A keel-laying ceremony for first-of-class Dreadnought was held at BAE Systems Submarines yard in Barrow-in-Furness on 19 March. (BAE Systems)
BAE Systems Submarines has laid the keel for the first of the UK Royal Navy's (RN's) new Dreadnought-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs), marking a significant milestone in the programme to maintain the country's continuous at-sea deterrent (CASD).
A ceremonial event to mark the occasion, attended by UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Secretary of State for Defence John Healey, was held at the company's facility in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, on 20 March.
Under the Dreadnought deterrent submarine programme, BAE Systems Submarines is building four new SSBNs for the RN.
Construction on first-of-class Dreadnought has been under way since 2016, and the keel-laying ceremony comes as BAE Systems prepares to move the boat's last major unit into Devonshire Dock Hall for final integration.
Meanwhile, manufacturing activities for the second and third boats, Valiant and Warspite respectively, are now well under way. Valiant commenced construction in September 2019, and a steel-cutting ceremony for Warspite was held in February 2023.
In May 2022 the programme moved into Delivery Phase (DP) 3, which will see Dreadnought exit the Barrow-in-Furness shipyard to start sea trials and will also enable learning from this phase to be applied to the build and test of the later boats. DP1 and DP2 covered the design and initial build of the submarine and its integrated systems.
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