The "nation’s ultimate weapon" and key nuclear deterrent, the HMS Dreadnought submarine, reached an important milestone on March 20, 2025. The keel laying ceremony was carried out in Barrow-in-Furness on the 150th anniversary of shipbuilding in the town, it was attended by Prime Minister Keir Starmer and King Charles III who awarded the title of "Royal" to the Port of Barrow on this occasion.
From a technical perspective, though, it was just a formality, since modern submarines are commonly assembled of premade sections, and the actual building started back in 2016. HMS Dreadnought is to become the first of four Dreadnought-class submarines, it should be finished by and enter service in the 2030s.
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The construction is handled by BAE Systems at a special shipyard protected from satellite imaging. The company states that £1 billion ($1.3 billion) was spent on redevelopment to "drive efficiencies and boost capacity to accommodate the build of Dreadnought." Worth mentioning, in 2024, a mysterious fire broke out at the shipyard.
The initial works began with cutting of metal for the future sections of HMS Dreadnought in 2016, thus it took nine years until the first "mega-blocks" were joined into a single structure. The delay could probably be caused by the global political situation and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dreadnought-class vessels will be equipped with a nuclear reactor, weaponized with four 533mm torpedo tubes and twelve UGM-133A Trident II intercontinental ballistic missiles. The total hull length is 153.6 meters making them the largest warships in the British arsenal.
These submarines will be successors to the Vanguard class. Although Dreadnought has fewer Trident II ICBM launchers than Vanguard (12 vs. 16 launchers), it's still regarded as the most powerful and technically advanced boat ever designed for the Royal Navy, in part due to "technological advances, changing threats and new methods of design and production."
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