THE Ministry of Defence has unveiled plans to build a new submarine training facility at Faslane on the Gare Loch.

The plans for the new Submarine Escape, Rescue, Abandonment and Survivability (SMERAS) training complex were published on the website of the local planning authority, Argyll and Bute Council, on Friday.

The planned new facility forms part of the expansion of HM Naval Base Clyde, which will become the home of all the UK’s submarine service personnel, and their associated shoreside infrastructure, by 2020.

The facility, if approved, will include an ‘abandonment and sea survival training tank’ along with meeting rooms, storage rooms, classrooms, plant rooms and a toilet and shower area, together with a new access road.

The MoD’s Defence Infrastructure Organisation has earmarked an undeveloped wooded area on the Faslane site, parallel to the A814 and bounded by sports pitches to the south and the base’s Respiratory Test Facility to the north, for the construction of the new three-storey building, which would have a total floor space of almost 3,600 square metres.

The unveiling of the training centre plans follows the submission by the MoD of planning applications over the last year for a significant expansion of accommodation provision at Faslane and a major extension to an existing training facility.

The UK government is spending £1.3 billion on the expansion of the Clyde naval base, which will become home to all the UK’s attack submarines by 2020, in addition to the Vanguard-class Trident submarines already based in Scotland.

The expansion will see the on-site workforce at the base increase from 6,800 to 8,200, while it’s thought a further 1,000 construction jobs could be created as a result of the expansion of the site.

The latest application will be determined in due course by Argyll and Bute Council’s planning officers.