LONDON, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Events across Britain are to held this year to celebrate 50 years of the longest ever operation carried out by the country's armed forces, the Royal Navy announced Friday.
No mission in Britain has been longer than the nuclear deterrent patrols performed around the clock by Royal Navy submarines over the past half century.
Since April 1969 there has always been one submarine from the Clyde Naval Base in Scotland carrying out Operation Relentless, with the fleet carrying out 350 patrols since the 1960s.
To mark the golden anniversary, a number of high-profile public events, including services of thanksgiving in London and Edinburgh, and a military parade through the home of the deterrent force on the River Clyde are all lined up.
Work has already begun on the third generation of deterrent nuclear submarines, the Dreadnought class, which will enter service in the early 2030s, taking Britain's continuous at sea deterrence up to its 100 anniversary.
