Portsmouth Naval Base

what a great photo, too bad they did not have 15mega pixel cameras back then. I see lots of ships but not very clear. 3 Leanders, Bristol, a Type 42, a couple counties and a few in the background.

Is the water really that blue?

Kent, Britannia and Corbiere in the foreground. Thats the obvious ones anyway!lol

Excuse me if my geography is all wrong here, but is the forground Whale Island?
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yes picture looks south

****, yes! Foreground is Whale Island, hence Fountain Lake and Jetty with the basin taking in the remainder of the picture.

Great pic. I prefer Pompey over Plymouth naval base. Great Bass fishing here, especially at Victory jetty when a carrier is alongside. Spent 14 months working at Lancelot Building when COMRFA were located there. Happy days.
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When was this picture taken.

Based on the ships present in the image it has to be summer 1986.

LOL

I actually thought this was a model of the dockyard

By my 'guestimates' its summer 1986, based upon the short lived Standby Squadron you can see in Number 3 Basin; Galatea and Leander followed behind by the Tons Gavinton, kirkliston and Walkerton. The Squadron was formed in the summer of 1986 and pretty much paid off by the year's end. As a result the assualt ship would have been Fearless, whilst inboard of the mole is possibly the frigate Lowestoft which was lurking around the dockyard at the time.
On Fountain Lake the County I suspect is Glamorgan as it looks to have retained the Sea Slug launcher unlike Fife's which was removed. The Leander foward of Bristol, could be Juno? Those two seemed to be together quite a bit in 86-87.