Naval Base Review,Naval Estate Review

Is it me or have things gone really quiet, out the loop a bit, so anyone know when these reviews will be published?

 

Probably waiting for Broon to get his shit in one sock - this WILL be a political decision.

 

Ooooh it's all a bit too difficult, lets put it off for a while?

 

According to the local rag in Guzz, it's been put back until October - obviously waiting for "another day to bury bad news" ..............

 

The 27th July would be a good day to release it, just after Parliament has gone on holiday (until 8 October).

 

from a man who might know a thing or two. Costings still being done, initial recommendations heading upwards... or that is what i heard

 

Latest is, of the nine original options we are down to three.
1. Keep all 3 Bases
2. Close Portsmouth
3. Shrink Devonport (i.e. frigates to pompey, FOST and Amphibs stay in Plymouth)

 

You are correct on this point.

NBR has been shelved until the Autumn...

Option 2 is now dead guys

 

I think people will believe that when they see the CVF ordered and Dopy Des (whoever looks after the office when he's in Scotland) make the NBR announcement.......

 

caught a bit on the news last night that pompey MP's are pushing for an announcement before summer

 

Babcock Thorn Just aquired Devonport, these guys go where the work is. Pompy will shrink. Isn't BABCOCK a company from over the POND?

BIBO ERG SUM!

 

Wasn't Halliburton?

As for option three - Devonport keeps marines and submarines and FOST I'm sure I said this some months ago when it was first mooted!

Where did FOST used to play? Portland! why? nobody else there! Before that? (WWII) Londonderry! Why? nobody else there! now Devonport! why? ?........... watch this space for more nasty predictions concerning the modern Fishery Protection Service!

 

YES and food for thought

 

I would have thought that the reason they were on their own was that no-one would want to be near them...

 

Stole this from a site I use, may be of interest.

Navys New Carriers could be based at Faslane



Exclusive by IAN BRUCE, Defence Correspondent July 05 2007

The Faslane submarine base on the Clyde could end up as home port to Britain’s planned 3.8bn aircraft carriers as well as the Trident nuclear deterrent squadron, under proposals being considered by naval chiefs.

Insiders say plans to scrap one of the Royal Navy’s three remaining bases - Faslane, Portsmouth or Devonport - have now been abandoned in favour of efficiency savings of more than 30m a year at each site and a redistribution of warships.

Portsmouth, known as “Pompey†to generations of sailors back to Nelson’s time, had been targeted for closure but is understood to have been saved from the Treasury axe
because of its historic claim to be the spiritual home and headquarters of the Navy

A final decision on the bases’ future was expected this spring but has been postponed until autumn while the Ministry of Defence fights for extra cash in Whitehall’s departmental spending review.

Naval sources say the go-ahead for construction of the two 65,000-tonne carriers will be made at the same time, triggering an internal battle over where they will be based when they enter service from around 2015.

One insider told The Herald: “Portsmouth is too restricted and the notoriously shallow channel to the naval base there would have to be dredged constantly to give clearance for ships of that displacement.

“Plymouth’s Devonport base has similar problems and is a navigational nightmare.

“That leaves Faslane. Even at low tide, a 65,000-tonne warship has enough clearance to dock there in a superbly sheltered anchorage.

“The Clyde complex also has some leeway for accommodating the extra logistical back-up the carriers would need.â€

Faslane, with more than 6000 civilian and military employees and an annual operating budget of 270m, is already Scotland’s single largest industrial employer. The alternatives to using one of the existing naval bases as the carriers’ home port would be to establish a new, purpose-built facility with deep-water access or to re-open Rosyth in the Firth of Forth. The naval base there was closed in 1994 after more than 80 years as a major naval hub.

The first is deemed unlikely on cost grounds and the second, although attractive from the point of view of proven conditions needed for handling huge warships, would also be expensive and politically contentious.

It lies next to Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Kirkcaldy and Dunfermline East constituency.

 

interesting.........which site is it from hig?
as for the rosyth bit- our present carriers only just clear the forth bridge so the new ones won't fit.
does any one know if the astutes will be based in faslane or going to guz?

 

Hig,

The biz on the street is that they will make them smaller than first concept, and have a look at what is happening on the north shore of SOUTHAMTON, no problems with navigation streight in and out now waiting for tide windows. Makes sence to me

 

From a man on the project (not me), new carriers will fit into Rosyth (and Beith is up there...)

Carriers could quite easily be accommodated at Faslane (or Coulport!!) - all skimmers live onboard, Wafus not onboard alongside, engineering and logistics infrastructure in place.

Astute jetty being built on South side of Clyde, due to be moved over to Faslane within 12 mths.

 

The New Carriers will no doubt be based somewhere in the back of the mind and no doubt stay there! But IF they do happen somewhere up the Clyde is no doubt the best place for them - for several reasons! Not least that no 'nasties' will get at them up there (Just think, all the Jocks clamouring to be on the things nobody likes - carriers) leave the 'small'? ships for the rest! (see every silver lining has a cloud round it! or something like that!!)

 

"does any one know if the astutes will be based in faslane or going to guz? "

ASTUTES will be based in Faslane, they will only go to Guzz (on current plans) for Major Upkeep periods. When we get down to only 3 T boats left, then they will become Faslane based as well (IMHO), probably after their final upkeep periods.