Royal Navy to replace ageing tug fleet
The Royal Navy plans to replace the tugs that guide Britain's £1bn nuclear submarines through narrow Scottish lochs as part of an overhaul of its ageing support vessels.
Six tugs, including two that will operate at the Faslane nuclear base on the Clyde, are among 24 support boats due to be ordered under an £850m contract over the next decade.
The tugs will be responsible for towing Astute-class hunter-killer submarines and Britain's four Vanguard-class vessels that carry Trident nuclear missiles, which are themselves due to be replaced with 17,000-tonne Dreadnought subs from the early 2030s.
The programme also involves the deployment of four new tugs to Devonport, a base for frigates and amphibious vessels. All of the craft are due to be built by Dutch shipbuilder Damen, which produces tugs, ferries and specialist craft.
Portsmouth, the main base for the Navy's surface warships, already has a new supertug, the Tempest, which was commissioned from Damen to help manoeuvre aircraft carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales.
The new vessels will replace some that are decades old, including the Faslane-based tug Impulse, which was built in 1993 and helped bring HMS Astute back to port in 2010 after the submarine ran aground off Skye during sea trials.
Some of the tugs scheduled to be retired in Devonport were built before the Falklands War.
Also due for replacement are vessels that transport personnel between warships in port, ammunition barges, barge-mounted cranes, a pilot vessel and a fuel barge, as well as craft that flush out the holds of other ships.
Support services company Serco will be responsible for procuring the new fleet following a contract award from the Ministry of Defence.
The company's marine services arm operates more than 90 vessels and has been supporting the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Royal Fleet Auxiliary for 28 years, although the latest renewal is the biggest it will have taken on.
Anthony Kirby, Serco's boss, said the modernisation programme was vital to provide the Navy with 'the support it requires, day in, day out'.
Serco was also awarded a five-year contract to support military training exercises at the British Underwater Test and Evaluation Centre, a marine firing range near Skye.
A third contract spanning 10 years includes offshore support for training exercises involving the Victoria and the Northern River, which carry rapid pursuit craft used by the Special Boat Service.
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