The £53m MoD Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) cluster contract awarded to the A&P Group will not only bring long term stability to the shipyard and its workforce for decades to come but will have a major impact on the local economy with the associated spin offs that these contracts bring to an area.

Peter Child, managing director of A&P Falmouth Ltd, part of the A&P Group, was understandably delighted with the contract award. "The contract to maintain the four LSDAs, the RFA's most complex and modern vessels, as well as RFA Argus, is worth over £50m to the A&P Group, over five years.

"More importantly, subject to key performance targets being met, the rolling contract will be extended in five yearly increments up to a potential total of 30 years, giving the yard stability in our order book and the ability to invest and plan for the future. This will help us to deliver even more value for money for the MOD," he told me.

The five vessels RFA's Mounts Bay, Cardigan Bay, Lyme Bay and Largs Bay along with the aviation training vessel Argus are no strangers to the port with all the ships having undergone refits here during the past two years. Prior to the contract A&P, together with BAE and partners, had been working together on the four Bay class vessels since their build and have developed excellent relationships with the Ministry and Ships Staff.

Gerald Pitts, cluster programme director for A&P, added: "The Cluster support team is an A&P led UK wide consortium including BAE Systems, BMT Defence Services, a subsidiary of BMT Group and James Fisher Ltd who work side by side with the MoD. This ensures we deliver the quality and value for money the MoD require when the vessels are both in refit and at sea. Furthermore, we learn from experience as we work on these vessels so we can deliver the continuous improvement required by the customer."

The concept of Clusters and through life support was prototyped by A&P and the MoD on RFA Argus, the Aircraft Training and Primary Casualty ship, now base ported in Falmouth. Argus is currently part way through a major deployment to the Gulf.

This pilot project which started in 2004 has successfully delivered over £10 million in proven savings combined with improved availability to the MoD. This was a driving force behind the Cluster concept.

Already in 2008 the A&P led team have carried out maintenance periods on RFA Largs Bay in Curacao, RFA Lyme Bay in Portland and both RFA Argus and RFA Cardigan Bay in the Gulf, the latter including a major design upgrade on the chilled water system and mini gun fit.

RFA Mounts Bay and RFA Largs Bay are currently undergoing maintenance periods in Falmouth before returning to operational duties and will be followed by RFA Argus and Lyme Bay later this year.