Babcock has awarded KierBAM a contract worth about £600 million to deliver the water-retaining boundary and associated infrastructure of 10 Dock at Devonport, moving the redevelopment into its main construction phase, according to the company.
The Ministry of Defence is funding the contract, which follows the completion of enabling works including the commissioning of an on-site concrete batching plant. Babcock said the upgraded dock will support deep maintenance of Royal Navy submarines, “helping sustain submarine availability”, and that the wider programme is expected to support around 1,500 jobs across the supply chain, including about 300 Babcock roles at Devonport.
Phil Brown, Babcock’s managing director of Major Nuclear Capital Programmes, said: “This contract marks a significant milestone in the delivery of 10 Dock and reflects the strength of the partnerships underpinning this nationally important programme. By working closely with KierBAM and our wider supply chain, we are building the infrastructure, skills and industrial capability needed to support the Royal Navy’s submarine fleet and strengthen the UK’s long-term defence resilience.”
Rear Admiral Martyn Boyes, Director Submarine Support at the Defence Nuclear Enterprise, said: “The redevelopment of 10 Dock is an important part of the Defence Nuclear Enterprise’s investment in the infrastructure required to support the Royal Navy’s submarine fleet. Working alongside our industry partners, we are strengthening the facilities and capability needed to sustain submarine availability now and into the future. This contract award is a crucial next step on that journey.”
Craig Small, a KierBAM Joint Venture board member, said: “This is a critical piece of infrastructure that will support the future resilience and capability of the UK’s defence enterprise. Drawing on KBJV’s extensive experience in the nuclear and defence sectors, we are proud to be working with Babcock to deliver a project that will help meet the evolving needs of the Royal Navy and strengthen the UK’s long-term security.”
The refurbishment forms part of the Submarine Waterfront Infrastructure Future programme, which supports maintenance of Astute and Dreadnought class boats, the UK Defence Journal reported in October 2025. The dockyard had by then completed its largest single concrete pour in two decades, forming the base of the caisson that seals the dock.
Luke Pollard, Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, said in September that the department was looking at John Fingleton’s nuclear regulation review to speed up work at 10 and 14 Dock. He told MPs last month that £7.1 billion will be invested at Devonport over the next decade under Project Royal Oak.
This work cannot finish soon enough. According to the Navy Lookout Euro NATO Admirals (including a RN Admiral) have had a meeting to discuss how to defend the High North in the absence of the Royal Navy..!
The decline of the RN has now got to the point that our allies, themselves already stretched in their own areas of responsibility, are looking to replace the virtual loss of the RN’s fleet.
We are down to just 11 escorts. 5 T23 ASW frigates who’s hulls are well beyond their planned services lives and as such there are apparently significant doubts about whether or not 2 of those ships can stay in service until their replacements are ready to enter service.
There are 6 T45 Destroyers which continue to be upgraded and their availability is improving but there are still going to be down periods as further upgrades are applied. All down to a poor engine choice and penny pinching during build, these potentially fine ships have been badly compromised in service.
Worse we have no operational SSN at sea at the moment although one brand new one is currently working up. Of the 6 SSN commissioned in the RN 5 are queuing to maintenance and refits!
Plus we do not have enough F35B fighters to provide our carriers with a proper air wing..! Some of this down to Lockheed Martin et al rather than the UK MoD, but it adds to the dreadful state that the RN now finds itself in. There is no other way out of this other than urgent action to speed up production of pretty much everything the RN needs, including recruitment and training, which in turn requires more living quarters…
The lesson here is that our position in the world and our reputation with our allies is taking a serious blow and the decline of our navy, and the services in general probably hasn’t yet hit rock bottom.
It is good to see progress, we like progress, but it is far too slow. Deindustrialisation and the move to a service based economy is now coming home to roost. We now have a shortage of engineers and techies in general across pretty much every industry which means we will struggle to find experienced people to instruct and mentor the people we need to reindustrialise, without which putting our economy and armed services to rights is going to take decades.
CR
Thanks for an interesting post. It raises some questions:
Why are Astute class boats queueing for refit while the class hasn’t even finished the initial build?
How would refit be required so early in their service life?
Why is such refit a surprise and adequate maintenance facilities not part of the Defence Nuclear Enterprise long ago?
SSN’s are complex to a mind boggling degree. Don’t confuse refits with long refits (refueling), every 5 years they require dry docking for repairs to their hulls to maintain acoustic abilities and maintenance of their machinery, plus the inevitable counter obsolescence upgrades to their electronic systems.
After deployment, they require alongside maintenance, to repair any defects that have inevitably developed and turn them around for the next.