HMS Resolution (S22)

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HMS Resolution (S22) in 1977.jpg
HMS Resolution in 1977
History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Resolution
OrderedMay 1963
BuilderVickers Shipbuilding Ltd, Barrow-in-Furness
Laid down26 February 1964
Launched15 September 1966
Commissioned2 October 1967
Decommissioned22 October 1994
BadgeShips crest of HMS Resolution (S22).jpg
General characteristics
Class and type Resolution-class ballistic missile submarine
Displacementsurfaced 7,500 tons; submerged 8,400 tons.
Length425 ft (130 m)
Beam33 ft (10 m)
Draught30 ft 1 in (9.17 m)
Propulsion1 × Vickers/Rolls-Royce PWR.1 pressurised-water nuclear reactor, 27,500 shp (20,500 kW); Propeller.
Speed
  • surface: 20 kn (37 km/h)
  • submerged: 25 kn (46 km/h)
RangeUnlimited except by food supplies
Complement143 (two crews)

HMS Resolution (S22) was the first of the Royal Navy's Resolution-class ballistic missile submarines.

A cutaway model of HMS Resolution

Construction[]

Ordered in May 1963, she was built by Vickers Armstrong at a cost of £40.2m. The keel was laid down on 26 February 1964 by the , Sir , and the launch was on 15 September 1966, attended by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The submarine was commissioned on 2 October 1967, and following extensive trials, including the firing of her first Polaris missile on 15 February 1968, commenced her first patrol on 15 June 1968.

Service[]

Her Polaris system was updated in 1984 with the Chevaline IFE (Improved Front End) that included two new warheads and re-entry bodies and penaids, super-hardened to resist ABM attack, replacing the original three ET.317 warheads. Resolution conducted the longest Polaris patrol of 108 days in 1991.

Alleged use during the Falklands War[]

During the early stages of the Falklands War, the BBC World News reported that Resolution was stationed of Buenos Aires. A similar story appeared in 1984 in the New Statesman which alleged that Resolution was sent south, as a means of launching a nuclear attack against Córdoba in the event that a Royal Navy aircraft carrier be sunk.[1]

In reality, Resolution's crew were having to deal with an upsurge of Soviet SSN activity, with Resolution having to take evasive action to avoid a November-class submarine. Despite Soviet efforts, Resolution was never found during her 72-day patrol.[1]

Following the completion of the first Trident-carrying Vanguard-class submarine in 1992, the Resolution class were gradually removed from service. Resolution was decommissioned on 22 October 1994, after 69 patrols, and laid up at the Rosyth Dockyard. She remains in the main basin at Rosyth, intact but with her reactor defuelled; the MOD has yet to finalise plans for removal of the radioactive reactor parts and the scrapping of the boat.[2]

References[]

  1. ^ a b Hennessy, Peter (2016). The silent deep : the Royal Navy Submarine Service since 1945. Penguin Books. pp. 455–456. ISBN 978-0-241-95948-0. OCLC 951120576.
  2. ^ Cameron Buttle (18 November 2011). "Dismantling a nuclear submarine". BBC News.
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