Ordered in May 1963, she was built by Vickers Armstrong at a cost of £40.2m. The keel was laid down on 26 February 1964 by the Director General Ships, Sir Alfred Sims, and the launch was on 15 September 1966, attended by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The submarine was commissioned on October 2, 1967, and following extensive trials, including the firing of her first Polaris missile on February 15, 1968, commenced her first patrol on June 15, 1968.
Her Polaris system was updated in 1984 with the Chevaline warheads, but not Poseidon. Resolution conducted the longest Polaris patrol of 108 days in 1991.
Following the completion of the first Trident submarine in 1992, the Resolution class were gradually removed from service. Resolution was de-commissioned on October 22, 1994, after 69 patrols, and laid up at the Rosyth Dockyard.