UK Ministry of Defence gets into chipmaking game, buys gallium arsenide fab UK government has stepped in to buy a fabrication plant to secure supplies of gallium arsenide semiconductors used by the armed forces, saving the jobs of up to 100 skilled workers at the same time. Described by the ruling Labour Party as the only secure facility in the UK with the skills and capability to manufacture gallium …
Meanwhile, they're allowing the Port Talbot blast furnaces to be sacrificed on the later of Net Zero, and Scunthorpe has already gone the same way. So for any steel, whether commodity grade, or high quality stuff for military tanks, nuclear reactors or aerospace uses, we're 100% reliant upon imports. Lucky that China's such a reliable and trustworthy strategic partner isn't it?
In an existential incident an arc furnace would have plenty of steel from scrap and non essential goods to recycle. The UK has had a trade deficit in steel since 2016. We need to import iron ore as we dont mine it anymore. Given this longstanding dependence as even when we did mine it it was never enogh recycling may be more self sufficent than any virgin steel we make at port talbot. But mor importantly we would starve long before we ran out of steel our population has grown and our crop/dairy/meat output hasnt kept pace we depend on just in time delivery for tesco, asda, sansburys et al to feed us.
everyone to have their own back yard iron smelter
Bog iron? ;)
I understand Terry Pratchett on receiving his knighthood forged his own sword with the assistance of a blacksmith from bog iron with a small addition of meteoric iron.
Typical Pratchett: "It annoys me that knights aren't allowed to carry their swords," he said. "That would be knife crime."
More than a little Pratchett in commander Vimes, I think.
Knights of the realm have never been allowed to carry their own swords when there wasn't a war on. If they survived to 40 years old they had demonstrated themselves to be a serious hard case and were considered an offensive weapon in their own right. (Like a medieval Steven Seagal.)
"Meanwhile, they're allowing the Port Talbot blast furnaces to be sacrificed on the later of Net Zero,"
I'm fairly confident that this was planned long before Labour came to power. It's not the sort of action where a decision is made and implemented in anything less than year. And IIRC, aren't they getting huge grants to install electric arc furnaces[*]? And yes, I know that's not the same thing, they can't smelt ore, just recycle. On the other hand, the UK send many many tonnes of steel half way around the world to places like India and China for recycling.
* I did wonder why they didn't shut down one blast furnace and build a new arc furnace before shutting down the last blast furnace, but Tata claim to have been losing £1m per day on the system, so if true, it's no real surprise. It might also be logistical. Maybe they need to get rid of both and clear the area before they put the new kit in place. I can't really say, I don't know enough of the details.
We did sign a contract for £400M last year to extend Skynet:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/400-million-contract-to-operate-military-satellite-communications-system-supports-400-uk-jobs
Does anyone know if Skynet 6A is still scheduled to be launched next year? If so, the chips will already have been made, but this might secure supply for future satellites.
The idea at Port Talbot is to move to recycling scrap steel using arc furnaces, not close the plant wholesale. The amount of brand new steel we need to import is fuck all, maybe 10% of the more specialist grades because impurities. The main strategic industry that needs these is Nuclear, and since we must buy the hot shit from abroad anyway, why not just get the tin box with it?
Gallium arsenide is a bit different. You need it for space and many optical/microwave applications. All very MILSPEC, and surely a choice tech for top secret chippery. But nationalisation through the back door? My oh my!
…Seriously
I had the pleasure of working with them when Coherent (then II—VI) moved part of the VCSEL production there - we bought the fab specifically for that purpose. They were (still are, I presume) organised, professional, hard working, and had great bants. Glad to see they have some more life in them.
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