HMS ''Resolution'' (S22) was the first of the Royal Navy's ballistic missile

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

s. She operated from 1968 until 1994 providing the UK

Polaris Polaris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris ( Latinized to ''Alpha Ursae Minoris'') and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. With an apparent magnitude that ...

at sea nuclear deterrent.

Construction

The submarine was ordered on 21 May 1963 with Vickers Armstrong at a cost of £40.2m. The keel was laid down at Barrow-in-Furness on 26 February 1964 by the Director General Ships, Sir Alfred Sims. She was launched was on 15 September 1966, attended by

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was the l ...

. After fitting out, she proceeded to sea on 22 June 1967. The submarine was commissioned on 2 October 1967, and following extensive trials, including the firing of her first

Polaris missile The UGM-27 Polaris missile was a two-stage solid-fueled nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). As the United States Navy's first SLBM, it served from 1961 to 1980. In the mid-1950s the Navy was involved in the Jupiter missile ...

on 15 February 1968, commenced her first patrol on 14 June 1968. To ensure continous operation, she was the first Royal Navy submarine to operate with two dedicated crews, who would relieve each other, known as port and starboard respectively.

Service

The ship was assigned to the

10th Submarine Squadron (United Kingdom) The 10th Submarine Squadron was an administrative unit of the Royal Navy. History The squadron was formed at HMNB Clyde, Faslane, Scotland, in the 1960s to direct the Resolution-class submarines equipped with Polaris missiles that formed part o ...

where it operated as the first of the UKs new Polaris based nuclear deterrent. Her Polaris system was updated in 1984 with the ''

Chevaline Chevaline () was a system to improve the penetrability of the warheads used by the British Polaris nuclear weapons system. Devised as an answer to the improved Soviet anti-ballistic missile defences around Moscow, the system increased the pro ...

'' 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 ET.317 was a thermonuclear weapon of the British Royal Navy, developed for the UK version of the UGM-27 Polaris missile. Development The US Polaris A-3T warhead was the US W58. Britain considered but never used the W58 because the British safety ...

warheads. ''Resolution'' conducted the longest patrol of any Polaris submarine being at sea for 108 days in 1991.

Alleged use during the Falklands War

During the early stages of the

Falklands War The Falklands War ( es, link=no, Guerra de las Malvinas) was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial de ...

, the BBC World News reported that ''Resolution'' was stationed off 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. HMS resolution model

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.

Decommission

Following the completion of the first Trident-carrying 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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Resolution (S22) 1966 ships Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness Cold War submarines of the United Kingdom Resolution-class submarines