The Royal Navy’s nuclear submarine fleet will undergo faster and more efficient maintenance following the reopening of 9 Dock at Devonport, the largest dry dock in Western Europe.
This £200 million refurbishment, carried out by Babcock International Group, will ensure the UK’s Vanguard Class submarines can complete their deep maintenance periods more quickly, allowing them to redeploy faster.
The upgrades form part of the government’s ongoing commitment to maintain the nation’s Continuous-At-Sea Nuclear Deterrent (CASD), according to a Ministry of Defence press release.
At the opening ceremony in Plymouth, Maria Eagle MP, Minister for Defence Procurement and Industry, spoke of the critical role of Devonport and 9 Dock in supporting the Vanguard fleet.
“The Vanguard fleet is at the heart of deterring our adversaries and keeping the UK safe. This government is committed to a ‘triple-lock’ on our nuclear and to bolstering national security through crucial refurbishments such as this one,” she said.
Devonport, spread over more than 650 acres, has been a crucial naval base for the Royal Navy since 1691. The facility boasts 15 dry docks, 25 tidal berths, and a workforce of over 7,000, contributing significantly to Plymouth’s economy and supporting around 400 local businesses.
The project to upgrade 9 Dock employed 1,250 people, including 900 local workers, and 25 apprentices, highlighting its economic and strategic importance.
David Lockwood, CEO of Babcock, stressed the importance of the project, stating, “Supporting the Continuous at Sea Deterrent is the most important thing we do. The huge investment and increase in digital technology in this submarine facility ensures the UK has a sovereign, fit-for-purpose, deep maintenance capability now and in the future.”
The upgraded facility includes advanced mechanical handling systems to improve productivity and reduce maintenance times. This ensures that the four Vanguard Class ballistic missile submarines can continue to fulfil their critical role in protecting the UK, remaining operational 24/7.
The Ministry of Defence reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining the UK’s nuclear deterrent with plans to build four new nuclear submarines and continue upgrading its current fleet.
Think its just the largest in Devonport…definitely not in Europe.
I was thinking the same. I thought the dry dock at Rosyth is bigger.
H&W as well.
Very probably . They certainly need an alternative dry dock
For the Carriers
There are 2 much larger docks available Belfast Dock and Inchgreen at Greenock. Both are political footballs H&W is of financial mess, and Inchgreen is owned by a company that seems hell bent on not letting it be used ever again. There are a couple of alternatives but both would require major money to get them back into commission and Crain age and a local workforce. One I’d the Gladstone Dock in Liverpool and the other is the KGV Dock at Southampton. The problem with the latter is it’s also owned by the same company as Inchgreen, who also own… Read more »
Biggest dockyard in western europe . Think theyr’e mixed up with that .
Believe GA inadvertently left a descriptor out of that sentence. Something on the order of: “…the largest (dedicated submarine, or dedicated SSBN or some variation) dry dock in Western Europe.”
Believe GA (and co-contributors) are performing a yeoman’s job managing this site, and should be accorded some slack during critiques. Have noticed the recent remarkable increase in the number of articles. Seriously impressed that volunteer staff can produce this volume of content on a sustained basis.
It’s vital to get 14 Dock finished so that the Astutes can come in for refit/maintenance. They have had to reconfigure and refurbish the dock following the completion of the final refit of HMS Triumph, but it also has to meet the extremely stringent nuclear safety standards required for safe operation. I don’t think it’s too far away though..
I’d like to know what “faster” means. A sloth is faster than a tortoise but neither gets anywhere in a hurry. With the backlog of maintenance in the submarine fleet it would be nice to get an example of just how this is going to improve things.
Positive news for once.
And don’t forget to thank the current government for rushing through this task, which sadly the previous administration failed to do 😂😂😂😂😂😂
This crap government has only been in charge for two months so i would say it was 99,9999% finished before they they even got into there dictatorship so how can you claim it was them
Barry I had assumed that the 6 crying with laughter emojis might have been a clue, but it appears that they have also started stealing people’s sense of humour.
Maybe in future I will start my comment with: Here is a joke ………..
Well I got it Mark, so hope that gives you at least some reassurance… 😊
My apologies
My bad
Barry, it’s not a dictatorship. It is a democratically elected government that was given power democratically through our political system.
Move to Russia, China or North Korea if you want to complain about living under a dictatorship.
Just like they have successfully identified that the NHS is quite well funded but not very efficient. You know the basics like getting:- – the right phone numbers and email addresses on letters – getting clinicians to actually order the tests and procedures they gave talked about at the bedside – some degree of urgency – stop sending letter and send emails That sort of stuff. Not rocket science but it would make a huge difference. My dad’s hospital stay was extended from 2 weeks, in an accrue bed, to 2 1/2 months due to totally incompetent and disorganised care… Read more »
The OECD rates the NHS in the top 2 to 3 most efficient healthcare systems in the world.
It really could be a lot better if the basics were attended to.
The amount of issue avoidance is profound.
TBH enabled by the way the ward rounds are split between a large round of consultants some of whom are not very competent at basic multi disciplinary medicine. We don’t do that here….so how does a bed ridden patient get that attended to…dismissive gesture…yup really.
2 months ago my Dad went into hospital after a fall. He contracted Pneumonia and Covid while in hospital, and died there. We visited several times. The wards were like something out of the 3rd world, his was an elderly persons ward. Nobody enforced cleanliness. Nobody enforced the wearing of masks. Finding a doctor was like looking for the tooth fairie. You’re correct. We had npo chance to even say goodbye when he was conscious and about to talk to us, a doctor came along for tests and hurried us out the room. When we got back in he was… Read more »
Complaining got him out alive and he is gaining strength at home. Shambolic and all the doctors are hiding in their offices even when they are not doing clinics etc. Often doing private remote consultations. Leaving, usually one very junior doctor trying to look after a huge number of patients. Comms are terrible and tests are not ordered or done with any urgency. Medics hide behind being uncontactable and unaccountable – that has to change. The effort that goes into erecting barriers to contacting NHS medics is incredible. As perfectly serious medics like Sir John Bell have said money isn’t… Read more »
Daniele,
Very sorry to learn about your father’s medical saga. Unfortunately, some of the same issues are observable in some US hospitals. Best wishes. 🙏
Thank you.
What about the SSN’s?????????????
I sometimes wonder if a continuous build programme would be more efficient than a fleet with mid-life refits. I.e. just keep a class of ships / boats under construction indefinitely with each new ship replacing the oldest. The retired ship still being young enough to be attractive to nations that purchase 2nd hand ships, continuous builds makes us more competitive on the export market and makes us more resilient in times of war.
Now that is a very good theory; just up to the current government to action it.
You don’t export nuke boats like that, specially with enriched uranium reactors.
Which is another issue since need to make sure the reactor is still being build.
That’s fine for surface ships, in fact it’s pretty well what used to be done until some twit had an overdose of John Lennon singing Imagine and decided to not order any replacements for the T23’s. But for Nuclear Submarines it’s way more complicated. They are hugely expensive and with a Lifex of 25/30 on the reactor core, we tend to keep them till they are done. US and UK use HEU (as does France for its SSBN’s), its Atom Bomb grade. So exporting is extraordinarily difficult due to NPT. The Solution is to actually just continuously build boats in… Read more »
Sorry, I made a mistake. In my earlier comment, I said that it was vital to get 14 Dock finished as soon as possible…
{It’s vital to get 14 Dock finished so that the Astutes can come in for refit/maintenance. They have had to reconfigure and refurbish the dock following the completion of the final refit of HMS Triumph, but it also has to meet the extremely stringent nuclear safety standards required for safe operation. I don’t think it’s too far away though..} …
I actually meant 15 Dock!!! 14 Dock is earmarked for SSN dismantling. Switch on Chadwick!!!! 😝😝😝⚓⚓⚓
NL article of 12 Sep 24 stated HMNB Devonport 15 Dock scheduled for completion by end of CY, per Ministerial statement from previous government. Even if a there is some schedule slippage, RN SSN maintenance backlog logjam will begin to resolve in the foreseeable future. Same article states 10 Dock rebuild to be completed by 2028. Other articles have stated that the procurement process for two floating drydocks has been initiated. The blokes down at the Admiralty are proceeding apace, given RN funding constraints. Now, if only some kind and/or enterprising souls would attend to USN’s woeful SSN maintenance backlog.… Read more »
Just read in NL tonight about 15 being ready before the end of the year.. That is excellent news indeed.
😊👍
It would be good if we could help US with its SSN’s as part of AUKUS.
But let’s get on top of RN SSN & SSBN maintenance first.
It would help build up manpower and knowledge base as well as inject money into naval dockyards.
Only issue is one workforce and different standards. That can be a real issue.
Predict this outsourcing would not occur until sometime in 2030’s. RN issues should be well into the rearview mirror by that time.
SSN-A will be the de facto common AUKUS SSN design standard by the later 2020’s. Predict USN SSN(X) design will be an evolution/next gen SSN-A. Therefore, maintenance workforces across AUKUS should eventually be able to transition between classes relatively seamlessly. In theory. 🤔😳🤞😊