The sixth and most recent HMS ''Valiant'' was the second of Britain's

nuclear-powered Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...

submarines, and the first of the two-unit .

Construction

She was ordered on 31 August 1960 and laid down 22 January 1962 at

Vickers-Armstrongs Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, w ...

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of B ...

. The basic design concept was to use the forward design of ''

Dreadnought The dreadnought (alternatively spelled dreadnaught) was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's , had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her ...

'' together with an aft end consisting of all British nuclear machinery based on the

Dounreay Dounreay (; gd, Dùnrath) is a small settlement and the site of two large nuclear establishments on the north coast of Caithness in the Highland area of Scotland. It is on the A836 road west of Thurso. The nuclear establishments were create ...

prototype. She was launched on 3 December 1963 by Lady Thorneycroft, and finally entered service 18 July 1966.

Operational history

She was refitted in 1970, 1977 and 1989. In 1977 ''Valiant'' was trailing a Soviet submarine in the eastern Mediterranean when she suffered a salt water pipe leak, which flooded the reactor compartment with sea water. The reactor was shut down and the compartment pumped dry and after a clean-up of the compartment, the reactor was taken under power again. ''Valiant'' took part in the Falklands War in 1982, arriving in the war zone on 17 May. She transmitted more than 300 early air-warning alerts and spent 101 days on patrol off Argentina's

Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and g ...

n coast. ''Valiant'' suffered minor damage while submerged when an Argentine aircraft coming back from a mission jettisoned its bombs near the submarine. In November 2010, it was reported in

Hansard ''Hansard'' is the traditional name of the transcripts of parliamentary debates in Britain and many Commonwealth countries. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard (1776–1833), a London printer and publisher, who was the first official prin ...

that ''Valiant'' had run aground in the North Norwegian Sea in March 1991.Commons Debate, 2 November 2010
/ref> Following the development of engine trouble in June 1994, she was paid off on 12 August 1994. Her hull and reactor are currently laid up afloat at Devonport Dockyard, Plymouth,

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

, until facilities are available for the long term storage of her radioactive components. ''Courageous'' was selected for the museum ship to represent the SSN fleet of the Royal Navy during the Cold War. Components were removed from ''Valiant'' to restore ''Courageous''.

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Valiant (S102) Valiant-class submarines Falklands War naval ships of the United Kingdom Maritime incidents in 1982 1963 ships Cold War submarines of the United Kingdom