Special Report February 2007
ROYAL NAVY COMMENTARY SPECIAL

OUR PLAN FOR THE FUTURE OF THE ROYAL NAVY

by Iain Ballantyne

With the Ministry of Defence undertaking a naval base review in which it is feared one of the surviving major naval bases will be shut, here we present our proposals for retaining support infrastructure that will meet UK defence needs.

portsmouth

The strike carriers Ark Royal and Illustrious alongside at Portsmouth. Photo: Ralph Edwards

Portsmouth is a crowded and small naval base in comparison with Plymouth’s Devonport Naval Base and its associated Royal Dockyard.

A few years back one of the many commercial vessels that operate from the Hampshire port was in collision with a Type 23 frigate, causing a considerable amount of damage, such is the jostling for sea room. Pompey (as Portsmouth is colloquially known) has limited potential for fleet support and can be concentrated around its northern end. The Vosper Thornycroft (VT) ship construction facility and also training bases in the local area together with the Fleet Headquarters at Whale Island should also be retained.

Warships will still be able to operate from Portsmouth when needed, and it could remain home to the Off-shore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) and some Mine Counter-Measure Vessels (MCMVs), but VT will shoulder the cost of running the wharves and jetties they use. In addition to building Type 45s, megablocks of the future carriers, next generation frigates and new Off-Shore Patrol Vessels, Portsmouth could be allocated sufficient work on Type 42s and Type 45s, enough to keep its maintenance ability going, but no more.

Portsmouth is a thriving, bustling commercial port, close to London and part of the sprawling Solent conurbation, with much potential for economic redevelopment of its centrally located naval base, which will continue to have an extraordinary naval heritage enclave centred on the ships Victory, Warrior and Mary Rose, together with the Royal Naval Museum.

New luxury apartment blocks are already being built right next to the naval base and the Navy has proposed selling off the Wardroom, which is separated by a public road from the main base, although it has yet to be confirmed. The transfer of headquarters facilities from within Portsmouth Naval Base (PNB) to Whale Island has made the whole process of taking other elements out of PNB a lot easier. Portsmouth will remain the HQ of the Royal Navy.

FASLANE & ROSYTH

Base the future carriers at Rosyth Dockyard along with the Type 45s and surviving Type 42 destroyers (Rosyth was a Type 42 base until the early 1990s). It makes huge sense to have the future carriers based where they are built and Rosyth was, after all, built shortly before WW1 as a home for capital ships. Rosyth could be restricted to refits on the carriers and the occasional Type 45 and Type 42. It also has plenty of room for such ships.

Now that the Fleet Air Arm’s Harrier squadrons are based in the north of England, Rosyth is the best base for carriers to operate from when conducting air group integration.  When Illustrious and Ark Royal, the two remaining current generation carriers, emerged from their recent refits at Rosyth they carried out sea trials and also air group work up in the North Sea, so the pattern has already been established.

There is also easy access to the exercise areas and bombing ranges off northern Scotland where US Navy super-carriers have in recent years perfected their combat skills, so why not the UK’s new flagships? If, and when, Scotland becomes independent, the Royal Navy can agree a lease on the base and dockyard at Rosyth, much in the same way that the British have remained in Cyprus for the last half century. Faslane is more tricky.  For the time being there is no alternative but to operate the ballistic missile boats and some hunter-killers from the Clyde.
It might, however, be wise to continue operating only half the Astute Class, and subsequent new generation attack boats from Scotland. This is because an independent Scotland is likely to be a nuclear-free zone. Some form of submarine operating base will have to be retained south of the border. It will be inevitable that some warships will continue to be built north of the border but Portsmouth will obviously be keen to win a larger proportion of the work and Plymouth’s dockyard is eager to get in the construction game.

DEVONPORT

The Vanguard Class ballistic missile submarine HMS Victorious arrives at Devonport Dockyard for her current major refit. Photo: DML.

Plymouth should be reinforced as the strategic and operational hub of the Royal Navy. The amphibious ships - Ocean, Albion and Bulwark - are already based at Devonport Naval Base, near the bulk of 3 Commando Brigade (the troops the ships carry on front line operations) and rationalisation of Royal Marine bases should bring 539 Assault Squadron, 1 Assault Squadron, and possibly even the Special Boat Service together in new facilities on redundant areas of the vast Devonport Dockyard.

This will enable the closing of bases and sale of land on the edge of Plymouth Sound and at Poole in Dorset, both sites much desired by developers.  The Type 23 and Type 22 frigates should all be operated from, and refitted at, Devonport, which should also be allocated refits on amphibious ships and survey vessels, as well as vessels of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. HMS Endurance can finally be based in Plymouth alongside the four other vessels of the Hydrographic Squadron and the school that trains the sailors who crew them.

As it is a vital part of the country’s strategic defence, with irreplaceable submarine refit skills, Devonport Dockyard should continue to refit and maintain current and future generation attack submarines (SSNs) and ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs), as well as provide other support for the Fleet.

With a full class of six or maybe seven Astute Class submarines built there is no reason why some, if not all, of them cannot operate from Devonport at some future date, following on from the Trafalgar Class SSNs, currently based in the Devon maritime city.

Plymouth would continue to be the home of the Operational Sea Training organisation, with good access to training areas in the South West Approaches.

Plymouth is also conveniently near to both the Royal Marines for expeditionary warfare task group work-ups and the two principal helicopter bases, in Cornwall and Somerset (RNAS Culdrose and RNAS Yeovilton).

The recent reports of a possible take-over of Devonport Dockyard by BAE Systems could be good news. It would commit the Defence giant to a future investment in Plymouth, to underwrite all of the above. BAE Systems’ previous plan involved buying out Rosyth Dockyard in Scotland, in order to obtain nuclear submarine refit work by basically killing off Devonport and switching the work north of the Border. The risks of such a strategy are now all too clear and it is apparent Devonport must be safeguarded.

• For more reports on US and British naval forces in the Gulf, see WARSHIPS IFR magazine.