The Government believes there is scope to do more with the Inchgreen dry dock on the lower Clyde, Defence Minister Luke Pollard has said, after the Chancellor allocated £20 million to the Inverclyde facility, one of the largest dry docks in the UK.
Asked by the UK Defence Journal at a briefing on Project Royal Oak whether Inchgreen now falls within the naval base upgrade programme and whether there is scope for warship docking at the site, Pollard set out how the investment sits alongside, rather than within, the £26 billion base modernisation effort.
The naval base funding is “in addition to the £50 million defence growth deal that is aiming to go after SMEs and skills in particular, the DTEC offer of creating two Defence Technical Excellence Colleges in Scotland that we hope the Scottish Government will match fund, and the £20 million that was allocated by the Chancellor for Inchgreen, where we feel as a government there’s an opportunity to do more with that really important facility,” he said.
The Minister did not expand on what future use the dock might be put to, though he told the briefing that further detail on what is being spent across the wider programme will be announced later this summer and into the autumn. The press release accompanying Royal Oak describes the Inchgreen investment as part of the Government’s commitment to backing key maritime industries on the River Clyde, revitalising the dock to further strengthen national and industrial resilience, supporting the creation of 350 direct jobs and providing a new skills centre.
The dock, at Greenock, has seen only intermittent use in recent decades despite long-running local campaigns for its revival, and its 305-metre length makes it one of the few facilities in the UK theoretically capable of taking the largest vessels.
On the naval base programme itself, Pollard said Royal Oak is about renewing infrastructure that “in many cases, has been deteriorating for quite some time,” with some facilities across all three bases reaching the end of their life and unable to be extended. “If we want to move to warfighting readiness, which is our stated number one objective as defence, we need to renew our facilities. That means making big capital investments,” he told the UK Defence Journal.
The wider Scottish picture set out on Tuesday includes £15.1 billion for Faslane under the programme, which the Ministry of Defence describes as the largest naval infrastructure investment since the end of the Cold War, alongside the completed purchase of the Finnart Oil Terminal. That multi-million-pound acquisition expands the Royal Navy’s sovereign fuel-holding capacity and, according to the department, provides the additional space needed to progress the Clyde Transformation Programme while delivering value for taxpayers by making use of existing infrastructure.
More than £240 million in RAF sustainment contracts at Lossiemouth completes a package the Government argues demonstrates growing defence investment north of the border, with Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander saying it will deliver “a defence dividend for Scottish communities,” as quoted in the announcement.
Is that photo of a model??
Fantastic if so?
I doubt it. It looks identical to a section of an old photo in the Peel Ports Inchgreen page, which extends far beyond where a model might be built.
I asked the same when It was last used. 😇
It’s that depth of field look that makes stuff look like a model, it’s called ‘miniature faking’
Thanks, I’d not heard of that. Tarmac to right especially.
It’s a real photograph of Inchgreen. The model-like look of the picture is created by an actual optical lens shift or in a post editing technique, it’s known as ’tilt-shift photography’. This particular photgraph has achieved it’s ‘miniature effect’ look via software manipulation, I’ve seen the original shots. Tilt photography in the day, was / is useful to ‘straighten’ architectural shots, correcting perspective distortion was the original reason they were invented long before people began using them to create miniature-style images.
Look it up on Youtube, lots of good videos and you will be amazed by some of them.
Christ…… That was short…. I normally expect a two hour read 😁
Well, I didn’t write it very fast, as I know you’re a … slow reader. 😏
It’s my Lazy Eye………… 👁️
If you take into consideration All the mentions of INCHGREEN in Various articles over recent months it soon adds up…
The fact that this Dock has gained such news and MOD is willing to spend money on it would suggest the Navy has Something large Planned for the Site..!
Thanks, M.
Looks like a photo, comparing to shots on the Peel website
… that’s where I’ve seen them before.
If the Navy needs it then get on with it.
Hi George,
I hope the trains are better today 😉 What I’d love to know is which of of 2 NATO Defined categories of “Defence” spending this and the other infrastructure investments this falls into.
Is it part of the 3.5% of GDP for “Core Defence Requirements”
Or
The 1.5% of GDP for “Defence and Security related spending”.
Reason I’m asking is because of the apparent “3 Shell game” in the DIP where it’s just 2.7% of GDP on the former by 2030 but overall it’s 4.2% which sounds much better (and hope no one in NATO notices). Oddly these are always announced by the Defence ministers and no one says which category infrastructure investment counts as. The obvious scratching one’s head is the massive investment in the DNE infrastructure where they seem to be counting investment in with actual purchasing and building.
Anyone got a clue ?
Or could you or a colleague ask that question when he or his colleagues attend these events, after all UKDJ is IMHO now the No1 favourite Defence related media site in UK. As the single most important deciding factor in the future of UK defence seems to the budget to pay for it, can you guys ask about money and which category spending falls under ?
Is this site any use to BAE? Scotstoun seems to now be the bottleneck on the T26 program. Inchgreen is a very spacious site for fit-out, both alongside and in the drydock.
As I understand it the issue with Fit-Out at Scotstoun and also Rosyth is less to do with facilities and more to do with sufficient Skilled workers to carry out what is a very complex Fit-out, so adding an extra Dry dock that has zero workforce really wouldn’t help at all. Scotstoun has 2 Specialised Dry-docks and a fitting out birth so no facility issue with the T26 or the previous T45’s.
You have to remember that other than 5 OPVs there was a 10 year gap in that function so the workforce was run right down. BAe are pretty confident that the successive builds will build up to speed as they get more experience.
Or put another way with 13/14 to build they better get it right !
Still think INCHGREEN will be used for Maintenance and Periodic certification of EUSTON Program floating Dry Docks,
Close Proximity and Size makes it a Highly Attractive contender….
QEC carrier Maintenance back- up Dock is Also a strong possibility …Especially if Babcock wish to use Dock 1 at Rosyth for future Naval building and maintenance Work…!.
Intresting to see what they have in mind…!
.
I think Navantia have their eyes on the QE work, Rosyth is a right shoe in and Tide critical. Navantia bought a bargain and have all the facilities needed. The Belfast Dock is much bigger with easy access and a core of skilled workers that do Refits and maintenance on other large non military ships.
There’s zero building Facilities currently at INCHGREEN as I understand which leads me to Belive that it will be used for some type of maintenance or Inspection work…(possibly fitting out ???)
If (as is likely) Navantia get the amphibs, Belfast build dock will be occupied for over a decade, same for Rosyth with CCV. So it’s prudent to get Inchgreen back in use as an alternate maintenance dock.
Good call. Periodic maintenance doesn’t need huge numbers of personnel, which is what this site lacks. You could bring in a core team from another yard for a docking, supplemented with local contractors.