The ''Valiant'' class were a class of

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fleet submarine A fleet submarine is a submarine with the speed, range, and endurance to operate as part of a navy's battle fleet. Examples of fleet submarines are the British First World War era K class and the American World War II era ''Gato'' class. The t ...

s in service with the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

from the mid-1960s until 1994. They were the first fully British nuclear fleet submarine; the earlier used an American nuclear reactor. There were only two boats in the class, the first, ''Valiant'' (the nameship) commissioned in 1966 three years after ''Dreadnought'', and ''Warspite'' the following year. Both were built by

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Design

The class were based on ''Dreadnought'', but were enlarged by 20 feet (6 m) and had a dived displacement of 4,900 tons compared to 4,000 tons. Improvements made since the original ''Dreadnought'' meant that they ran significantly quieter under main power, and also had a Paxman diesel-electric generator that could be used for silent running. In most other respects (outside the power plant), the ''Valiant''s were identical to ''Dreadnought''. According to former head of the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors R.J. Daniel, when US Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, widely regarded as the father of the nuclear submarine, initially learned of the proposed rafting system for the ''Valiant'' class, (in which ship's machinery is acoustically isolated from the hull by padding known as "rafts"), he was dismissive of the concept, with the result that the Royal Navy gained an advantage in submarine silencing that the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

did not introduce until considerably later. The ''Valiant''s were primarily used in the anti-submarine role, important during the Cold War. In 1967 ''Valiant'' set a

(RN) record of sailing 12,000 miles (19,312 km) submerged in twenty-eight days, from

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to the UK. Both boats received a number of refits, including the capability to use the

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. ''Valiant'' and other nuclear fleet submarines served in the Falklands War in 1982. The ''Valiant''s had long careers: ''Warspite'' was decommissioned in 1991, and ''Valiant'' in 1994, due to cracks being discovered in her primary to secondary cooling system. They were very successful and served as the template for the ballistic missile submarine and subsequent fleet submarines.

Construction Programme

References

Cited footnotes

Cited texts

* ''The Encyclopedia of Warships, From World War Two to the Present Day'', General Editor Robert Jackson {{UK submarine classes after 1945 Nuclear submarines of the Royal Navy

Design

Construction Programme

See also

References

Cited footnotes

Cited texts