HMNB Devonport

His Majesty's Naval Base, Devonport (HMNB Devonport) is the largest naval base in Western Europe, and one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy. It is the sole nuclear repair and refuelling facility for the Royal Navy. HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth, England. The base began as a Royal Navy Dockyard in the late 17th century, designed and built on open ground by Edmund Dummer as an integrated facility for the repair and maintenance of warships, centred on his pioneering stone dry dock (one of the earliest stepped docks in the world). Over the next two centuries it expanded, reaching its present extent in the 20th century. Historically, the yard was also used for shipbuilding: over 300 naval vessels were built there, the last being HMS Scylla (launched in 1968). The yard was known as HM Dockyard, Plymouth until 1843, when it was renamed HM Dockyard, Devonport. (In the late 20th century, here as elsewhere, the term 'Naval Base' replaced 'Dockyard' in the official naval designation.) HMNB Devonport served as the home port of the Devonport Flotilla until it was merged into the Surface Flotilla. Commander Fleet Operational Sea Training, the training hub of the front-line Fleet, is also based there, as is the Royal Navy's Amphibious Centre of Excellence (at RM Tamar). Although shipbuilding ceased at Devonport in the late 1960s, ship repair and maintenance work has continued; the now privatised maintenance facilities are operated under the name Devonport Royal Dockyard by Babcock International Group, which took over the previous owner Devonport Management Limited (DML) in 2007 (DML had been running the Dockyard since privatisation in 1987). Babcock owns around a third of the overall area of the base (having been sold the freehold in...