Plymouth Dockyard

HMNB Devonport
Guzz
Plymouth, England
An aerial photograph of the core of HMNB Devonport with several ships alongside. The buildings in the lower half of the picture are the Fleet Accommodation Centre
Type	Naval base
Site information
Controlled by	Royal Navy
Site history
In use	Since the 16th century
Garrison information
Current commander	Commodore Ian Shipperley
Garrison	Devonport Flotilla

Plymouth, England

Her Majesty's Naval Base, Devonport (HMNB Devonport), is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Clyde and HMNB Portsmouth). HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth, England. Having begun as Royal Navy Dockyard in the late-17th century, it is now the largest naval base in Western Europe and is the sole nuclear repair and refuelling facility for the Royal Navy. Shipbuilding ceased at Devonport in the early 1970s, but ship maintenance work has continued: the now privatised maintenance facilities are operated by Babcock Marine, a division of Babcock International Group, who took over the previous owner Devonport Management Limited (DML) in 2007. (DML had been running the Dockyard since privatisation, 1987.)

From 1934 until the early 21st century the naval barracks on the site was named HMS Drake (it had previously been known as HMS Vivid after the base ship of the same name). Recently, the name HMS Drake (and, more to the point, its command structure) has been extended to cover the entire base; the barracks buildings are now termed the Fleet Accommodation Centre. In the early 1970s the newly-styled 'Fleet Maintenance Base' was itself commissioned as HMS Defiance; it remained so until 1994, at which point it was amalgamated into HMS Drake.

HM Naval Base Devonport is the home port of the Devonport Flotilla which includes the largest ship in the Royal Navy, HMS Ocean, and the Trafalgar-class submarines. In 2009 the Ministry of Defence announced the conclusion of a long-running review of the long-term role of three naval bases. Devonport will no longer be used as a base for attack submarines after these move to Faslane by 2017, and the Type 45 destroyers are based at Portsmouth. However, Devonport retains a long-term role as the dedicated home of the amphibious fleet, survey vessels and half the frigate fleet.