40 years of Polaris at Faslane

According to the BBC:

Protesters plan to form a “peace chain” at the Faslane submarine base on the Clyde to mark the 40th anniversary of nuclear missiles being based there.

Campaigners will assemble at Faslane Peace Camp at 1130 BST before hearing deliveries from SNP, Labour and Green MSPs.

The group will then form a human chain along the base fence.

The date was chosen because it is 40 years since the first Polaris submarine [HMS Resolution] sailed from Faslane on patrol.

Polaris was actually present on the Clyde for somewhat longer than this suggests, and while  operations at Faslane, HMNB Clyde, may have commenced in  June 1968, the first American Polaris submarine arrived on the Clyde for refit in March 1961, the USS Patrick Henry, bound for the American base on the Holy Loch, having set a record for her type, cruising submerged 66 days and 22 hours.

HMS Vanguard, the first submarine armed with the Trident missile system, arrived on the Clyde in 1996, so the next anniversary should be 2036.