The investment, announced by UK Defence Minister Luke Pollard, is a key part of the biggest upgrade of Britain’s naval bases since the end of the Cold War.
The minister came to the Clyde this week to announce his programme to increase the readiness, availability and lethality of the Royal Navy. He said Faslane is “critical to our nation’s defence”.
Luke Pollard confirmed the UK Government is expecting to have more submarines active on the Clyde than there have been for a very long time.
“With the final Astute boats coming online in due course, that will mean we have a sizeable fleet of Astutes and Vanguards. And with Dreadnought coming online and ultimately then SSN-AUKUS, we’ll need new facilities there.”
The Minister confirmed the ship lift at the Faslane base, which has “served us really well for a very long time”, needs replacing.
That work will come under Project Euston, the programme building new submarine support facilities on the Clyde, including floating docks and shoreside infrastructure.
The renewal will be carried out while HMNB Clyde continues as the submarine service’s operating base and while the base itself takes on more refit work.
“We’re seeing more refit work taking place in Faslane that perhaps in the past might have been done in Devonport,” Pollard said. He stressed it “doesn’t in any way remove the importance of Devonport for deep maintenance for submarines”, but reflects the requirement for the fleet that has to be upgraded.
A further £1.1bn will be spent modernising the naval bases at Portsmouth and Devonport under the project outlined in the UK Government’s Defence Investment Plan.
The Ministry of Defence also announced it had bought the Finnart oil terminal on Loch Long to boost the Royal Navy’s capacity to store fuel.
Inchgreen Marine Park near Greenock will have a £20m investment to redevelop one of the UK’s largest operational dry docks.
Scottish Labour deputy leader Dame Jackie Baillie said: “The UK Labour government is making record investment to help transform our armed forces to give them the funding and equipment they need to keep our country safe.
“In an increasingly dangerous and volatile world, that is good news for people here and right across the UK, by ensuring we are better prepared to defend our nation.”
