BAE Systems Plc aims to be able to build one warship a year within two years, shaving six months off the current amount of time required to complete each vessel.

The company has spent £300 million ($406 million) upgrading its shipbuilding facilities, including £200 million for the Type 26 anti-submarine frigate in Glasgow, to try hit that goal, BAE Naval Ships managing director Simon Lister said on September 10. The work includes covered bays and parallel construction lines, he said at the DSEI defense expo in London.

“We are investigating whether it can be accelerated even further,” Lister said in an interview.

The U.K. last week signed a €10 billion ($11.7 billion) deal with Norway to build at least five Type 26 ships for the Norwegian navy. Lister said some of those five will be picked from among from eight already on order, with the rest going to the Royal Navy. The U.K. government would decide which ships were delivered to whom, and all the vessels will be identical, he said.

Lister said that the company is not in talks with Denmark, the Netherlands or Turkey over Type 26 sales, but said that “other British companies” or the U.K. government might be.

If a customer did order large number of ships on top of what has already been agreed, “we would have to look at capacity,” he said.

BAE has set up a training facility to help bring skilled workers onto the production lines, selecting college graduates to join an apprenticeship program. That program, for 200 apprentices a year, is oversubscribed by five times, he said.

“I think there is healthy competition” between European shipbuilders as the continent rearms and spends more on defense. “We connect, we collaborate, we supply each other when we need to. That international shipbuilding community is pretty strong.”