Swiftsure-class submarine
HMS Spartan in 1993
| |
Class overview | |
---|---|
Name | Swiftsure class |
Builders | Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd. (VSEL) |
Operators | Royal Navy |
Preceded by | Churchill class |
Succeeded by | Trafalgar class |
In commission | 17 April 1973 – 10 December 2010 |
Completed | 6 |
Retired | 6 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Submarine |
Displacement |
|
Length | 82.9 m (272 ft) |
Beam | 9.8 m (32 ft) |
Draught | 8.5 m (28 ft) |
Propulsion | Nuclear Reactor |
Speed | In excess of 28 knots (52 km/h) when dived |
Range | Unlimited (nuclear) |
Complement | 116 (13 officers) |
Sensors and processing systems | Bow, flank, active intercept, and towed array sonar, periscopes (attack and search), collision avoidance radar |
Armament |
|
The Swiftsure class was a class of nuclear-powered fleet submarines in service with the Royal Navy from the early 1970s until 2010.
Six boats were built and commissioned. Swiftsure was decommissioned in 1992 due to damage suffered to her pressure hull during trials. Splendid followed in 2004 after defence cuts caused a reduction in the size of the Royal Navy submarine fleet. Spartan was decommissioned in January 2006, with Sovereign following on 12 September 2006. Superb was decommissioned on 26 September 2008. The remaining boat in the class, Sceptre, was decommissioned in December 2010.[2] The six boats of the class were not replaced, although the seven boats of the successor Trafalgar-class submarines are in the process of being replaced by seven boats of the Astute-class submarines.
A few were upgraded with the capability to launch Tomahawk cruise missiles in addition to their original armaments of torpedoes, mines and anti-ship missiles. They were also the first class of Royal Navy submarines to be built with shrouded pump-jet propulsors.[3]
Design history
The
A second major change was in propulsion. Rather than the seven/nine-bladed propeller used by the previous classes, all but the first of the Swiftsure-class submarines used a shrouded pump-jet propulsor.[3] The prototype propulsor had powered Churchill.[6] It is not clear why Swiftsure was the only one of the class not fitted with a propulsor.[3] The propulsor was perhaps as much as 50% more efficient than a propeller, producing the same speed at lower revolutions, thus reducing the noise signature. In addition all pipework connections to equipment on the main machinery raft had expansion/flexible coupling connections, which also reduced noise. The US Navy secured a licence to copy the main shaft flexible coupling arrangement in US-built submarines.[3]
Construction programme
Pennant number | Name | Builder | Ordered | Laid down | Launched | Accepted into service |
Commissioned | Decommissioned | Estimated building cost[7] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
S126 | Swiftsure | Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering, Barrow-in-Furness.[8] | 3 November 1967[5] | 6 June 1969[8] | 7 September 1971[8] | 17 April 1973[8] | 1992 | £37,100,000[5] (equivalent to £139.29 million in 2021)[9] | |
S108 | Sovereign | 16 May 1969[5] | 18 September 1970[8] | 17 February 1973[8] | 22 July 1974[10] | 11 July 1974[8] | 12 September 2006 | £31,100,000[10] (equivalent to £82.31 million in 2021)[9] | |
S109 | Superb | 20 May 1970[5] | 16 March 1972[8] | 30 November 1974[8] | 29 November 1976[10] | 13 November 1976[8] | 26 September 2008 | £41,300,000[10] (equivalent to £109.31 million in 2021)[9] | |
S104 | Sceptre | 1 November 1971[5] | 19 February 1974[8] | 20 November 1976[8] | 11 March 1978[10] | 14 February 1978[8] | 10 December 2010.[11] | £58,900,000[10] (equivalent to £155.89 million in 2021)[9] | |
S105 | Spartan | 7 February 1973[5][12] | 26 April 1976[8] | 7 April 1978[8] | 10 October 1979[10] | 22 September 1979[8] | January 2006 | £68,900,000[10] (equivalent to £182.36 million in 2021)[9] | |
S106 | Splendid (ex-Severn)[8] |
26 May 1976[5][13] | 23 November 1977[8] | 5 October 1979[8] | 5 May 1981[10] | 21 March 1981[8] | 2004 | £97,000,000[10] (equivalent to £256.74 million in 2021)[9] |
Operational history
Combat history
Both Splendid and Spartan were ordered to sail south for the Falkland Islands two days before the Argentine invasion of the islands on 30 March 1982. Spartan was the first boat to arrive in the islands and began to enforce a 200-mile (320 km) maritime exclusion zone imposed by the British. Shortly after, Spartan sighted Argentine merchant shipping mining the harbour at Stanley, but was not ordered to attack. This was partly due to British concerns about escalating the war too early, but also to avoid scaring off more valuable targets such as the Argentine aircraft carrier Veinticinco de Mayo. Unlike HMS Conqueror, neither Spartan nor Splendid fired in anger during the Falklands War, but they did provide valuable reconnaissance to the British Task Force on Argentine aircraft movements and the submarines' presence effectively restricted the freedom of action of the Argentine Navy which spent most of the war confined to port.
In the late 1990s, Splendid became the first British vessel to be armed with American-built
Incidents
In the early 1980s Sceptre collided with a
Sovereign underwent an extensive refit in the mid-1990s and was rededicated in January 1997. Cracks were discovered in the tailshaft during post-refit
On 6 March 2000 Sceptre suffered a serious accident while inside a drydock at the Rosyth yards while undergoing trials towards the end of a major refit. The test involved flooding the drydock, and running the main engines slowly with steam supplied from the shore. However, too much steam was used and the engines over-sped. Sceptre broke her moorings and moved forward off the cradle she rested on. The steam line ruptured, scaffolding buckled, a crane was pushed forward some 15 feet (4.6 m), and the submarine moved forward some 20 metres (66 ft) inside the dock.[16]
On 26 May 2008, Superb hit an underwater pinnacle in the
In fiction
HMS Sceptre acts as a
See also
References
- ^ "House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 29 Jan 2001 (pt 19)". Retrieved 19 December 2014.
- ^ "House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 03 Mar 2009 (pt 0014)". Retrieved 19 December 2014.
- ^ ISBN 0-7524-2781-4pages 181–4.
- ^ Blackman, Raymond VB, Jane's Fighting Ships, 1966–67, pub Sampson Low Marston & Co Ltd, 1966, p. 279.
- ^ ISBN 0-7106-0742-3p. 546, which quotes building costs for Swiftsure, Superb, Sceptre, and Splendid. The costs quoted for Superb, Sceptre, and Splendid are identical to those from Hansard.
- ISBN 0-7524-2781-4page 180.
- ^ "Unit cost, i.e. excluding cost of certain items (e.g. aircraft, First Outfits)." Text from Defences Estimates
- ^ ISBN 0-85177-605-1p. 531.
- ^ a b c d e f UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Hansard HC Deb 23 October 1989 vol 158 cc357-8W Question to the Secretary of State for Defence asking him to list the Royal Navy vessels built in each of the past 15 years, showing the cost of each and the yards in which they were constructed, 23 October 1983. The second part of this may be found at Hansard HC Deb 23 October 1989 vol 158 cc358-61W.
- ^ Hansard HC Deb 24 November 1977 vol 939 cc869-70W Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about contracts, 24 November 1977.
For the fifth Swiftsure class fleet submarine (HMS Spartan) the planned order date when tender invited was September 1972. The contract was placed in February 1973. - ^ Hansard HC Deb 15 November 1976 vol 919 c363W Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about shipbuilding contracts, 15 November 1976.
For the sixth Swiftsure class fleet submarine, the planned order date when tender invited was late 1974. The contract was placed in May 1976. - ^ "BBC NEWS – UK – Scotland – Hero's welcome for sub crew". 17 July 2003. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
- ^ Российский Подводныи Флот (Russian Submarine Fleet) at submarine.id.ru, collision #22 (Russian language) Archived 4 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "BBC News | SCOTLAND | Nuclear sub crash inquiry". news.bbc.co.uk.
- ^ "UK submarine hits Red Sea rocks". BBC. 27 May 2008. Retrieved 27 May 2008.
- ^ "Superb submarine's final service". 26 September 2008. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
- ^ "Superb submarine's final service". BBC. 26 September 2008. Retrieved 27 September 2008.
- ^ Clancy, Tom (1984). The Hunt for Red October. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.
HMS Sceptre was the name of an English attack submarine. She must be somewhere remote, Ryan though, patrolling the Falklands or some other faraway location so that her arrival in Norfolk would be just another routine occurrence,"