Barrow-in-Furness - BAE Systems

Image: © Chris Allen Taken: 21 Sep 2018

The chimneys are part of SMITE. This is the Submarine Machinery Installation and Test Establishment to test, assemble and outfit the engine modules for the UK's nuclear submarines. It has been used for the Trafalgar, Vanguard and Astute classes, It will also presumably be used for the SSBN successor class. The MPMP - Main Propulsion Machinery Package - is a 300 ton assembly on a noise reducing raft that includes the main propulsion turbine, gearbox and turbogenerators. There are photographs of generic turbogenerators and the emergency diesels as used in the UK's submarines but the main propulsion turbines remain incognito. This is not, in my opinion, because they are anything special per se but because of the nature of the agreement with the US that allowed the UK to use their technology in HMS Dreadnought. This agreement remains in force and prohibits access to the machinery spaces to the engineering staff and senior officers only. The forward end can be visited by non-crew members and there is even one boat that the public can visit, but strictly forward of the reactor compartment. See - Owner's Workshop Manual, Astute Class Nuclear Submarine 2010 to date, J Gates, 2018, Haynes Publishing.

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