No current plans to dry dock submarines in Gibraltar, UK minister says

The UK Government said it has no current plans to use Gibraltar for dry docking Royal Navy submarines.

It was responding to a question in the House of Lords from Lord West of Spithead, a former First Sea Lord who also served as Commander in Chief Fleet and Chief of Defence Intelligence.

Lord West asked what plans if any the UK had to make a dry dock in Gibraltar available for use by Royal Navy nuclear submarines.

“Analysis of docking capacity for the maintenance of submarines and warships is the subject of ongoing analysis as part of the Royal Navy’s planning process [and] the Naval Support Integrated Global Network (NSIGN) Programme is an integral part of this,” said Lord Coaker, the Minister of State at the Ministry of Defence, in reply.

“There are no current plans to mandate the use of Gibraltar for submarine dry docking.”

Gibdock, the company that operates the Gibraltar yard, carried out maintenance work on several Royal Navy surface ships including offshore patrol vessels in recent years.