Resolution class submarine

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United Kingdom
Resolution class, HMS Renown
Operators:	Royal Navy
In service:	1966 - 1980
Ships in Class
Ships in class:	4
Ships out of service:	Resolution Repulse Renown Revenge
General Characteristics
Displacement:	surfaced 7,500 tons; submerged 8,400 tons.
Length:	425ft (129.5 m)
Beam:	33ft (10.1 m)
Draught:	30ft 1in
Propulsion and power:	1 × Vickers/Rolls-Royce PWR.2 pressurised-water nuclear reactor, 27,500shp; One pump-jet.
Speed:	surface - 20kt; submerged - 25kt
Complement:	143 (two crews)

The Resolution class submarines were the first British strategic ballistic missile submarines, carrying the Polaris missile. They were first commissioned in the 1960s and decommissioned in the 1990s.

Five boats were planned but only four were completed (Ramillies was to have been the fifth vessel). Traditional battleship names were used, signifying that they were the capital ships of the time.

Vickers Armstrong in Barrow-in-Furness constructed Resolution and Repulse and Cammell Laird in Birkenhead constructed Renown and Revenge. The construction was unusual in that the bow and stern were constructed separately before being assembled together with the American-designed missile compartment.

The design was a modification of the Valiant Class Fleet Submarine, but greatly extended to incorporate the missile compartment between the fin and the nuclear reactor. The length was 130 metres, breadth 10.1 metres, height 9 metres and the displacement 8,400 tons submerged and 7,600 tons surfaced. A Rolls-Royce pressurised water reactor and English Electric turbines gave them a speed of 25 knots and they could dive to depths of 275 m. Sixteen Polaris A3 missiles were carried, in two rows of eight. For emergencies there was a diesel generator and six 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes located at the bow, firing the Tigerfish wire-guided homing torpedoes. The submarines put to sea with a crew of 143.

The first to be completed was the HMS Resolution, laid down in February 1964 and launched in September 1966. After commissioning in 1967 she underwent a long period of sea trials culminating in the test firing of a Polaris missile. Fired from the USAF Eastern Test Range off Cape Kennedy at 11:15 on February 15, 1968. Resolution commenced her first operational patrol on June 15, 1968, beginning 28 years of Polaris patrols. The class were part of the 10th Submarine Squadron, all based at Faslane Naval Base, Scotland.

Upon decommissioning in the 1990s, the reactors were removed and all four submarines were laid up at Rosyth Dockyard.

[edit] Fictional submarines

In the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, the fictional Polaris submarine HMS Ranger is hijacked by the film's main villain.
The 1987 book Skydancer by Geoffrey Archer features a fictional British Polaris submarine, the HMS Retribution.