HMS Valiant (S102): Britain's Second Nuclear Submarine

Constructed at Barrow

HMS Valiant was built by Vickers-Armstrongs at Barrow-in-Furness, ordered on 31 August 1960, laid down on 22 January 1962, launched on 3 December 1963 by Lady Thorneycroft and commissioned on 18 July 1966, Britain's second nuclear-powered submarine and the lead boat of the Valiant class, combining the forward hull design of HMS Dreadnought with an entirely British nuclear propulsion system based on the Dounreay prototype reactor.

A Frightening Leak

In 1977, while trailing a Soviet submarine in the Mediterranean, Valiant suffered a saltwater pipe leak that flooded her reactor compartment, a remarkably dangerous incident that could have ended far more seriously than it did, and one that underlined the constant hazards inherent in operating nuclear machinery at sea, particularly during the kind of sensitive intelligence-gathering missions that defined so much of the Cold War submarine service.

The Falklands War

Valiant arrived in the South Atlantic on 17 May 1982 during the Falklands War and spent 101 days on patrol, transmitting more than 300 air-warning alerts back to the Task Force, a vital contribution to the fleet's air defence even without a single torpedo fired in anger. On 23 May 1982, she sustained minor damage when Argentine fighter jets jettisoned bombs nearby while attempting to evade her.

The End of Her Service

Valiant ran aground in the North Norwegian Sea in March 1991, an incident that only became public knowledge in 2010, and was decommissioned on 12 August 1994 following engine trouble that June.

She remains laid up at Devonport Dockyard, awaiting the long-term storage facilities needed to deal with her radioactive components, though some of her parts have already been salvaged to help restore the museum ship HMS Courageous, ensuring that a piece of the lead Valiant-class boat lives on in preservation.