HMNB Clyde (Faslane) (RN)
Posted: 11 Feb 2016, 14:09
^ HMNB Clyde (Faslane)
Introduction
Her Majesty's Naval Base, Clyde (HMNB Clyde; also HMS Neptune) primarily sited at Faslane is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Devonport and HMNB Portsmouth). It is the service's headquarters in Scotland and is best known as the home of Britain's nuclear weapons, in the form of nuclear submarines armed with Trident missiles.
HMNB Clyde lies on the eastern shore of Gare Loch in Argyll and Bute, to the north of the Firth of Clyde and 25 mi (40 km) west of Glasgow. The submarine base encompasses a number of separate sites, the primary two being:
* Faslane, 25 miles from Glasgow;
* RNAD Coulport, beside Loch Long, 2 mi (3.2 km) west of Faslane.
Faslane is also a Defence Equipment and Support site, operated in dual site organisation with Great Harbour, Greenock, by Babcock Marine and Technology, and managed by Serco Denholm
Faslane Naval Base
Faslane Naval Base, situated on the Gare Loch, and the RN Armaments Depot Coulport on Loch Long, are the primary components of HMNB Clyde. The naval shore establishment at Faslane is HMS Neptune, Naval personnel appointed to the base who do not belong to a seagoing vessel make up Ship's Company. Both the Gare Loch and Loch Long are sea lochs extending northwards from the Firth of Clyde. The base serves as home base to Britain's fleet of Vanguard-class nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed submarines, as well as conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarines, supported by the Fleet Protection Group Royal Marines.
In command of HMNB Clyde is the Naval Base Commander (Clyde), Commodore Mark Adams who succeeded Commodore Keith Beckett in Autumn 2014. The base is home to a number of lodger units including Flag Officer Scotland, Northern England and Northern Ireland (FOSNNI) (who is also Flag Officer Reserves/FORes), the Northern Diving Group and the Scottish Headquarters of the Ministry of Defence Police and Guarding Agency. It is base to 3,000 service personnel, 800 of their families and 4,000 civilian workers, largely from Babcock Marine, forming a major part of the economy of Argyll and Bute and West Dunbartonshire.
Faslane was first constructed and used as a base in World War II. During the 1960s, the British Government began negotiating the Polaris Sales Agreement with the United States regarding the purchase of a Polaris missile system to fire British-built nuclear weapons from five specially constructed submarines. In the end, only four were constructed; HMS Resolution, HMS Repulse, HMS Renown and HMS Revenge. These four submarines were permanently based at Faslane.
Faslane itself was chosen to host these vessels at the height of the Cold War because of its geographic position, which forms a bastion on the relatively secluded but deep and easily navigable Gare Loch and Firth of Clyde on the west coast of Scotland. This position provides for rapid and stealthy access through the North Channel to the submarine patrolling areas in the North Atlantic, through the GIUK gap to the Norwegian Sea. At the time it was chosen, the location was also close to the American SSBN base at Holy Loch, which operated 1961-1992. One boat was always on patrol at any given time. In times of political instability, sometimes two boats would be deployed at sea.
In 1971 the base was home to the 3rd Submarine Squadron of Nuclear Fleet and Diesel Patrol Submarines, “the fighters”, and the 10th Submarine Squadron consisting of the four Polaris submarines, “the bombers”. The base also conducted the training of all submarines before they joined their Squadrons and this was known as ‘work up’.
Faslane Flotilla
Vanguard-class SSBNs
HMS Vanguard
HMS Victorious
HMS Vigilant
HMS Vengeance
Astute-class SSNs
HMS Astute
HMS Ambush
HMS Artful
Sandown-class mine countermeasures vessels
HMS Penzance
HMS Pembroke
HMS Grimsby
HMS Bangor
HMS Ramsey
HMS Blyth
HMS Shoreham
Archer-class patrol vessels
HMS Tracker - Faslane Patrol Boat Squadron
HMS Raider - Faslane Patrol Boat Squadron
HMS Pursuer - University Royal Naval Unit
RNAD Coulport
The Royal Naval Armaments Depot (RNAD) at Coulport, Loch Long is the other major part of HMNB Clyde. RNAD Coulport stores conventional armaments for Royal Navy vessels but is best known for its role in the Trident missile system.
Nuclear weapon storage bunkers have been excavated from a ridge. British-designed and built nuclear warheads can be fitted to Trident missiles (built by Lockheed Martin). The United Kingdom has ownership rights to 58 missiles from a "pool" shared with the US Navy. Whole missiles can be lifted out of or into a submarine, but the missiles are normally serviced at the US Navy facility at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in the US state of Georgia.
Initial construction took place between 1963, when Faslane was chosen as the new Polaris base, and 1968, when the first Polaris boat began its patrol. Safety considerations required that the armament maintenance the and storage facility have its own berth and be at least 4,400 feet (1,300 m) from the main facility whilst operational considerations dictated that the two facilities should be within an hour's sailing time. Coulport, on the opposite peninsula, met both of these requirements. Additional construction took place during the 1980s to support the Trident missile programme.