HMNB Clyde

Her Majesty's Naval Base Clyde is the headquarters of the Royal Navy in Scotland, best known as the home of the United Kingdom's nuclear weapons submarines. The base is actually two separate locations:

Faslane, 25 miles from Glasgow.
RNAD Coulport, west of Faslane in Loch Long.

Faslane Naval Base

Faslane Naval Base, situated on the Gare Loch, along with the RN Armaments Depot COULPORT on Loch Long make up HM Naval Base CLYDE. The Faslane site includes HMS Neptune as the Fleet Accommodation Centre thereby retaining a long Naval link with that name. Both the Gareloch and Loch Long are sea lochs extending northwards from the Firth of Clyde. The base serves as home base to the United Kingdom's fleet of Trident nuclear powered and armed submarines, as well as conventional nuclear powered submarines nuclear submarines.

Faslane was first constructed and used as a base in World War II. During the 1960s, the United Kingdom began negotiations with the United States of America regarding the purchase of a Polaris nuclear missile system to be fired from 5 specially constructed submarines. In the end, only four were constructed; Resolution, Repulse, Renown and Revenge. These four submarines were permanently based at Faslane. One boat was always on patrol at any given time. In times of political instability, sometimes two boats would be deployed at sea.

Vanguard class SSBNs

In the 1980s, the British Government announced plans to replace the Polaris submarines with the newly developed Trident missile system, also to be based at Faslane. These submarines were named:

Swiftsure class SSNs

Faslane is also home to the Swiftsure class of hunter-killer submarines (SSNs). The Swiftsure class is the older of the two SSN classes of the Royal Navy and is due to be replaced by the Astute class submarines.

HMS Sovereign recently decommissioned
HMS Superb
HMS Sceptre
HMS Spartan recently decommisioned

Other vessels

The Royal Navy has announced that the Astute-class SSN will also be based at Faslane. Also based there are the Northern Ireland Squadron patrol vessels and Mine countermeasure vessels of the 3rd MCMV Squadron.

The base is the headquarters of Flag Officer Scotland, Northern England and Northern Ireland (FOSNNI), Naval Base Commander (Commodore) and Captain HMS Neptune. It is base to 3,000 service personnel, 800 of their families and 4,000 civilian workers.

Anti-nuclear demonstrations

Given the presence of these nuclear capable missiles, Faslane has attracted demonstrations by Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and other Scottish pressure groups, including Trident Ploughshares. A permanent peace camp is outside the base gates, and there are frequent demonstrations at the base gates. The presence of Faslane is also an issue in Scottish politics. The Scottish National Party, the Scottish Socialist Party, Saor Alba and the Scottish Green Party all oppose the deployment of nuclear weapons, although the Scottish National Party have made assurances that they would retain the base for the servicing of conventionally-armed and -powered naval units. It is not unusual for members of these parties, and indeed some from the Labour Party to be present. Also, some independents, such as George Galloway attend rallies outside Faslane. Such events aim to keep the base closed for as long as possible by preventing its staff from arriving for work, and usually involve large numbers of protestors being arrested for non-violent civil disobedience.

Faslane Peace Camp

Faslane Peace Camp is a permanent camp outside the base. It has been occupied continuously since 1982. It is planned to close in 2007

Big Blockades

The Big Blockade at Faslane Naval Base is an annual event held since 1999 usually in the 2nd week of February, aiming to close the base for 24 hours. The event attracts thousands of peace activists and has on occasion resulted in more than 350 arrests

Faslane 365

There are plans to continuously blockade Faslane Naval Base for a year, using autonomous groups of 100 members. A launch of the action will be held in September.^*

RNAD Coulport

The Royal Naval Armament 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. From here British-designed and built nuclear warheads can be fitted to the Trident missiles (built by Lockheed Martin). Whilst the warheads themselves are British-owned and built, the delivery system is not actually owned by the United Kingdom and instead it has ownership rights to some 58 missiles from a "pool" shared with the U.S. Navy, this is a necessary capability. Whole missiles can be lifted out of or into a submarine, however the missiles are normally serviced at the U.S. Navy facility at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia.

References

Faslane-on-Clyde

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