Overview
- Offers the first academic account of the history of nuclear propulsion in the Royal Navy
- Sheds light on British post-war defence policy, nuclear policy and foreign relations with the USA
- Makes use of records from the National Archives and unreleased files
Part of the book series: Security, Conflict and Cooperation in the Contemporary World (SCCCW)
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
Keywords
- Naval history
- Maritime history
- Nuclear technology
- Defence
- Special Relationship
- Anglo-US relations
- Naval Nuclear Propulsion Project
- Nuclear weapons
- Nuclear submarine
- Dreadnought
- Nuclear engineering
- British defence policy
- Submarine reactor power plant
- Post-war history
- Cold War
- Core Development Programme
- Royal Navy
About this book
Reviews
“The Development of Nuclear Propulsion in the Royal Navy, 1946-1975, is the first scholarly monograph to deal exclusively with this subject.Jones has done excellent work, having created a strikingly important book in its field.” (Brian Bertosa, The Northern Mariner, cnrs-scrn.org, Vol. 32 (3), 2022)
“The nuclear enterprise, and its success or failure, was fundamental to the UK, and also the USA, maintaining the edge in the Cold War under the sea. It is a devilishly complex subject, full of twists and turns, but Gareth Jones manage to tell the story in a lucid fashion. He unravels the complexities and provides deep understanding of the technological, political, industrial and key personalities. It is a ripping yarn that anyone seeking to truly comprehend the great submarine rivalry between the Soviet Union and NATO should read.”
—Iain Ballantyne, author of 'Hunter Killers' and 'The Deadly Trade' and editor of Warships: International Fleet Review
“The development of nuclear-powered propulsion for the Royal Navy's submarines marked a vital leap forward in the capabilities of the Senior Service. Indeed, it was an essential development if the Royal Navy was to remain in the premier league of world navies in the midst of a Cold War arms race. This book, for the first time,examines and analyses the complexities, technical, personal and diplomatic, the intrigues and twists and turns, which lay at the heart of the development of the Royal Navy's Nuclear Propulsion Programme. It was a human story as well as a technical one, that sheds new light on Anglo-American defence relations in the post-war period. For naval and diplomatic historians, this is a good book and an important one.”—Dr Harry Bennet, Associate Professor of History, University of Plymouth
“Taff has opened wide an important window into a notoriously closed subject. Naval history and dogged research at its best.”
—Dr Sam Willis, Broadcaster, Author and editor of Navy Records Online
“The post-war advent of ‘nuclear’ was a universal game-changer. For the Royal Navy, it led to the development of a nuclear-powered propulsion programme which transformed our capability and ambition. It enabled the Submarine Service to operate almost at will in the harshest of environments for long periods of time, and to compete against a foe blessed with mass. That we prevailed in the Cold War is down to professionalism and technical superiority. It was nuclear propulsion that enabled success. Whilst this important book should appear on every “Back Aftie’s” book-shelf, it will also hold a great appeal to those ‘passengers’ in nuclear submarines – including the author and me - who spent many years of their lives submerged but ‘forward of the tunnel.”
—Commodore Mike Walliker CBE, former Submarine Commanding Officer, HMS Tireless and HMS Astute
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Development of Nuclear Propulsion in the Royal Navy, 1946-1975
Authors: Gareth Michael Jones
Series Title: Security, Conflict and Cooperation in the Contemporary World
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05129-6
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-05128-9Published: 31 August 2022
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-05131-9Published: 01 September 2023
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-05129-6Published: 30 August 2022
Series ISSN: 2731-6807
Series E-ISSN: 2731-6815
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXV, 287
Number of Illustrations: 15 b/w illustrations
Topics: History of Military, History of Britain and Ireland, History of Technology, US History, History, general, Military and Defence Studies