BACKGROUND Babcock’s Submarine Support Management Group (SSMG) comprises an industry team with Babcock as prime contractor, supported by the BMT Group and SEA, collectively providing design and engineering technical services to the entire in-service RN submarine flotilla. The SSMG provided a wide range of in-service support services to ISM for the Vanguard, Swiftsure and Trafalgar class submarines under the Submarine In-service Support Project (SISP) for over ten years from it's inception in 1998. However, SISP was provided on the basis of a rigidly defined scope and distinct customer/supplier relationship between the MoD and SSMG. The Submarine Engineering Support Contract (SESC), awarded to Babcock in April 2009, marks a shift in culture from this, applying partnering principles at a new level to deliver a more sustainable support enterprise, flexible to adapt to changing priorities while able to provide surety of delivery of submarine availability and meet the increasing demands for safety assurance. SESC builds on the strong relationships established over those previous years of successful support. Evolving out of the MoD’s Transforming Submarine Support (TSS) initiative, SESC will support the UK submarine flotilla for the next ten years through the SSMG, providing design and engineering technical services which, according to Alasdair Stirling, Head of In-Service Submarines (ISM) at DE&S, “are absolutely crucial to maintaining safety and upgrading our submarine flotilla effectively, on-time and at value for money.”