The Ministry of Defence has declined to estimate how far the completion of the submarine HMS Achilles has slipped as a result of the 2024 fire in the Devonshire Dock Hall at Barrow-in-Furness, according to an answer given in Parliament.
Ben Obese-Jecty, the Conservative member for Huntingdon, asked for the estimated length of the delay, following an answer of 8 September.
Luke Pollard, the Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, said: “Work to recover from the impact of the fire in the Devonshire Dock Hall is progressing well. Achilles, the seventh and last boat of the class, remains at an advanced stage of build in Barrow-in-Furness.
“The planned in-service dates for Royal Navy submarines are withheld as disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability, effectiveness, or security of the Armed Forces.”
Because in-service dates for Royal Navy submarines are withheld, the schedule Achilles was working to before the fire is not public either, so the size of any slip cannot be worked out from the published record, and the department gave neither a length of delay nor a cost.
The Devonshire Dock Hall is the covered building hall at Barrow where British submarines are assembled, and the fire there in 2024 interrupted work on the yard’s output. Achilles is the seventh and final boat of the Astute class. The Astute class are nuclear powered attack submarines armed with Spearfish torpedoes and Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles, built by BAE Systems at Barrow-in-Furness around a Rolls-Royce pressurised water reactor fuelled for the life of the boat. Seven were ordered, and the first of class, HMS Astute, commissioned in 2010.
