Rosyth Royal Navy Dockard

Wednesday, 11th January 2006 by

Between 1984 and 1993 Rosyth Royal Navy Dockard was the UK's sole location for refitting our nuclear submarines. These days the dockyard still does work on Royal Navy ships and is also the storage location for seven of the eleven decommissioned submarines, which you can clearly see in the satellite picture (the other 4 are at Devonport, Plymouth).

The submarines are: The HMS Dreadnought (the oldest of the UK's submarines), HMS Churchill, HMS Swiftsure, HMS Resolution, HMS Repulse, HMS Renown and HMS Revenge. You can see a couple in the background of this ground level photo.

The last four made up the fleet of "Resolution class" submarines, which carried Polaris missiles and served as the UK's nuclear deterrent for over 28 years and 228 unbroken patrols. All seven of the subs have now had their nuclear fuel rods removed but are still potentially dangerous and, worryingly, no-one's quite sure what to do with them :-/

Thanks: subflux & Matthew