UK SME to refit Royal Navy ship for Bangladesh

UK Docks, a maritime engineering SME, has agreed a multi-million-pound contract with the Bangladesh Navy to refit the former HMS Enterprise. 

The contract, signed on 8 April, will see the installation of a new propulsion system and hydrographic equipment, respectively supplied by Norwegian companies Brunvoll AS and Kongsberg Maritime. 

The 90m‑long ship, which was sold to Bangladesh in March 2026, will be towed to Teesside in the North East of England, where it is expected to arrive in late April. 

UK Docks operations director Stephen Lee told DSEI Gateway the Bangladeshi government wanted to build in resilience and eliminate some of the obsolescence in the vessel. 

The maintenance programme is expected to support 20 new fixed term roles across the ship repair and maritime engineering sectors. 

“We're scaling up in the yard. We've taken on additional people to help with the delivery of the project and will use numerous contractors in and around the North East area,” Lee said. 

UK Docks also plans to employ three permanent members of staff dedicated to overseeing the programme, working closely with the equipment suppliers in Norway. 

Once work is complete in April 2027, the vessel and its new crew will undergo familiarisation and trials organised by the Royal Navy in Plymouth.  

The contract was facilitated by the Defence Sales and Exports unit within the National Armaments Directorate following a competitive tender process. UK Docks’ success was underpinned by previous work carried out on the vessel and its sister ships, HMS Echo and HMS Protector. 

The programme will be fully managed and delivered from UK Docks’ Teesside facility, which has recently expanded from two to four dry docks. A rolling team of five Bangladeshi personnel will be based on site throughout the maintenance period. 

UK Docks was one of several SMEs to benefit from a GBP250 million investment to maintain 3,000 defence vessels across the UK. The company has previously secured contracts to provide support for Royal Navy platforms including icebreaker HMS Protector,and is hoping to secure more work overseas in future.  

“The opportunity to work with foreign navies is definitely something we'd like to explore further,” Lee said. “What we're doing, and how we're doing it, has proven to be quite successful.”