Inside the Royal Navy's secret submarine factory

BBC News -

"I always say that any day when you don't see a submarine is a day wasted."

Jon Swift loves his subs, that much is clear. For an engineer, they are the ultimate challenge.

"We take a metal tube, put a nuclear reactor in it and a hundred sailors. Then we cram every available space with weapons and hi-tech equipment. Finally, we send it deep into the ocean. Everything has to be safe - and seen to be safe."

Mr Swift is also passionate about his job. Which is at once easy and impossible to describe. Simply put, he is in charge of making seven new nuclear submarines for the Royal Navy.

The actual metal-banging is done by BAE Systems (as well as a vast amount of computer-aided design and hi-tech system installation). 5,000 people work at the company's submarine yard in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.

Royal Navy Engineers work alongside the civilians, ensuring everything is as they want it.

Jon Swift leads a team of 100 who do that very 21st century job: Project Management.

He is based at MoD Abbey Wood, a vast complex of offices perched on the ring road round Bristol's northern fringe. 8,000 people work here, civilians and uniformed people, finding, buying and maintaining every piece of kit used by the armed forces.

Abbey Wood takes a pounding in the media. When soldiers don't get the right kit in the desert, it's the 'pen-pushers of Abbey Wood' who are blamed.

Now Abbey Wood's top brass want to tell their side of the story. Two of us were invited in, to see the projects they are most proud of. First up, submarines.

In some ways it's a surprising story to pick, from an MoD point of view. HMS Astute, the first of the new breed, already has its own archive of news stories. First, there was the unfortunate episode off Skye, when she ran aground in sea trials. Then there was the tragedy in Southampton Docks, when a crewman turned a weapon on an officer.

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