The longest ‘mega unit’ so far for Dreadnought Boat 1 has been moved into BAE Systems Submarines Devonshire Dock Hall. Protected against the elements by what must be ‘the world’s largest black bin bag’, the huge section of HMS Dreadnought was moved slowly from BAE System’s fabrication facility to the Devonshire Dock Hall in Barrow-in-Furness.

This section of the first of the Submarine Service’s next-generation strategic deterrent boats is the largest section of Dreadnought yet completed. No-one at BAE Submarines has moved a submarine section of this size (over 20m long) in 30 years, when a low-loader carefully transported the 34-metre-long fore-end ‘mega unit’ of HMS Vengeance, the last of the Vanguard-class submarines.

With those beginning to near the end of their active lives, four successors will be built. Dreadnought leads the way, ahead of HMS Warspite and Valiant, also under construction, with work yet to start on boat number 4, HMS King George VI.

All will be assembled under cover in the dock hall – 260m long, 58m wide and 51m high, making it almost large enough to accommodate the Titanic – where the final two Astute-class submarines, HMS Agamemnon and Agincourt, are in the later stages of construction/completion, and where the ‘mega unit’ will take its place on the Dreadnought build line.

Dreadnought is due to enter service in the early 2030s while the V-boats begin retiring after four decades carrying out Operation Relentless, the UK’s strategic deterrence mission.