Devonport Royal Dockyard (owned and operated by Babcock) is co-located on a single site with Her Majesty's Naval Base (HMNB) Devonport (owned and operated by the Ministry of Defence) in Plymouth.
This complex site provides full operational support and deep maintenance for Royal Navy surface ships and submarines. It is the UK's sole refitting and defueling site with modern nuclear facilities for both Trafalgar and Vanguard Class submarines. In addition to major refuelling refits, which take place approximately every 7 years of a submarine's operational life and take 2-3 years to complete, submarines are taken out of service for interim servicing and maintenance programmes. Submarines are defueled and decommissioned here when they finish their operational life.