All the UK's dockyards could come under one umbrella as the engineering group Babcock might be takeover target for defence firms bae systems and vt group. Such a deal could reshape Britain's shipbuilding industry by uniting the nation's shipyards. BAE and VT said that they were in "exploratory talks over a potential joint acquisition of Babcock". The ministry of defence (MoD) has pushed for consolidation in the sector.

BAE Systems owns shipyards in Glasgow and Barrow, while vt group owns the Portsmouth yards. Babcock, meanwhile, has sites in Scotland, including Rosyth and Faslane, where the Royal Navy's sends its nuclear submarines for maintenance. BAE and VT have already teamed up on various MoD contracts, including work on six royal navy Type 45 destroyers at Portsmouth which are due to be completed in Glasgow by BAE. At the same time, BAE, VT and Babcock have all been involved in a £3.5bn programme to build two new aircraft carriers for the MoD, making a merger of the three a logical step forward as far as the ministry is concerned.