Sectors

Defence Lifting Equipment & Crane Services

Mission-critical lifting systems designed for safety, precision, and compliance in defence environments

Lifting Solutions for the Defence Sector

Defence sites do not stop because a contractor has arrived. Access is escorted, working windows are short, the buildings are often decades older than the equipment going into them, and every lift leaves a paper trail that has to survive an audit long after the job is finished.

We work in that environment now. At Devonport Royal Dockyard we maintain the non-nuclear crane fleet for Babcock International from a dedicated on-site facility, with 24/7 callout cover and involvement in the site’s larger modification and maintenance programmes. At MoD Lyneham we were appointed Principal Contractor by Kier Group to install two 10-tonne overhead travelling cranes into a hangar built in the 1950s — with the site fully operational throughout. Is a small example on how we serve the defence sector.

That is the shape of most defence lifting work: a permit regime, a restricted window, a structure that needs verifying before anything is bolted to it, and a compliance trail that has to hold up years later.

Behind that sits WH Scott, in engineering since 1897. Group-wide we complete more than 400,000 statutory examinations a year across the UK and Ireland, we design, fabricate and install our own crane steelwork with CE marking approval to EXC2, and we hold ISO 9001, 14001, 45001 and 27001 certification — the last of which tends to matter more on the defence estate than it does elsewhere. All of it is listed with issuing bodies and registration numbers on our certifications and accreditations page.

What Makes Defence Lifting Different

The regulations are the same ones that apply to a factory in Birmingham. What changes is everything around them.

Escorted access and permits. Engineers may be escorted for the whole visit, tools and vehicles are controlled and photography is usually restricted — all of which affects how we survey, how we evidence the work and how long a job takes. We plan for it rather than discover it on the day.
Live operations, short windows. Installation and maintenance normally have to fit around activity that cannot be paused. Work is sequenced against your operational calendar, with lift plans and RAMS issued in advance.
Legacy structures. Much of the defence estate predates the equipment it is now asked to carry. Before a crane goes into an existing building, the building itself needs checking — at Lyneham that meant ground investigations, flooring sample analysis and a survey of the supporting steelwork before any design was fixed.
Loads that are awkward as well as heavy. Powerpacks, engines, gearboxes, weapon systems and structural assemblies rarely offer a convenient lifting point. Lifting beams and frames designed around the real load geometry are often what separates a controlled lift from an improvised one.
Hazardous and explosive atmospheres. Armament stores, fuel handling and certain maintenance processes bring DSEAR and the ATEX-derived regulations into scope. That changes what may be installed, not just how it is operated.
Compliance that has to stand up later. Reports, certificates and asset histories get asked for at audit, at insurance renewal, at contract handover and after any incident. A missing record is a problem long after the engineer has left site.

How We Support Defence Sites

Most defence clients use us for more than one thing, and the value is usually in the combination: the engineer who examines the crane can also repair it, and the steelwork is fabricated in-house rather than waiting on a third-party lead time.

Engineered equipment

Overhead gantry cranes from 100 kg to 250 t, single or double girder, built around your span and duty and supplied with BS EN 1090 certified structural steelwork from our own fabrication facilities. Process cranes where the lift is part of a repeatable maintenance or production sequence. Jib cranes up to 63 t SWL for workshop bays, and mobile A-frame gantries where a permanent runway is not practical. Where operators need to stand clear of the load, AUTEC radio remote control provides TÜV-certified fail-safe wireless operation, including EX variants for hazardous areas.

Keeping it running

Preventative maintenance on Bronze, Silver or Gold terms, with servicing and breakdown cover behind it and a support line staffed 24/365. Where equipment is old rather than finished, crane modernisation — inverter control to reduce sway, anti-collision, load limiting, radio remote — is usually cheaper than replacement, and a general overhaul returns an asset to a known condition. We work on cranes irrespective of who built them, which matters on estates running mixed and part-obsolete fleets.

Proving compliance

LOLER thorough examinations and PUWER inspections, load testing by fixed weight or waterweight, and loose tackle examinations recorded item by item against your asset register. Certificates are generated on site as the engineer completes the inspection and published to our online compliance portal, so the evidence is one login away rather than one filing cabinet away.

Get in Touch

Tell Us About Your Project

Whether you need a single piece of equipment or a fully engineered lifting system, our specialists can help. Tell us your load, environment and compliance requirements — we’ll do the rest.

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Compliance & Regulations

Lifting equipment on the defence estate sits under the same statutory framework as anywhere else in Great Britain. Under LOLER 1998, equipment used to lift people and all lifting accessories require thorough examination by a competent person at least every six months, and other lifting equipment at least every twelve — either interval replaceable by a written scheme of examination. PUWER 1998 adds duties covering suitability, maintenance and risk-based inspection of work equipment more broadly. Where explosive atmospheres are in play, DSEAR and the ATEX-derived equipment regulations govern what may be installed, not merely how it is used.

On top of statute, MOD sets its own direction. JSP 975, MOD Lifting Policy, published in 2024, consolidates the earlier JSP 375 Chapter 24 and JSP 467 guidance into a single policy for lifting operations and lifting equipment within MOD responsibility. It sets out competence requirements, process requirements and the responsibilities attached to different categories of lift. Individual establishments and prime contractors then layer their own site procedures on top of that again.

That layering is where contractors most often come unstuck, so we deal with it at enquiry stage. Tell us which regime the site works to, what category the lift falls into and what the site requires of a contractor, and we will confirm in writing how we intend to meet it before anything is scheduled.

Every report we issue goes to our online compliance portal alongside the asset register, defect grading, remedial recommendations and reminders ahead of the next examination falling due. Operators running several sites get one programme and one reporting point across all of them, either side of the Irish Sea.