HMS Resolution (S22)
Template:Short description Template:Other ships Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English
Template:Infobox ship imageTemplate:Infobox ship careerTemplate:Infobox ship characteristicsHMS Resolution (S22) was the first of the Royal Navy's Template:Sclass ballistic missile submarines.<ref name="RossBishop2016">Template:Cite book</ref> She operated from 1968 until 1994 providing the UK Polaris at sea nuclear deterrent.<ref name="RossBishop2016"/>
Construction
The submarine was ordered on 21 May 1963 with Vickers Armstrong at a cost of £40.2m.<ref name="Hall2018">Template:Cite book</ref>
The keel was laid down at Barrow-in-Furness on 26 February 1964 by the Director General Ships, Sir Alfred Sims.<ref name="JinksHennessy236">Template:Cite book</ref>
She was launched was on 15 September 1966, attended by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.<ref name="JinksHennessy248">Template:Cite book</ref> After fitting out, she proceeded to sea on 22 June 1967.<ref name="JinksHennessy248"/> The submarine was commissioned on 2 October 1967, and following extensive trials, including the firing of her first Polaris missile on 15 February 1968, commenced her first patrol on 14 June 1968.<ref name="JinksHennessy260">Template:Cite book</ref> To ensure continuous operation, she was the first Royal Navy submarine to operate with two dedicated crews, who would relieve each other, known as port and starboard respectively.<ref name="JinksHennessy248"/>
Service
The ship was assigned to the 10th Submarine Squadron (United Kingdom) where it operated as the first of the UKs new Polaris based nuclear deterrent.<ref name="Hall2018"/>
Her Polaris system was updated in 1984 with the Chevaline IFE (Improved Front End) that included two new warheads and re-entry bodies and penaids, super-hardened to resist ABM attack, replacing the original three ET.317 warheads.
Resolution conducted the longest patrol of any Polaris submarine being at sea for 108 days in 1991.<ref name="Ross2016">Template:Cite book</ref>
Alleged use during the Falklands War
During the early stages of the Falklands War, the BBC World News reported that Resolution was stationed off Buenos Aires. A similar story appeared in 1984 in the New Statesman which alleged that Resolution was sent south, as a means of launching a nuclear attack against Córdoba in the event that a Royal Navy aircraft carrier be sunk.<ref name="JinksHennessy455">Template:Cite book</ref>
In reality, Resolution's crew were having to deal with an upsurge of Soviet SSN activity, with Resolution having to take evasive action to avoid a November-class submarine. Despite Soviet efforts, Resolution was never found during her 72-day patrol.<ref name="JinksHennessy455"/>
Decommission
Following the completion of the first Trident-carrying Template:Sclass in 1992, the Resolution class were gradually removed from service. Resolution was decommissioned on 22 October 1994,<ref name="Ross2016"/> after 69 patrols, and laid up at the Rosyth Dockyard.<ref name="Ross2016"/> She remains in the main basin at Rosyth, intact but with her reactor defuelled; the MOD has yet to finalise plans for removal of the radioactive reactor parts and the scrapping of the boat.<ref name="bbc_dismantling" />