Media: UK’s Royal Navy set for overhaul with 24 new vessels to support nuclear submarines

The UK’s Royal Navy is preparing to modernise its ageing auxiliary fleet with the introduction of 24 new support vessels, including tugs vital to guiding Britain’s 1 billion-pound-nuclear submarines through Scotland’s narrow lochs.

The extensive upgrade forms part of an 850 million-pound-investment to be rolled out over the next decade, Caliber.Az reports via The Telegraph.

Among the newly commissioned fleet are six tugs—two of which will be stationed at the Faslane nuclear base on the Clyde. These vessels will be tasked with handling the Astute-class hunter-killer submarines and the Vanguard-class submarines that carry the UK’s Trident nuclear missiles. The Vanguard-class boats are themselves scheduled for replacement in the early 2030s by the next-generation, 17,000-tonne Dreadnought-class submarines.

Four more tugs will be deployed to Devonport Naval Base, which houses frigates and amphibious assault ships. The full set of vessels will be built by Dutch shipbuilder Damen, known for producing specialist marine craft such as tugs and ferries. Portsmouth, the Navy’s main base for surface warships, already operates a new tug named Tempest, also built by Damen. It was commissioned specifically to manoeuvre aircraft carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales.

The new vessels will replace some support boats that have been in service for decades. One such vessel, the Faslane-based Impulse, was built in 1993 and famously towed HMS Astute back to port in 2010 after it ran aground off the coast of Skye. Several tugs in Devonport earmarked for retirement were built prior to the Falklands War. The replacement programme also covers a range of auxiliary craft, including personnel transport vessels, ammunition and fuel barges, barge-mounted cranes, pilot boats, and cleaning ships used to flush out other vessels’ holds. 

By Naila Huseynova