Министр обороны Великобритании объявил о масштабной модернизации военно-морской базы в Плимуте

Plymouth will be at the forefront of the transformation of the Royal Navy, Wes Streeting has said during his first visit to HMNB Devonport as defence secretary. The minister met with Plymouth companies at the cutting edge of marine autonomy and saw the latest kit including unmanned surface vehicles and landing craft used by the UK commando forces. He also heard about the upgrade works scheduled for Devonport under Project Royal Oak, a £26 billion ten-year programme to modernise UK naval infrastructure. Devonport is being handed £7.1 billion over the next decade as part of the defence investment plan - the city was named last year as one of five key national defence growth areas. The dockyard, which is already home to royal marines and commando forces, will also become the home of the Royal Navy's new Type 26 frigates. Mr Streeting said the work done at Devonport was “critical to keeping our country safe” and the investment was ensuring it would “remain at the heart of our naval power for generations to come, and continue to push the frontier of defence innovation." “From our commando forces ready to deploy at a moment's notice, to our navy personnel and industry who maintain our submarines – Plymouth is a city where defence runs in the blood,” he said. Devonport is the only facility in the UK responsible for the deep maintenance and defueling of the Royal Navy's nuclear submarine fleet. Its maintenance work underpins the UK's continuous at-sea deterrent by keeping the submarine fleet available and operational, while its defueling capability supports the decommissioning of older submarines at the end of their service life. “This is a really exciting time for Devonport and for people right across Plymouth," continued Mr Streeting. “Not only is there proud heritage and history here there is also a bright future as well.” He said it would come with new jobs and new opportunities and the safeguarding of the shipyard here for generations to come. Some 7,500 jobs are expected to be tied to Babcock International at Devonport Dockyard over the next decade which includes 5,500 roles needed to maintain ongoing defence operations and 2,000 temporary construction positions. Plymouth’s growth in the defence, marine and green sectors means the city is preparing for 25,000 new jobs by 2035 and the city council has a plan to build 10,000 new homes. Mr Streeting said he would be “banging the drum” at national level for the homes, skills, infrastructure and transport links needed to make sure Plymouth would thrive. Team Plymouth, an alliance made up of local and national government, the military, industry, and education to maximise the government investments, would be a key part of driving that. “I know that with opportunity comes a lot of work,” he said. “We have a great relationship with Plymouth especially with the council and leader Tudor Evans (Lab, Ham). “We are working as one team as we want Plymouth to be a great place to live as well as having an amazing shipyard that is at the forefront of defence innovation.” He said work was underway to start recycling the 13 retired nuclear submarines at the dockyard which were a concern to people living in close proximity and that programme would be “accelerated over time”. Despite being the largest naval base in Western Europe it also had capacity issues. “I know this is a concern for the local community but it is too for me as defence secretary because I want to see that space freed up for what we need to support and service our modern navy,” he said. He also addressed the controversial sale of the warship HMS Bullwark, based at Devonport, to the Brazilian Navy which sold at a knockdown price following a £72 million refit. “We have got eight new ships coming in as part of the defence investment plan to build the modern capability we need with a whole new range of technology," he said. "It is a huge part of the story for the Royal Navy. Where we can do we are selling on some older vessels and otherwise decommissioning.” The new modern 'hybrid navy' will use crewed and uncrewed vessels above and below the surface working alongside each other as an integrated system. Anahita Laverack is the CEO of Oshen at Turnchapel Wharf which is a company making small robots designed to monitor the ocean. She said she had chosen Plymouth over Southampton and Bristol because of the easy ways to test her product at sea, the access to talent and universities and naval heritage. “When we moved to Plymouth we had three people working for the business, now we have 30 and multiple contracts around the world.” “It is really nice to be at Turnchapel Wharf where there is a community of other businesses working in the same sector,” she said. Plymouth was named as the UK’s national centre for marine autonomy last year and is a global leader in this field with many businesses expressing an interest to set up in the city. Head of force development for the Royal Navy Mo Magzoub said there was no intention for uncrewed vessels to replace people. “They will complement what we have so we increase in mass, capability and resilience,” he said. MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport and minister for defence readiness and industry in Wes Streeting's department Luke Pollard said visiting Devonport so early in his tenure gave the secretary of state an opportunity to learn about the incredible work that was being done in Plymouth and the "success story" that was Devonport. "It also allows him to understand the challenges, how do we make sure we are building a modern navy creating jobs for the future, recycling our old submarines which for so long have choked up the dockyard here and make sure the new amphibious transport ships that we have announced are coming online supporting our royal marines." He said MPs would keep pushing for better transport links like a Plymouth metro service to make it easier for people to access jobs. "We have some big challenges but these are big opportunities," he said. "We have a government that is backing us, a council that is backing us, a military that is backing us, now is the time for us to back ourselves to really get behind the potential here."