The Royal Navy has begun a major effort to accelerate submarine maintenance, with senior leadership warning that throughput must improve rapidly to meet future operational demands.
First Sea Lord General Sir Gwyn Jenkins visited HM Naval Base Clyde on 20 January, days after the formal launch of the Submarine Maintenance Recovery Plan, a new framework intended to bring together previously fragmented efforts across the submarine enterprise.
The plan was officially introduced on 14 January and is designed to improve the pace and productivity of submarine maintenance, particularly at Clyde, the operational home of the UK Submarine Service and the centre for routine upkeep of the fleet. During his visit, General Jenkins was accompanied by Chief of Defence Nuclear Madeline McTernan, where he was briefed on plans to rapidly expand engineering capacity through new temporary facilities.
“Submarine maintenance throughput needs to drastically improve,” he said. “We want to put a radical engine for change in the middle of our enterprise, to recharge and refocus our priorities and get us ready for the warfighting footing we need.” He added that a new approach to productivity is now being put in place across the system. “I challenged the Submarine Directorate, in partnership with the Submarine Delivery Agency, to give me a new methodology for driving maintenance productivity up. Now it’s here, I will get weekly updates from the team, and we are planning for productivity to improve dramatically over the next four years.”
The recovery plan brings together existing initiatives under a single structure for the first time, with clear priorities and dedicated resources. Previous efforts, while numerous, were often limited in scope due to the size and complexity of the submarine enterprise. One of the first tangible outcomes is the creation of a deployable engineering workshop at HM Naval Base Clyde. Using containerised Defence workshops, the facility will deliver around 90 square metres of additional engineering space within weeks, enabling vital work to be carried out more quickly.
Further temporary facilities are also planned, and an additional off-site location has already been acquired and is being adapted to support longer-term requirements. Submarine maintenance activity is spread across four principal locations. Routine maintenance is conducted at Clyde, while deep maintenance periods, involving major upgrades and life extension work, are carried out at HM Naval Base Devonport. Engineering planning is provided by the Submarine Delivery Agency in Bristol, with Navy Command in Portsmouth retaining overall command focus through the Submarine Directorate.
Oi Bloke on the left, WAKE UPPPP and Bloke with the monumental Swill sack and pink blouse, stop looking at his bum.
The rest of you, stand up straight and take your hands out of your pockets, there’s work to be done.
I dunno, you couldn’t run a business like that !
Is this like all the other times we have heard that the Submarine maintenence Is to be “Speeded Up” ?
Like everything in defence – It is the Treasury slow drip feed causing the problems
RFA going on strike again
Not in this is instance, it’s a series of unfortunate events like COVID and broken “irreplaceable” ropes on a ship lift combined with poor forward planning by the navy and a series of unrealistic assumptions on maintenance of the Vanguard class made by George Osbourne and David Cameron.
It’s the lazy vernacular of the armed forces to blame their woes on the Treasury, in reality people who’s job it is to drive ships are badly equipped to run complex multi decade maintenance operations.
You can up the budget as much as you like (look at the USN) and you will end up with the same problems.
None of these people would last five minutes in the real world where money has to be used efficiently or you get fired and go out of business.
Yup, that last sentence, nails it.
yes – the problem is the treasury? once you’ve deducted the cost of the CAD and then pensions what exactly is left for conventional defence? A fleet of 6 destroyers and 6 frigates and an RAF with less than 95 Typhoons (12 Squadron doesn’t count as it’s funded by Qataris) and an army with less tanks than Switzerland, with no tactical lift rotary assets and barely any GBAD. The <1% of GDP spent on conventional defence is a treasury problem?
Jim, surely Seaman officers do not run complex multi decade maintenance operations. What are the Navy’s senior engineering officers doing?
I agree with Jim on this. This one’s down to senior leadership within MOD and the military. Being a good officer doesn’t make you a good programme manager. Shifting the senior bods around every two or three years also has to stop. If you can’t do a senior role for five years, don’t apply.
It would be interesting to know how much government has increased spending on defence over the last 10 years compared to say the social security budgets , or on illegal immigration or the NHS. I suspect revealing and will go along way to explain our present defence woes.
I’m afraid the very basic truth is the problem is old age.. there is were the money is going.. simply put since we ran out defence budget at 4% our life expectancy has moved from the early 70s to the early 80s and that increase is all NHS healthcare.. that 10 years costs a massive amount per person… it has also essentially doubled the pension bill and is the bulk of the social care costs.
You want to be careful saying that around here.
I’ve been shouted down for questioning the State Pension and the Triple Lock before. We can afford everything we need if we just means tested – the State Pension alone is 2.5x the entire defence budget (which has literal nukes in it).
But the public don’t care about security.
The reality is even just capping the pension at higher rate tax would give you an instant 10-15 billion a year for defence..
I can see the headlines now:
“Labour wants to KILL your NAN!”
“Starmer FREEZES DORIS in her own home with EVIL pension robbery!”
I want to be an optimist that we’ll invest in the defence of the realm, but our nation would happily eat itself at the altar of the grey haired than do anything against them. There’s nothing sacred except the pensioner.
A “bandaid solution” is folding all NI into income tax. Workers pay nothing extra, but pensioners have to start contributing to the State comparably to everyone else. They aren’t the Victorian paupers of old – some of these people are minted beyond belief yet still get free money from the state.
Deary me.
This feels personal, my nan’s called Doris!
One of the comments above nails it: many military officers are not capable as business people, but are nonetheless promoted into roles such as Director of Submarines. In these roles they are expected to transform into effective execs with big budgets and complex endeavours, as well as legions of highly capable civil servants to do their bidding. Sadly, the result is often that they turn the handle on business as usual and hold on for the next job, a promotion, or retirement. It is simply too complex for most of them. The SDA is also run by a former Navy man, who has never worked outside of that world, never earned a penny of profit. On the flip side, I am pleased that the Royal Marines are finally getting their due and securing senior jobs where they can use their smarts, sense of urgency (they are all operational men in the truest meaning of the word) and sharp staff skills to turn around parts of the RN endeavour that have become moribund under the leadership of poorly qualified RN officers.
Why? We don’t have enough people to crew the damn things!
I know, let’s sell 3 Astutes to Brazil!