diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 221ba17b98c15381d04fce1a836cbab35acdfbe9..32ab644a8b0b23edea36a9634c1d8e2fc0afa06b 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -81,6 +81,22 @@ variables:
 #
 # PREPARE BASE STAGE
 #
+prepare_ci_base_docker_image:
+  stage: prepare-base
+  rules:
+  - if: '$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH !~ /Front-End-Only/'
+  before_script:
+    - *prepare_registry
+  script:
+    - docker pull ${REGISTRY_PATH}/ci_base:latest || true
+    - docker build -t ${REGISTRY_PATH}/ci_base:$CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA -f  Docker/lofar-ci/Dockerfile_ci_base .
+    - docker tag ${REGISTRY_PATH}/ci_base:latest ${REGISTRY_PATH}/ci_base:$CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA
+    - docker push ${REGISTRY_PATH}/ci_base:$CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA
+  interruptible: true
+  allow_failure: true # current image is based on CentOS 7, for which some repositories are now down
+  when: manual # JS 20241211: we rarely need to build and deploy the LTA/SCU images. Code base hardly changes. If we do need to build and deploy them, then fix them. For now, accept the broken image, and do not build to save resources and failure warnings.
+
+
 prepare_ci_base_ubuntu_docker_image:
   stage: prepare-base
   rules: