National Shipbuilding Office

The National Shipbuilding Office (NSO) is a UK cross-government body established to coordinate and implement the National Shipbuilding Strategy, a long-term plan to revive British shipbuilding and maritime manufacturing competitiveness. The NSO sits across multiple departments, drawing together the Ministry of Defence, the Department for Transport, and the Department for Business and Trade to align procurement, skills, and industrial policy. Its chief executive is Rod Paterson.

On 4 June 2026 the NSO co-published the first official economic measurement of the UK maritime-autonomy sector alongside Lloyd's Register and the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), researched by Stehr Consulting. The report established current sector turnover at £600 million and approximately 5,000 jobs, with a central projection of £8.3 billion GVA by 2050 and a high-growth scenario of £26.5 billion and 39,200 jobs . Paterson described the sector as 'one of the most significant markets for UK shipbuilding and maritime technology'.

The NSO's authorship of the baseline positions maritime autonomy explicitly within the National Shipbuilding Strategy's REMIT, signalling that autonomous vessels are no longer a peripheral R&D topic but a core pillar of UK industrial ambition. The timing, published the day after the MCA's Maritime Innovation Hub, links regulatory enabling with economic targeting.

The NSO co-published the first official UK maritime-autonomy economic baseline on 4 June 2026, with Lloyd's Register and NPL. The report, researched by Stehr Consulting, puts current turnover at £600m (~5,000 jobs) and projects £8.3bn GVA by 2050 (central), rising to £26.5bn in the high-growth scenario . Chief executive Rod Paterson called it 'one of the most significant markets for UK shipbuilding and maritime technology', embedding maritime autonomy within the National Shipbuilding Strategy as a targeted growth sector.