MoD fears for Trident base if Scotland says yes to independence

Whitehall looking at plan to designate home of nuclear fleet as sovereign United Kingdom territory

The British government is examining plans to designate the Scottish military base that houses the Trident nuclear deterrent as sovereign United Kingdom territory if the people of Scotland vote for independence in next year’s referendum.

In a move that sparked an angry reaction from the SNP, which vowed to rid Scotland of nuclear weapons as quickly as possible after a yes vote, the government is looking at ensuring that the Faslane base on Gare Loch in Argyll and Bute could have the same status as the British sovereign military bases in Cyprus.

The move would be designed to ensure that the Trident fleet would continue to have access to the open seas via the Firth of Clyde. Under Britain’s “continuous at sea deterrent”, at least one Vanguard submarine armed with 16 Trident nuclear missiles is on patrol at sea at any one time.

The warnings over Faslane come as the British government issues stark warnings to the people of Scotland about the dangers of independence. But William Walker, professor of international relations at the University of St Andrews, told the Guardian: “Threats and counter threats are going on. The risk the government in London is taking – and I think they are waking up to this – is that it all seems like scaremongering.”

The Ministry of Defence is officially working on only one option for the Faslane base ahead of next year’s Scottish independence referendum – a defeat for the SNP, thereby guaranteeing the survival of the base that has housed the nuclear deterrent since the Polaris era in the 1960s. An MoD spokesperson said: “We are confident that the Scottish people will vote to remain a part of the United Kingdom.”

But MoD officials are starting to examine a two-stage process to ensure that Britain could continue to station the Vanguard submarines at the deep-water Faslane base and store the nuclear warheads at the nearby Coulport base on Loch Long.

The British government would first tell the Scottish government after a yes vote that it would cost tens of billions of pounds over many years to decommission the Faslane base and to establish a new base in England or Wales to house the nuclear fleet.

These costs would have to be factored into severance payments negotiated with the Scottish government before full independence is declared around two years after the referendum.

Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, gave a taste of the costs when he told the house of commons defence select committee last week: “It would cost a significant amount of money.”

As an alternative, the Scottish government would be told it could reduce the costs to Edinburgh if it agreed to allow Faslane to be designated as sovereign UK territory along the lines of the Akrotiri and Dhekelia sovereign base areas (SBAs) in Cyprus.

The base could be designated an SBA for an initial period of 10 years – to allow for decommissioning – if the Scottish government rejects out …read more