The man who keeps Britain's nuclear deterrent BOSS OF THE WEEK: JOHN HOWIE With a potential bid for the company being lined up, Babcock boss has Britain's defences well primed

Each missile is 44ft long, weighs 130,000lb and is capable of deploying multiple warheads. Its 135-strong crew will spend three months at sea at a stretch, ready to strike at any time.

Sailors sit nonchalantly on the nose of the sub, watching as John Howie, managing director of Babcock Naval Services (BNS), and the highest ranking civilian on the base, tries to get clearance for his guests to take a closer look.

He fails, and retreats with his guests to a vantage point behind a high fence topped with barbed wire. "At least you can see we take security seriously around here, " says Howie, who oversees contracts worth more than pounds-800 million to provide support and maintenance services on the base for the Ministry of Defence (MoD). "There is always one (Vanguard sub) in deep maintenance and there are always two at sea - submerged, silent and invisible, " says the man who is the driving force behind BNS winning an initial pounds-400m five-year contract to manage all submarine and surface ship maintenance on the base in 2002.

The contract was the first of its kind between the MoD and the private sector, and was introduced in an attempt to reduce costs at the Faslane site and the neighbouring naval site at Coulport.

BNS is part of Babcock International whose shares shot up last week on news that BAe Systems (owner of the Scotstoun and Govan shipyards) is talking to VT Group (which has a shipyard in Portsmouth) about a potential joint bid for Babcock. The MoD has been pushing for consolidation of defence suppliers in efforts to cut procurement costs.

Howie commented: "The MoD's new Defence Industrial Strategy means all the key defence suppliers have to see how they can work together to take a share of a smaller cake.

"We were required to deliver cost savings of pounds-75m cumulatively . . . We're on target to deliver pounds-90m and we've achieved all of our first five year indicators three years into the contract, " Howie says. He stresses that cost savings have not resulted in a compromise on safety issues. "Our key performance indicators show that the costs savings did not adversely affect safety or operational performance, " he adds.

The MoD awarded BNS an extension to the contract, 18 months ahead of schedule, until the end of March 2013.

BNS has also just won another MoD contract in partnership with Devonport Management Ltd (DML) to maintain the Trafalgar class nuclear-powered sub HMS Torbay. The MoD said its aim was to demonstrate that co-operation can deliver reduced maintenance timescales and better value for money.

As well as the four Vanguard subs, which will reach the end of their life cycle in 2020, the base is home to three nuclear-powered Swiftsure class hunter-killers carrying Tomahawk cruise missiles and eight Sandown class mine hunters (nicknamed "Tupperware" boats because they are made of glass reinforced plastic).

BNS also has responsibility for all ancillary services at the base, from logistics to facilities management, and Howie is in charge of 1485 staff, including 214 seconded from the Royal Navy and 51 from the MoD.

From Howie's office you see a mix of men in suits, boiler suits and naval uniforms pass by, a reminder that naval officers are reporting to a man without stripes on his arm, perhaps for the first time in their careers (Some of them also report to a woman for the first time as the base commander is Commodore Carolyn Stait, the highest-ranking female in the Royal Navy and the first woman to command a base).

Howie admits the job presented a management challenge but he could not wait to start. "The biggest thing I faced was cultural change, meshing Navy and civilian cultures. The hardest thing is that a group of people were forcibly transferred to Babcock so winning hearts and minds was and remains the biggest challenge, " Howie says.

He inherited a bureaucratic system with seven management layers and stripped out three, saving money by streamlining processes and renegotiating subcontracting deals. He is in the process making a further 60 people redundant. "Organisational change is my big hot button. I kept asking the five why questions - why, why, why, why, why? , " Howie says.

"We don't do anything twice. We have introduced single systems for health and safety, a single vision and single management board, " he says.

Howie says civilian staff used to focus more on infrastructure issues. The focus for everyone now is on serving the ships and subs. "Without them you might as well flatten the buildings and build a fairground, " he says. "I'm passionate about partnering. I've never been comfortable with the baseball bats at dawn approach, " he says.

He says that 85-per cent of cultural change programmes fail because management fail to address "soft" issues such as people's beliefs, and he brought in a team of industrial psychologists who used methods used in bereavement counselling to help staff cope with the changes. "The emotional process of denial, depression and acceptance is the same as in bereavement, " he says.

Did he think twice about taking a job which involves tackling tough security issues and fielding politically sensitive questions on Britain's nuclear arms policy? "No, " he replies instantly. "I think people should say 'Wow' when I say what I do and when I tell them that the Clyde naval base puts pounds-280m into the Scottish economy every year - and pounds-180m of that is spent in the local community, " Howie adds.

"I'm fascinated by this place and I still find it deeply, deeply exciting, " he says, adding that he has been at sea in one of the subs, though only on a short trip.

"People imagine it's like the U-boats in the old war movies. It's more like Star Trek because of the advanced weapons systems."

As for the peace protestors (their ranks have dwindled but their numbers are swelled periodically by regular demonstrators, including MSPs Tommy Sheridan and Rosie Kane), Howie is adamant the relationship with base staff is a civilised one.

"They are entitled to exercise their democratic right to protest. Having someone who constantly causes you to challenge security arrangements is not a bad thing, " he says, adding that the Royal Marines are the last line of defence in incidences of security breaches. "They have a policy of 'Final Denial', " he says.

Political debate has begun on a successor to Trident. Labour has said it is committed to keeping Britain's nuclear deterrent and will decide on a replacement before the next election, but the MoD is already investing heavily in the Faslane base, including a new pounds-125m accommodation unit for the 2500 sailors on the base.

Although the Trident debate continues, Howie says he is confident that Faslane will continue to be an important MoD base for the next 30 years.

NEED TO KNOW

CAREER: John Howie began his career with British Aerospace in Prestwick. He joined Yarrow Shipbuilders in 1995, then Babcock International as managing director of the naval services division in 2001.

PASTIMES: Watching Kilmarnock FC.

MENTOR: Murray Easton, managing director BAe Systems Submarines.

FAMILY: Wife Lorna and daughter Louise.

DRIVES: BMW X5.