Professional Engineering

Archie Bethel claims to have the best job in engineering – and it’s hard to disagree with him. As chief executive at Babcock’s marine division, Bethel gets to oversee an army of engineers who are involved with the design, build and maintenance of warships and submarines. Such a diverse programme of work provides plenty of technical challenges, but Bethel approaches it with a boundless sense of enthusiasm.

“I love it,” he says. “For a mechanical engineer, what else could be more challenging and exciting than working on warships, submarines and aircraft carriers. Sometimes I have to pinch myself. It doesn’t get much better. In this sector, I cannot think of another job I’d rather have.”

Bethel’s current sense of fulfilment can be explained, at least in part, by the transformation that Babcock’s marine business has enjoyed during his seven-year tenure. When he joined, Babcock’s marine activities were restricted to the ownership of the Rosyth dockyard on the Firth of Forth, which was being used primarily for refit of warships. A decision was taken to aggressively expand the business and Babcock began that process by winning a 10-year contract from the government for the management of the Faslane naval base on the Clyde, where Britain’s fleet of submarines is based. Acquisition of two specialised engineering services firms, Alstec and Strachan & Henshaw, quickly followed, before the final piece of the jigsaw was put in place with the buyout of Devonport Royal Dockyard in Plymouth, where warships are refitted and submarines are refitted, refuelled and decommissioned. As a result of this acquisitive process, Bethel oversaw the rapid expansion of Babcock’s marine division.

“We now employ 9,000 people,” says Bethel. “The business is split into three major parts – submarines, warships and naval bases. It’s a healthy balance that gives us plenty of opportunity for future growth.”

The challenge, then, is to continue growing at a time when defence budgets are shrinking. Bethel admits that, in the UK, Babcock doesn’t have much room to manoeuvre – its market share for the provision of engineering services to the Ministry of Defence for submarines and surface ships is as high as it is likely to go. This means that it is increasingly looking to international markets for further expansion.

That business model has already been adopted in Canada, where Babcock has won a 15-year contract to maintain four Victoria class submarines. The work means that 120 Babcock engineers are now seconded to Canada, providing in-service support in areas such as project management, data and configuration management, systems engineering, material and supply chain management, and waterfront activities.

“There are lots of opportunities for submarine support overseas,” says Bethel. “Many more countries than I ever thought have submarines but they don’t know what to do with them. They buy them but they don’t work out how they are going to keep them at sea. They think they are like normal ships – and then when they get them they end up sitting tied up alongside docks. So what we are saying is, let us show you how to support these vessels, so that when you have bought them you can keep them at sea.”

Babcock has developed a sophisticated management model that enables its engineers to accurately predict what work a submarine will require once it comes into dock.