth {{UK-company-stub