HMS Vanguard, the lead boat of the Vanguard-class ballistic missile submarines, has rejoined the Royal Navy fleet after a maintenance period, Trend reports citing UK Defence Journal.
In December 2015, HMS Vanguard entered a ‘Long Overhaul Period and Refuel’, which was expected to take about 3 years and cost around £200m. It took almost seven years.
Back In January 2012 radiation was detected in the vessel’s PWR2 reactor’s coolant water, caused by a microscopic breach in fuel cladding. This discovery led to Vanguard being scheduled to be refuelled in its next deep maintenance period, as mentioned above due to last 3.5 years from 2015, and contingency measures were applied to other Vanguard and Astute-class submarines. This was not revealed to the public until 2014.
On July 16th this year, a rededication ceremony was held welcoming the vessel back into the Royal Navy fleet.