UK Royal Navy dock build question remains open ahead of Programme Euston tender
HMS Audacious arrives at HM Naval Base Clyde, joining the Royal Navy’s Submarine Flotilla. (Photo: UK MoD/Crown copyright)
The UK MoD’s Programme Euston floating dry dock tender has exposed a question about the UK’s naval industrial base: does Britain still have the depth to sustain its own deterrent without foreign intervention.
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) is working through a tender for floating dry docks that will be central to the Royal Navy’s (RN) nuclear submarine maintenance capacity at HM Naval Base Clyde (Faslane). The programme is codenamed Programme Euston and formally the Additional Fleet Time Docking Capability (AFTDC).
As reported by The Sunday Times on 9 May 2026, while MoD policy dictates that infrastructure work performed within the boundaries of Faslane must be carried out by British companies, no such stipulation has been confirmed for the construction of the floating docks themselves. That ambiguity has drawn opposition from trade
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