First Astute-Class Nuclear-Powered Attack Submarine Leaves for Sea Trials

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Astute begins sea trials
UNITED KINGDOM - 16 NOVEMBER 2009

One of the U.K. Royal Navy's most technologically advanced submarines has taken to the sea for her first trials and is now heading to her home port of Faslane on the Clyde in Scotland.

The Astute submarine has the latest stealth technology, a world-beating sonar system and is armed with 38 torpedoes and missiles - more than any previous Royal Navy submarine.

The submarine, which can maufacture its own oxygen from sea water to replenish the onboard atmosphere, will be able to circumnavigate the entire globe while submerged and advanced nuclear technology means that she will never need to be refuelled.

The Minister for Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S), Quentin Davies, said:

"This is a significant milestone for Astute as she sails for the first time towards her home port of Faslane.

"The Astute Class of submarines will deliver a step change in capability for defence in terms of anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, protecting the deterrent, and providing land attack and intelligence-gathering.

"Astute will now begin a set of sea trials ahead of her full acceptance with the Royal Navy next year.

"I would like to pay tribute to both the MOD and BAE Systems Submarine Solutions staff who have worked so hard to achieve this remarkable feat of engineering."

DE&S's Director General Submarines, Rear Admiral Simon Lister, who has overseen the final stages of the submarine production and preparation for sea trials, said:

"Building a nuclear submarine is a huge challenge and demands the highest standards of design, engineering and manufacturing to ensure she can safely perform her demanding duties.

"Submarine building combines a huge variety of elements; sometimes it is more like blacksmithing, manipulating the steel of the hull, and sometimes it is like brain surgery, dealing with advanced technology and performing tasks to an almost unbelievable level of accuracy.

"Astute represents the sum of thousands of individual efforts, and everyone involved in her creation can be proud."

Measuring nearly one hundred metres from bow to stern, Astute is longer than ten London buses and, when fully stored, will displace 7,800 tonnes of sea water, equivalent to 65 blue whales. She is expected to arrive in Faslane later this week.

U.K. Royal Navy Astute-Class Nuclear-Powered Attack Submarine





Source: U.K. Ministry of Defence

 

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Black to Black - HMS Triumph gets up Close and Personal with Astute, the Royal Navy's Newest Submarine
UNITED KINGDOM - 29 MARCH 2010

Latest U.K. Royal Navy Submarines At Sea Together

You wouldn't want to meet them on a dark night, but luckily the U.K. Royal Navy's most advanced attack submarine, Astute, and the service's newest Trafalgar class boat are on the same side - and, for that matter, the same river!

Creeping stealthily through the channel between the Isles of Arran and Great Cumbrae, the sleek, awesome Astute found a moment during her continuing sea trials to spend time with HMS Triumph in the Firth of Clyde, creating this great double take moment.

Launched in 1991 and accepted into service in the same year, HMS Triumph has just completed a multi-million pound refit in Devonport and is currently undergoing a period of sea training.

Astute herself has been undergoing a relentless programme of trials since her arrival on the Clyde in November 2009, including completion of her first dives, all in advance of acceptance into the fleet.

For more than a century, the Royal Navy's submarines have played a pivotal role in UK joint military operations, and they continue to exert the same modern, relevance today.

Attack submarines like Astute and HMS Triumph play an integral part in protecting the UK's strategic nuclear deterrent, anti-submarine warfare, covert surveillance, anti-surface and shipping warfare, supporting Special Forces, and land attack with Tomahawk missiles.

This dramatic image was captured by the Royal Navy's search and rescue team from HMS Gannet while on exercise nearby - the Senior Service out in force.

Astute is the largest attack submarine ever built for the Royal Navy and she will spend her 25 year lifespan with Faslane as her home port. Her new Core H reactor never needs to be refuelled and her much increased firepower makes her one of the UK's most potent means of maritime defence.

BACKGROUND NOTES:
-- Astute's 97m length is more than the length of 10 London buses
-- Astute's 11.2m beam is more than the width of four London buses
-- There is around 110 km of cabling and pipework onboard Astute, this is equivalent to driving from Glasgow to Dundee
-- Astute is able to circumnavigate the world without surfacing and her dived endurance is only limited by the amount of food that can be carried and the endurance of the crew
-- Astute is the first Royal Navy submarine not to be fitted with optical periscopes
-- The Astute submarine has individual bunks for the whole crew
-- The Astute submarine is faster underwater than on the surface
-- A team of five RN chefs (one Petty Officer Caterer, one Leading Chef and three Chefs) provide 24 hour service to the crew of 98.

U.K. Royal Navy HMS Astute and HMS Triumph together on the Clyde

Source: U.K Ministry of Defence

 

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Babcock's Devonport Facilities Prepare to Receive Astute Submarine
UNITED KINGDOM - 23 APRIL 2010

As Astute, the first of the new generation nuclear powered attack submarines (SSN) for the U.K. Royal Navy, undergoes its first set of sea trials, a milestone has been reached in developments by the UK’s largest naval support provider, Babcock, in preparation for the through-life support of the new submarine.

Babcock, the company responsible for supporting the Royal Navy’s entire submarine flotilla at Clyde and Devonport, has this month (April) completed installation of a new docking cradle, officially opened this week, which will enable the Astute Class Submarines to be received within Babcock’s nuclear docking facilities at Devonport Royal Dockyard. The new cradle is required as Astute is considerably larger in mass and geometry (about 15% bigger in length and diameter) than the Swiftsure and Trafalgar class SSNs. This cradle, in 15 Dock, is in addition to the docking capability in the shiplift at Clyde.

This latest milestone at Devonport follows substantial work undertaken under the Astute Readiness Programme by an integrated MoD/Babcock team at Clyde, where the new submarines will be base-ported. Work here has included checking and modifying the infrastructure to support the new submarine class, amending the Site Safety Cases to encompass the new boat, provision and acceptance of support equipment specific to Astute, and training base staff to enable them to support and maintain the new vessel.

At Devonport, the existing cradle – on which the submarine is supported while in dry dock – had to be extended to accept the new larger submarine with a further nine cradle blocks which have been designed, manufactured and installed by Babcock, including four wing cradle blocks at the forward and aft end and an additional keel cradle at the aft end. Each cradle block assembly weighs some 22.5 tonnes. A full set of wooden cappers (which sit on top of the cradle blocks and are hand cut into shape to replicate the profile of the submarine hull) has also been manufactured and fitted.

In addition to the cradles and cappers, base plates have also been designed and manufactured. These are set into the dock floor and secured by anchors – a process that involved hydro-demolition to expose the heavily reinforced dock floor. The cradles are bolted down to the baseplates, and can be removed as required, providing the flexibility to accommodate various classes of submarine.

Each cradle block must be able to resist shear, tension and turning moments, while resisting a defined seismic event. Numerous physical parameters or external forces (of which seismic events are one) can influence the behaviour of the submarine on the cradle, and therefore influence the loads to which the cradle reacts. The cradle design has undergone a rigorous process including Finite Element Analysis modelling and Independent Technical Assessment to confirm that it can resist these factors and will keep the submarine upright in defined conditions.

The new Astute docking cradle is a Category 1 structure (the term used for any structure, system or component which forms a principal means of ensuring nuclear safety), and as such has undergone the highest level of quality control and inspection.

Babcock Submarines managing director, Mike Homer, comments: “Inevitably the focus of attention is currently on Astute’s trials (after all it’s 17 years since the last first-of-class submarine, HMS Vanguard, entered service in 1993), but the ‘behind the scenes’ work to ensure that the infrastructure and facilities are in place for Astute in-service support is equally vital, though far less high-profile, and has been on-going for some years. Completion of the Astute cradle at Devonport is a major step in this and now both Devonport and Clyde have excellent facilities to be able to undertake the first class engineering support for which Babcock is renowned, for the next thirty years.”


Source: Babcock

 

[holysaturn]

looks cool and lethally armed as well..........guess it has the most recent technologies in nuke attack submarines like lifetime reactors,advanced sensors,tomahawks,harpoons........great boat.