LIVING up to her name, HMS Vanguard has been leading the way for her sisters as the boats which carry the nation’s nuclear deterrent undergo a programme of long-term overhauls at Devonport Naval Base.

The 15,900-ton submarine entered her LOP (Long Overhaul Period) just over three years ago, and returned to her home base of Faslane in Scotland just before Christmas.

The refit included a refuelling of her Rolls-Royce pressurised water reactor with the new Core H, which will see her through to the end of her service with the Royal Navy.

The Senior Service assumed responsibility for the UK nuclear deterrent in the late 1960s when HMS Resolution took over the mantle from the RAF’s V-bomber force and free-fall weapons.
The new submarines were capable of delivering long-range accurate Polaris missiles launched from a platform which was hard to detect.

The Resolution-class boats soldiered on for 25 years, but were replaced in 1994 by the Vanguard class, which was almost twice as big and a huge step forward in technology and capability.

Ironically, as the bigger boats were introduced, the old order was breaking down, and with the collapse of the Soviet bloc came a new regime for the ‘bombers’.

They now operate at a reduced state of readiness – generally at a few days’ notice to fire, rather than a few minutes as was the case – and they carry fewer warheads.

The principal of continuous deterrence still holds, however, and at least one boat is always on patrol, while the range of tasks they can carry out is now wider, including gathering hydrographic information.

Vanguard bears one of the most revered names in Royal Navy annals, and her list of Battle Honours – stretching to 15 – proves the current boat’s predecessors were generally in the thick of the action.
The first of ten Vanguard, a galleon, appeared in 1586 and fought the Armada, and the following 300 years saw a further five ships, three of them third rates and one a second rate.
The first of three battleships to bear the name was built by Laird in 1870 but sank in a collision with HMS Iron Duke five years later.
The next, displacing almost 20,000 tons, served in World War I and was sunk in Scapa Flow in 1917 by an internal explosion, though she was later raised.
The ninth Vanguard was a massive 42,500 tons and arrived late in World War II.
She was sent for breaking up in the summer of 1960 – ironically to Faslane, where her successor is now based.

Facts and Figures
Class:	Vanguard-class strategic missile submarine
Pennant number:	S28
Builder:	Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd (VSEL), Barrow-in-Furness
Launched:	March 4, 19992
Commissioned:	August 14, 1993
Length:	149.9 metres
Beam:	12.8 metres
Draught:	12 metres
Displacement:	15,900 tons dived
Machinery:	1 Rolls-Royce pressurised water reactor (PWR 2); two GEC turbines; one shaft; two auxiliary retractable propulsion motors
Speed:	25 knots dived
Weapons:	Up to 16 Lockheed Trident ballistic missiles; four 21in tubes for Marconi Spearfish wire-guided torpedoes
Sensors:	Navigation radar - Kelvin Hughes Type 1007; I-band; Sonars - includes Marconi/Ferranti Type 2046 towed array, Type 2043 hull-mounted active/passive search and Type 2082 passive intercept and ranging.
Complement:	135 (14 officers)

(Ship of the Month March 2005)

Join Ship of the Month and receive a new postcard sized photograph every month!
Each month Navy News looks at a different ship, her compliment, armoury, propulsion and her recent activities. Join the many subscribers who have been collecting Ship of the Month since 1969. more>