On 21 January 2025, Lord West of Spithead asked the Ministry of Defence whether the dry dock facilities in Gibraltar could help alleviate current and future docking bottlenecks for Royal Navy vessels.
In his response, Lord Coaker, Minister of State for Defence, explained that “the docking capacity to undertake upkeep on submarines and warships is the subject of ongoing analysis as part of the Royal Navy’s planning process.”
He highlighted that the Naval Support Integrated Global Network (NSIGN) Programme is a key part of these efforts, providing a framework for optimising global support for naval maintenance.
Lord Coaker further noted that “while the dry dock facilities in Gibraltar have recently been used for maintenance of Offshore Patrol Vessels,” there is “no current plan or policy for the use of Gibraltar in commercial arrangements in the future.” Instead, he clarified, “the facilities will generally be utilised when there is a specific operational or commercial need.”
This response underscores that while Gibraltar’s facilities remain a valuable resource for occasional use, they are not currently seen as a long-term solution to easing docking bottlenecks. The Royal Navy’s NSIGN Programme continues to assess and adapt maintenance strategies across its global network to meet operational and strategic demands.
Fcuk the Spanish. If the RN needs Gibraltar dry dock facilites, then use them
I think the issue is more the lack of a skilled workforce to do nuclear work on The Rock?
What have the Spanish got to do with the decision not to use the docks for anything other than the current use cases?
It’s nothing to do with the Spanish,
Strangely enough a tiny Mediterranean tax haven is not the best place to do conduct large scale industrial operations like warship maintenance.
Who knew.
Absolute crap. Why do you bother posting here when everything you say has to be fact checked?
Will this government also sell the rock like the Chagos Archipelago?
Well HMS Trent is currently undergoing maintenance in Malta, so I think refitting SSN’s may be a bit beyond the Gib docks if they aren’t even doing work on OPV’s at the moment.
I wonder where Tamar and Spey will go. Does the support/resupply base in Singapore have dry docking arrangements?
Gosh…tiny little colony unable to do major complex work on complex warships….knock me down with a feather…as for comments about the Spanish stopping the RN using a British overseas territory how they wish to…nope if the RN decided it was economical and necessary to set up a maintenance hub in gib they would…..
The dry docks in Gibraltar were used regularly in the 1970s and 1980s to refit royal.navy frigates. There seemed to be one in dry dock there constantly.