The Explosion Museum of Naval Firepower is situated in the former

Royal Naval Armaments Depot A Royal Naval Armament Depot (RNAD) is an armament depot (or a group of depots) dedicated to supplying the Royal Navy (as well as, at various times, the Royal Air Force, the British Army, and foreign and Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth f ...

Priddy's Hard Priddy's Hard is a former military installation in Gosport on the south coast of England, named for the original landowner and the firm beach found there. The site originated as a 1750s Fortification, fort, and then became an Weapons, armament ...

, in

Gosport Gosport ( ) is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hampshire, England. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 70,131 and the district had a pop ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, England. It now forms part of the

National Museum of the Royal Navy The National Museum of the Royal Navy was created in early 2009 to act as a single non-departmental public body for the museums of the Royal Navy. With venues across the United Kingdom, the museums detail the history of the Royal Navy operating ...

. The museum includes a wide variety of exhibits ranging from the 18th century to the present day. These range in size from small arms, to missiles and missile launching systems, as well as complete gun turrets. Exhibits range from the Victorian

RBL 20 pounder Armstrong gun The Armstrong Breech Loading 20-pounder gun, later known as RBL 20-pounder, was an early modern 3.75-inch rifled breech-loading light gun of 1859. History The gun was effectively a larger version of the successful RBL 12 pounder 8 cwt Arms ...

through to the Second World War

QF 4 inch Mk XVI naval gun The QF 4 inch Mk XVI gunMk XVI = Mark 16. Britain used Roman numerals to denote marks (models) of ordnance until after World War II. Mark XVI indicates this was the sixteenth model of QF 4 inch gun. was the standard British Commonwealth naval ant ...

. Post-war missile systems include the

Exocet missile The Exocet () is a French-built anti-ship missile whose various versions can be launched from surface vessels, submarines, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. Etymology The missile's name was given by M. Guillot, then the technical directo ...

and launcher and

Sea Dart missile Sea Dart, or GWS.30 was a Royal Navy surface-to-air missile system designed in the 1960s and entering service in 1973. It was fitted to the Type 42 destroyers, the single Type 82 destroyer and the s. Originally developed by Hawker Siddeley, t ...

. Modern weapons are represented in the Sea Wolf missile system and 4.5 inch Mark 8 naval gun. The weapons cover all aspects of naval warfare from surface to surface, air to surface, surface to air and sub-surface weapons systems, including mines and torpedoes. The museum has a waterside coffee shop which looks out on to the original 18th-century camber dock.

Royal Navy Coastal Forces

The Night Hunters: the Royal Navy's Coastal Forces at War is a permanent exhibition gallery opened in 2021 and supported by Coastal Forces Heritage Trust, a

registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

The display includes two historic preserved vessels: *

CMB 331 The cosmic microwave background (CMB, CMBR), or relic radiation, is microwave radiation that fills all space in the observable universe. With a standard optical telescope, the background space between stars and galaxies is almost completely dar ...

– a 1941 55-foot Thornycroft

coastal motor boat Coastal Motor Boat was a small high-speed British torpedo boat used by the Royal Navy in the First World War and up to end of the Second World War. During the First World War, following a suggestion from three junior officers of the Harwich ...

MTB 71 MTB may refer to: Science and medicine * Magnetotactic bacteria * Mediterranean tamarisk beetle * Multilobular tumour of bone, canine disease * ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' Transport and vehicles * Matlock Bath railway station, England; Nat ...

– a 1940 60-foot Vosper motor torpedo boat

References

External links

Explosion Museum of Naval FirepowerGosport Borough CouncilCoastal Forces Heritage Trust
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