Around 15 unauthorised incursions into Faslane and Coulport have been recorded in the last 10 years.
Her Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde, primarily sited at Faslane near Glasgow, is the Royal Navy’s headquarters in Scotland and is best known as the home of Britain’s nuclear weapons, in the form of nuclear submarines armed with Trident missiles.
The Royal Naval Armaments Depot at Coulport, 8 miles from Faslane, is responsible for the storage, processing, maintenance and issue of key elements of the UK’s Trident Deterrent Missile System and the ammunitioning of all submarine embarked weapons. The base has up to 16 reinforced concrete bunkers built into the hillside on the eastern shore of Loch Long.
Deidre Brock, the Shadow SNP Spokesperson for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, asked via a written Parliamentary question:
“To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many unauthorised incursions there have been at (a) Faslane and (b) Coulport naval bases in each of the past ten years.”
Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence, answered:
“The number of unauthorised access incidents at HMNB Clyde, Faslane and Royal Naval Armaments Depot Coulport, is provided in the table below:
Trevelyan added:
“Unauthorised access is defined as an individual, or individuals, gaining access to a defined Restricted access area within HMNB Clyde by circumventing the site security system. There was no risk to the safety of personnel or vessels arising from these incidents.”
Faslane is the second biggest single-site employer in Scotland, after the new Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow which employs around 11,000 staff. Direct employment at the base is currently around 6,500 with many more thousands dependent on the base for jobs through the supply chain. It is understood that around 11,000 are directly and indirectly reliant on the base.
All 11 Royal Navy submarines will be based on the Clyde at Faslane from 2020, seeing the number of people directly employed at the base rising to 8,200.
I would not go that far Andy, certainly not concerning nuclear sites. Little or nothing? What like at Coulport a double outer fence line tipped with Razor wire, motion sensors, and cameras everywhere. Around the entire petemiter. With a dead zone fully lit between, and patrolled. Then further in yet more fences in the SSA around the sensitive bits, a large number of armed Mod Police with dogs, dedicated MDP control room, MDP marine unit, several RM and Police security boats, and Royal Marines from 43 Cdo. I would suggest anyone seriously trying to penetrate that to cause harm would… Read more »
Good Morning Daniele. Some years back HMS Echo/Enterprise visited Durban. My paddling partner and I decided to go take a closer look and approached an able seaman on the bow and engaged him in conversation. Next minute a SAN Rib raced up to us, 9mm autos at the ready and warned us off in no uncertain terms!! We paddled away-two sixty plus year olds(then) tails between our legs! I didn’t think we fitted the profile-we battled to get in and out of the boat let alone were capable of mounting an attack on one of Her Majesty’s Ships!! Overcast in… Read more »
Morning Geoff.
Indeed, I recall that story, you have told it before. 🙂
Of course a single ship at anchor will not have the same level of security as a land installation like Coulport, so they were clearly a bit “edgy” !
Haha Daniele-I suspected I had told the story and the joke below before!! Old age creeps upon me. I shall be more careful in future.
Ha! Not at all. You repeat at leisure mate.
ps-‘and shooting them will give us very bad press indeed’ Haha-indeed, a gentler response would be better. Reminds me of the old cartoon from a perhaps more considerate era. Harry and Fred are working repairing roads and Fred has just dropped some hot lead on Harry’s right foot(no Safety Boots in those days) At the same time a little old lady is about to pass them on the pavement so Fred says”Really Harry, you must be more careful in future!”
Cheers
Can anyone tell me where I can find the Nuclear Wessels ?
I could walk into any army camp beides ITC Catterick (because there is usually a gurkha who isn’t scratching his arse and scrolling through Instagram on the gate) with nothing more than a thumbs up. The lads are mongs and guard is usually a punishment. Why the fuck would they care about doing the job properly? Used to drive me nuts as a guard commander on our rotation. Add pad wives into the mix who cry and phone their husband when they get a vehicle search, you can understand why most blokes just chin it off and go through the… Read more »
If you drive past Faslaine you’ll see the security is serious, it might look like no one is watching but i suspect you’d find the opposite if you tried to gain entrance. I stopped to watch a Sub coming out of the base (was in Scotland for a weeding and stopped by on the off chance of seeing a sub) and a police patrol came a stopped near by until we left.