The UK Ministry of Defence has said that there has been “no compromise” of classified information following earlier reports that Belarussian nationals were subcontracted for the development of a Rolls-Royce Submarines intranet page.
Rolls-Royce is a key player in the UK’s military nuclear propulsion sector, manufacturing pressurised water reactors for the UK’s nuclear-powered attack (SSN) and ballistic missile submarines (SSBN).
The Pressured Water Reactor 2 (PWR2) design is currently powering the Astute– and Vanguard-class submarines, with the prospect of a future iteration used for the future AUKUS SSNs being jointly developed by the UK, US, and Australia.
Maria Eagle, UK Minister for Defence Procurement, confirmed on 6 September that “both the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Rolls-Royce Submarines (RRS)” had “investigated a subcontractor’s outsourcing of development work for a RRS intranet page”, an IT system that is separate to RRS classified systems.
“The investigation found no evidence that Belarusian nationals had access to sensitive information and concluded that no change to MoD procurement policy was required. No formal sanctions were imposed,” Eagle stated.
Continuing, Eagle said the MoD “took steps” to ensure that there had been no compromise of classified information.
Intranet saga causes global headlines
The use of Belarussian IT professionals for a Rolls-Royce site was first reported by The Telegraph in early August 2024, and subsequently made worldwide headlines amid fears that Belarussian coders had access to the UK’s nuclear secrets.
Despite reassurances and comments from Eagle, the use of Belarussian nationals on a subcontractor basis will nevertheless have raised eyebrows among key UK allies, such as the US and Australia, which are inextricably linked to the future AUKUS nuclear-powered attack submarines, of which Rolls-Royce is a part.
At the time of publishing, Rolls-Royce had not responded to Naval Technology for a comment regarding the investigation carried out by it and the MoD, no whether the Intranet page on which Belarussian nationals worked was still active.
Belarus is a key Russian ally, with the country even claiming to have prepared the ground to receive Russian nuclear weapons, should it be required at some point in the future.
The country was also a launching point for Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, with combat still raging in a war that has caused hundreds of thousands of military and civilian deaths.
