The leadership of the British Navy commissioned an investigation into the workers who repaired the Vanguard-class nuclear submarine. This is reported by The Sun with reference to sources.
The cap of one of the bolts holding the insulation on the pipes with the liquid cooling the nuclear reactor was discovered during an inspection, after which the engineers had to start the reactor at full capacity for the first time. It turned out that at least seven bolts were cut off due to a lot of effort when tightening them, after which workers who had been carrying out repairs at the Devonport base in Plymouth since 2015 glued the caps back.
According to the publication, British Defense Minister Ben Wallace, upon learning about the incident, became enraged. Babcock, the company responsible for the repair of the submarine, reported a certain "procedural failure", but did not report the cut bolts and repair with superglue. The contractors could not explain the reasons for the incident.
The repair of the submarine, which exceeded the deadline by four years, cost the government more than $ 370 million. The submarine was returned to service only in July 2022.
The UK has four Vanguard-type nuclear submarines in service. They can carry up to 16 missiles, each of which has up to eight separable warheads. At any time, one submarine is in the open sea, one is undergoing maintenance and two are in port or on exercises.
