Portsmouth championed as defence "engine for growth" with thousands of jobs maintained supporting Royal Navy
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The home of the Royal Navy has been hailed as a prominent fixture in the defence sector.
Thousands of jobs are supported in the Portsmouth area across a variety of disciplines, from maritime support contracts to aerospace. In a recently published Ministry of Defence policy paper - “making defence an engine for growth” - it singled out Portsmouth’s “naval excellence” and the regions push towards maintaining high-skilled jobs.
The south east of England received £7.9bn worth of defence investment last year, supporting 38,700 jobs. Out of this investment, from 2024 to 2025, £270m was spent with small to-medium sized enterprises.
More than 1,000 people in the city are employed by Airbus. Its Anchorage Park site is one of Portsmouth’s largest employers, producing high-tech satellites. It recently turned 70. Sam Doody, Head of Airbus’ Portsmouth site, is optimistic for the future due to the government’s Defence Industrial Strategy, aimed at promoting businesses and investing in skills. The government also aims to create five new defence technology colleges, allocating £182m to the project.
Mr Doody said: “As the Prime Minister has rightly recognised, the defence sector can be an engine for growth and deliver a defence dividend for the British people, while also giving the Armed Forces the next-generation equipment they need to fight and win on a changing battlefield. The most crucial elements for Airbus were building up the UK’s industrial base, a priority for investment in space and championing the UK’s defence exports.
“On skills, we welcome the Government's £182m pledge to establish five new defence technical colleges in the UK. It is vital that our country's young people have opportunities for high-skill, high-value jobs, fostering the capabilities that will provide them with lifelong careers and keep capability and talent here in the UK. Airbus' 'early careers' programmes are ensuring future aerospace talent remains in our country, and it's great to see our efforts are aligned with those of the Government.”
Other local businesses are also flourishing. Windracers in Fareham recently expanded its drone factory. BAE Systems continues to oversee strong naval contracts, alongside other smaller companies such as UK Docks.
Mr Doody added: “We are deeply encouraged by the Government's commitment to developing home-grown talent, which we will need to deliver our major satellite programmes. It is hugely important that the UK retains its world-class capabilities in fields like military satellite communications to ensure we maintain our seat at the international Space top table and continue to supply our country's allies with sovereign capability through export potential.”