Valiant / Churchill-class

The Valiant class consisted of two nuclear-powered fleet submarines operated by the Royal Navy between 1966 and 1994. Developed as a successor to HMS Dreadnought, these were the first nuclear fleet submarines to utilize a British-built reactor. Vickers Armstrong constructed both vessels, Valiant and Warspite, at Barrow-in-Furness. The class served as the design template for the subsequent Churchill-class fleet submarines and the Resolution-class ballistic missile submarines.

The design was an evolution of the Dreadnought hull, lengthened to accommodate British machinery. Propulsion featured a Rolls-Royce pressurized water reactor and steam turbines. To reduce acoustic signatures, the class utilized a rafting system where machinery was isolated from the hull by acoustic padding. A Paxman diesel-electric generator was also included to facilitate silent running. Outside of the power plant and increased length, the class shared many design characteristics with its predecessor.

The Royal Navy utilized the class primarily for anti-submarine warfare during the Cold War. In 1967, Valiant established a record for the Royal Navy by completing a 12,000-mile submerged transit from Singapore to the United Kingdom in 28 days. During their service lives, both submarines underwent refits to enable the deployment of Harpoon anti-ship missiles. Valiant was among the nuclear-powered fleet submarines deployed during the Falklands War in 1982. Warspite was decommissioned in 1991. Valiant remained in service until August 1994, when it was retired following the discovery of cracks in the primary-to-secondary cooling system.