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?
Why do you post only shite?
Agreed, correct sentiment. What is surprising is that with such a tiny navy we need any facilities any more, maybe the ships just ain’t built properly as we are out if practice. When I was a kid we had Chatham, Portsmouth, devonport, rosyth all fully functional. Given the Russians have just surveyed our undersea connections in preparation for destroying them in their later attacks we should be building the ships Nd missiles necessary to destroy their entire fleet before it approaches and declare the channel and Irish sea out of bounds to all Chinese and Russian ships.
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?
Tamar is currently in Singapore having maintenance work carried out ready for the arrival of CSG25 to the indo pacific. Not sure if she is in a dry dock though? Someone on here might know?
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.
Yes but in the 1980s there was a significant and very expensive set of UK forces in Gib and we had a huge number of frigates.. but remember many of those frigates were essentially little better than a rivers 2 in many ways… slightly bigger gun but the same sort of size.
And they had Sea Cat, the only missile system I ever saw that wore a large rubber wet weather condom, and it would fly through that upon launch. Then usually miss its’ target.
It was also very slow, only 0.9 Mach, hence the big cruciform wings. So in effect it was only any good in head on engagements as most strike aircraft were fast enough to stay out of harms way in a stern chase situation…
The first effective SAM we had was the Sea Dart, which was a pretty good system in its day.
Cheers CR
Usually miss its target?
Don’t insult Sea Mouse….it could I suppose, sometimes, hit static targets!!!
Starmer’s plan will be to give it to the Spanish. Mark my words he will try.
I think there are both X and Z Berths at Gib for visiting SSN, and we’ve seen TLAM being loaded there when HMG sent a message years ago.
I think it’s obvious the workforce doesn’t exist for anything larger than the occasional OPV.
It’s good to know the facility remains, though.
I know the POL Depot is being refurbed for reopening…..Kings something?
You’d imagine though that a former chief of the RN would know that the dry dock in Gibraltar wasn’t suitable. He really is as useless as he is clueless.
Yes, our old “friend” West again, trying to sound relevant with questions.
Kings Lines.
Yep and don’t forget Diamond went there last year to reload her PAAMS VLS. Pretty much every time I’ve been in Gib in recent times there has been an SSM going in or out, more often than not US.
Still useful for reloads and has a runway…..most importantly a safe place for a run ashore!
SSN’s are berthed on the Mole,POL was known as Coaling Island when I was at the Dockyard.It is opposite Kings Lines bastion.
The strategic value of Gibraltar, is control of the Mediterranean choke point.
Commenters on here are uninformed.In the mid 1980’s,I was involved with the decommissioning of and handover much of Gib Dockyard facilities to Gibraltar Shiprepair Ltd..There are 3 drydocks,largest is Prince of Wales dock.Among my tasks were dry dock maintenance,all electrical equipment maintenance throughout the Dockyard and Gibraltar’s other military facilities,both inside the Rock and elsewhere.I would be seconded to Refit Group on occasion too .Much of the Dockyard equipment was pre WW1 at the time.