The Royal Navy’s third Dreadnought-class nuclear deterrence submarine will be named HMS Warspite, the First Sea Lord announced on February 25.
The boat will take her place in the Fleet in the 2030s, alongside HMS Dreadnought, Valiant and a fourth, as yet unnamed, submarine, each carrying Trident nuclear missiles on deterrence patrols for three months at a time.
She’ll be the eighth warship to bear the name, tracing her history back to the final years of Elizabeth I’s reign.
Most famously, the sixth Warspite, a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship, earned more battle honors than any other single warship in Royal Navy history.
She served through both World Wars, was badly damaged at both Jutland and Crete, mauled the Germans at Narvik, the Italians at Matapan, was hit by a guided bomb off Salerno, and hammered the defenders of Normandy – truly living up to her motto belli dura despicio (I despise the hard knocks of war).
Most recently, Warspite No.7 was a Cold War warrior: a Fleet/hunter-killer nuclear-powered submarine built to protect the UK’s then-new nuclear deterrent, serving between 1967 and 1991.
There can be no doubt that the name Warspite is a highly distinguished capital ship name, and entirely befitting one of our future SSBNs – submarines that for generations to come will maintain our solemn duty as the ultimate guarantor of our nation’s security. pic.twitter.com/K6XDFKgG7p
— First Sea Lord (@AdmPhilipJones) February 25, 2019