"The UK is committed to maintaining an indigenous submarine base, but the entire enterprise has to change to ensure a sustainable and affordable future. Richard Scott surveys the issues. When the UK government's Defence Industry Strategy (DIS) was published in December 2005, it was unequivocal in its message that the national submarine industrial base was to remain, to all intents and purposes ring fenced. The DIS noted that the UK's fleet of nuclear submarines "requires a specialist subset of skills within the maritime industry" and that there exists continued "duties of nuclear ownership and commitments to the US that can only be filled by close control of an onshore submarine business." These factors made it essential "that the UK retains the capability to safely deliver, operate and maintain these platforms, without significant reliance on unpredictable offshore expertise."