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Britain’s fleet of submarines is “underfunded and under-resourced”, former Navy officers and defence officials have warned, after it was revealed that six attack boats have been stuck in port due to a lack of repair docks.
The new Astute-class “hunter-killer” submarines are designed to sink ships and submarines, and protect vessels that carry the UK’s nuclear deterrent.
The nuclear-powered boats can also hit targets on land when submerged with their cruise missiles and deploy torpedoes to defeat enemy submarines.
But none of the class has completed an operational voyage so far this year, while one has been held at Faslane in Scotland, the HMNB Clyde, for two years, according to a report in The Sun newspaper and confirmed by people familiar with the situation.
Admiral Lord Alan West, former First Sea Lord and ex-Labour security minister, told the Financial Times: “Over a number of years now, because of underfunding, our forces have been hollowed out. The area that has been most affected in infrastructure, spares, maintenance, training and manpower.”
“Those are things that give you availability, so it’s not surprising what’s happened to the submarine force. The attack submarines are critical to our ability to defeat Putin should there be a war,” he added.
Rear Admiral Chris Parry, a retired Royal Navy officer, said Britain’s “nuclear enterprise” is “underfunded, under-resourced”.
“People have underestimated the amount of maintenance they require on a routine basis. Frankly it’s costing more and more and they’re trying to eke out the maintenance,” he added.
Concerns over the capacity of dockyards to carry out maintenance on the fleet were raised last year after it emerged that HMS Audacious had been tied up outside one of Devonport’s docks since spring 2023.
The work requires nuclear-licensed docks but there are only two sites in the UK capable of lifting a submarine fully out of the water: Devonport in Plymouth and Faslane in Scotland.
One of the challenges was that the ship lift at Faslane had temporarily been out of action, according to people familiar with the matter, adding that it was now back in working order.
Babcock International, which maintains the Royal Navy’s submarines at Devonport, last year secured a £750mn government contract to upgrade the port’s infrastructure.
Of the other boats, HMS Ambush has been at Faslane in Scotland since August 2022, while HMS Artful has also been in dock since 2023. The only Astute-class submarine to go to sea this year has been HMS Anson. It successfully took part in sea trials in the spring.
The Astute class is replacing the older, Trafalgar class boats. Only HMS Triumph, the last Trafalgar-class submarine, has been on a mission this year.
Tobias Ellwood, former Tory chair of the Commons defence select committee, warned that the lack of available attack submarines “has a severe impact” on the missions that the UK carries out.
The attack submarines, he added, are the “only vessel that can fire Tomahawk missiles, which means if you want to take out Houthi launch sites or strike deep into land targets we have to task a submarine or send Typhoons down to fire Storm Shadows, an equivalent”.
“The restrictions placed on the Astute class mean we’re not able to provide the necessary global deterrence and swift response that we’d expect from our Royal Navy,” he added.
A person close to the matter insisted the combination of aircraft, ships and submarines typically used, meant the Navy had been able to respond to any activity and that Britain’s waters were always fully protected.
Given recent investment in infrastructure and the fact that the ship lift had now been fixed, “we are expecting a much improving picture in the latter half of this year”, added the source.
Babcock told the FT that the “planned maintenance periods on both HMS Audacious and HMS Victorious are already under way at Devonport”.
The Royal Navy said: “You’ll understand we never talk about submarine operations, but rest assured British waters are always fully protected with a range of assets including warships, patrol aircraft and submarines.”
