The Royal Navy’s latest Astute-class attack submarine, HMS Agamemnon, was launched today at BAE Systems’ shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.
Named after the ancient Greek king, Agamemnon is the sixth of seven submarines in the Astute-class, all designed and constructed at BAE Systems’ historic Barrow facility, the heart of UK submarine manufacturing.
Weighing 7,400 tonnes and measuring 97 meters in length, the nuclear-powered submarine was rolled out of the Devonshire Dock Hall and into the water for the first time.
Agamemnon now enters the next phase of its journey, beginning a rigorous testing and commissioning process before starting sea trials with the Royal Navy.
“This is a hugely significant milestone for everyone at BAE Systems, the Defence Nuclear Enterprise, and the Royal Navy,” said Steve Timms, Managing Director of BAE Systems Submarines. “The design and build of a nuclear-powered submarine is incredibly complex and a truly national endeavour. I pay tribute to the thousands of highly-skilled people who have helped get Agamemnon to this stage. Submarines are a vital component of the UK’s defence capabilities, and we must now work collectively to ensure Agamemnon is ready to join her sister submarines in service with the Royal Navy.”
Commander David ‘Bing’ Crosby, Agamemnon’s Commanding Officer, echoed this sentiment, saying, “There is still plenty to do until we get to exit Agamemnon from Barrow, but the entire workforce should be full of pride for what they have achieved with this build so far. I am looking forward to working with our friends at BAE Systems, the Submarine Delivery Agency, and the wider Defence Nuclear Enterprise to get Agamemnon through these final tests.”
The Astute-class submarines are the largest and most advanced attack submarines ever built for the Royal Navy.
HMS Agamemnon follows her sister submarines HMS Astute, HMS Ambush, HMS Artful, HMS Audacious, and HMS Anson, all of which are already in service with the Royal Navy. Construction on the final Astute-class submarine, HMS Agincourt, is well underway.
The submarine is powered by a Rolls-Royce PWR2 nuclear reactor, which allows it to operate for its entire 25-year service life without needing to be refueled. The reactor enables the submarine to purify its own water and air, giving it the capability to remain submerged for extended periods, limited only by the food supplies it can carry for its 98 crew members.
- Length: 97 meters
- Displacement: 7,400 to 7,800 tons submerged
- Propulsion: Rolls-Royce PWR2 nuclear reactor (no refueling required for 25 years)
- Speed: At least 30 knots submerged
- Endurance: 90 days underwater
- Armament: 6 × 21-inch torpedo tubes for up to 38 weapons (Tomahawk Block IV cruise missiles and Spearfish torpedoes)
- Sensors: Thales Sonar 2076 and 2 Thales optronic masts
HMS Agamemnon will carry up to 38 weapons in six 21-inch torpedo tubes, including Tomahawk Block IV land-attack missiles and Spearfish heavyweight torpedoes. The Tomahawk missiles have a range of up to 1,000 miles, while the Spearfish torpedoes are designed to engage submarines and surface ships.
The submarine is equipped with advanced technology for detection and navigation, including the Thales Sonar 2076 system and two Thales CM010 optronic masts, which replace traditional periscopes. These systems enhance the submarine’s ability to detect and track threats while maintaining stealth.
HMS Agamemnon is part of the Astute-class, designed to replace the Trafalgar-class fleet submarines. The Astute-class features modern construction techniques and advanced technology, making them a critical component of the Royal Navy’s capabilities.
Stunning!
Curvaceous, sod it change naming no7 from Agincourt to Sophia Loren 😎
Well if it’s Italian then it had better have a damn good reverse speed, but then she does have an impressive rear end too and definitely better than being called Diana Dors which would probably make her unstable.
We have to keep Agincourt, it annoys the French 😮
Well spoken!
Don’t knock the Italians, they are a valued parter in project Tempest.
Now that’s a great idea 👌
ditto!
Before anyone starts on about :- How long it has taken to build them. How much they have cost. Why non are presently at Sea. I’d just like to say everyone of these is down to Political incompetence, penny pinching and not actually understanding how industry works. That’s it 100% simple as. UK industry can design, supply, build and support superb products but only when it is properly supported and funded to do so. Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron 20 years on we see what their short sighted stupidity resulted in. And AUKUS is nothing to do with excellent political leadership… Read more »
Are we not having any working Attack Subs at sea because the dry dock in Portsmouth was being refurbished? A lot is made of none at sea but the issue behind that has now re opened.
Not Portsmouth, Devonport
ok, i am corrected, np
Wasn’t there also a major problem with the boat lift facilities at Falsane? which have also recently been repaired but after many years of underinvestment by the Govt / MOD have bitten us in the bum at Devonport and Falsane
Yes, that was the cause of the immediate issues, but the long term problem is the lack of dry docks in Devonport.
The Dry docks were there but needed the of modernising with the required facilities. All of which comes down to decisions being booted down the field for nearly 2 decades before it finally became untenable.
Should probably state that the RN’s drydock availability issue is on glideslope to resolution by 2028, per latest official MoD pronouncements. Hell, there will be excess capacity available. Please accommodate the USN when it, almost inevitably, requests maintenance/refit support. Hope that politicians collectively will someday realize that while it may be feasible to cash a nominal peace dividend, it is foolhardy to liquidate the underlying stock position (capability, financial, manpower, materiel, etc.). Sorry to preach to the choir. Rant over.
Hmmm if I were Russian military planners I know what one of my first targets would be, though looking at their actual current capabilities and insight I suspect Rockall is probably in more danger.
We do seem to like stick all our stuff in a few bases rather than spread it out, Cost i guess
Don’t worry makes it easier to organise our missile defence assets… oh wait a minute. In truth I guess Ministry bean counters hold sway over military analysts or anyone with actual common sense.
We have missile defence assets? no that would be a shock. We have no ground based any thing apart from wishful thinking. Must be cheaper that way to not even bother protecting stuff saving money is a good thing. !
Hmm thx for the paraphrasing Martin, does emphasise the point I guess.
A point made by you in not too un nice way, hint taken,
😁🤔☹️
The coolant ponds at Sellafield ?
Agreed 👍
Well said. As soon as I saw the article headline I thought, this is a good news story, but…someone will get a moan in. I have not even scrolled down through the comments yet to see if I’m right.
Yep, I was. Will it work. Of course it will bloody work!
Well said. The boat is only as good as the maintenance facility and frankly the MoD have been forced into some very poor choices.
It is time they realised their political ambitions and 2% do not cut it.
Either wind their neck in or increase the defence budget to 2.5 % plus.
I suggest the later given the state of the planets security.
Ps anybody thinking a stronger Russian armed forces will not rise from Ukraine is extremely foolish. Excluding our political class as being foolish seems to go with the job.
I fully agree, short term thinking and now we have no creditable S/m service after being the best in the 1970’s and 1980’s😩
I would also add that the incompetence goes well into the May and Borris years as the Devonport situation could have been sorted with more money and better planning. Simple fact is they needed to have started work on a drydock for the astutes well before 2022.
I think that if you look at the timeline for the Devonport and HMNB Clyde upgrades being authorised and originally funded it was during Theresa Mays period in charge. Surprisingly each PM since has funded the next stages, so Dock10, 9, Synchro lift, upgrades at Rosyth all ongoing.
What seems to have gone AWOL is news on the 2 Floating docks, but I always thought that was a bit of an oddity. It’s actually more capacity than we currently need but who knows 🤷🏼♂️
From aesthetical point of view the “edge” design of Astutes is great. Now will it work, because boats stuck in the port don’t look good.
I think we are over the very worst of it now. With boat 6 in the water and boat 7, not far behind.
We’ve literally hit rock bottom (not good in sub terms!!), but as the dry docks reopen for maintenance, we should start to see boats back to sea…
I think we all hope to see a firm commitment to12 AUKUS class boats in SDSR2025.
John, can you sub me your drug prescription please?
🤣🤣😂😂🤣
Glass half full DB, glass half full….
I fail to see how our SSN woes could get worse, after 25 years of political incompetence, there just might be the tiniest glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel…
Don’t take my glimmer of light away!!!
One positive of AUKUS is it’s harder for sub par performance to be acceptable & it becomes harder to politically sell it as such. There is not only 3 governments, but 3 oppositions looking at it. Sorry to US if you don’t follow,
It actually is more up front than that, it ensures commitments have to be met or exceeded due to what’s at stake. Between the 3 partners they have to agree the project numbers, work share, logistics, finances and support structures / processes up front. And once it’s all at main gate each partners idiots are constrained by the other 2’s.
Political interference such as cuts effects costs !
“…each partner’s idiots are constrained by the others’…” Damn, almost waxing poetic! 😂😁😉👍
Yep it’s pretty clever, any changes to save money taken by one partner affects the other two.
…subpar? (Pun intended?) 🤔😁
‘Plotical’ is a great new word, sums up our lords and masters perfectly. But how did you get it through spell checker mine refused to listen till I threatened it with digital hell.
Sod it…. went and changed it too!!!
I wish I could take credit for the word play, but it was a spelling mistake 🤣🤣
I suspect Ai is getting deeper into our lives than we imagine. 🤖 But certainly puts to bed the claim it can’t be creative I guess.
Just dont give AI the keys to our box of tricks, or everyones butt will twitch when it becomes self aware 🤫
10 if we are lucky and the costs of a decent production rate make it reasonable. 🤞🏻
Ten SSN-A would probably permit a permanent RN presence in the I-P. 🤔🤞
👍👍…oh, wait a sec,. that was a wish, not necessarily a prediction…🤔🤞🤞😉😁🇬🇧
” Agamemnon is ready to join her sister submarines…” I sincerely hope not, seeing where the rest are!
Better than the new Chinese attack submarine. Which I believe is having a rest on the seabed rather than being tied to the harbour wall.
Hard to envision a more deserving group, though the Orcs would come in a close second! 🤔😁👍
It’s always ‘ fascinated’ me, that the UK has Naval Docks, Dry Docks on the North and South coasts of our Island/s, but nothing in between.
It seems ludicrous in the 21st Century, especially when the world seems to be permanently of the ‘brink’ of a small war, European war, world war, and far flung wars for that matter.
Best not to worry, and leave peacetime government ‘novices and bean-counters’ to it eh… ?
Used to have naval bases at Chatham and Harwich.
and Sheerness…..
What do you think they use at CL ?
I give up… What do they use at CL? (whats a cl?… ahh got it… Champions League) 🙄
Another one to tie up alongside…
Tomahawk Block V either currently or imminently? 🤔
Shame they can’t build more Astutes, getting back to 12 SSNs would be great
Gearing up for a nuclear war then with Russia. With a 20 billion black hole in our finances we can afford another nuclear sub.
At least when we do have an all out nuclear attack at least we will be warm.
Hopefully nice and freshly commissioned for CBG 2025.
Such a cool name. Though the Spartan king, she is named after, was allegedly a right piece of work. Even slaughtering his daughter to gain favor with the gods.
Still like Indefatigable. It’s one of those words that becomes easier to say after a few beers!
Its sad that I should have to raise the issue of Starmer’s facile and dangerous giving away Chagos to a country that until 1982 and the Falklands War hadn’t contested UK’s right of ownership since 1814 when we took it from the French. The Treaty he has cooked up endangers AUKUS straight away although senile President Biden seems to approve it. This probably has more to do with his Fenian tendency rather than any Geopolitical awareness. The Treaty has been through no Democratic process. It seems a Prime Minister has no restraints to prevent him signing away a Defence keystone… Read more »
25 years doesn’t seem that long lifetime now. I wonder if it can be extended for the boats that haven’t actually deployed much. Some of them have been sitting for years now.