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 for ...

Priddy's Hard Priddy's Hard is a former military installation in Gosport, England. The site originated as a 1750s Fortification, fort, and then became an Weapons, armaments depot for Royal Navy and British Army weapons, explosives and other stores. The site ...

, in

Gosport Gosport ( ) is a town and non-metropolitan borough on the south coast of Hampshire, South East England. At the 2011 Census, its population was 82,662. Gosport is situated on a peninsula on the western side of Portsmouth Harbour, opposite t ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. 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 o ...

. 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 British ordnance terms#RBL, RBL 20-pounder, was an early modern 3.75-inch Rifled breech-loader, rifled breech-loading light gun of 1859. History The gun was effectively a larger vers ...

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 director ...

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 (United Kingdom and Argentina), Type 82 destroyer and s of the Royal Navy. Originally ...

. Modern weapons are represented in the Sea Wolf missile system and

4.5 inch Mark 8 naval gun The 4.5 inch Mark 8 is a British naval gun system which currently equips the Royal Navy's destroyers and frigates, and some British destroyers and frigates sold to other countries. Background Guns with a 4.5 inch calibre have been t ...

. 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, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a ch ...

. The display includes two historic preserved vessels: *

CMB 331 In Big Bang cosmology the cosmic microwave background (CMB, CMBR) is electromagnetic radiation that is a remnant from an early stage of the universe, also known as "relic radiation". The CMB is faint cosmic background radiation filling all spa ...

– a 1941 55-foot Thornycroft coastal motor boat * MTB 71 – 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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