HMS Ambush has been involved in a collision with a merchant vessel off the coast of Gibraltar.

According to a press release:

At approximately 1330 local time today, HMS AMBUSH, an Astute-class submarine, while submerged and conducting a training exercise was involved in a glancing collision with a merchant vessel off the coast of Gibraltar. We are in contact with the merchant vessel and initial indications are that it has not sustained damage.

The submarine suffered some external damage but there is absolutely no damage to her nuclear plant and no member of the ship’s company was injured in the incident. 

An immediate investigation is being conducted.
The submarine will be entering Gibraltar later this evening for further checks. There are no safety concerns associated with HMS AMBUSH being alongside.

HMS Ambush is an Astute class nuclear fleet submarine, the second boat of her class. Ambush is the third vessel, and the second submarine, to bear the name in Royal Naval service. She was ordered in 1997, laid down in 2003 and commissioned in 2013.

In April 2015, Ambush participated in Exercise Joint Warrior, the largest military exercise held in Europe, alongside 55 other naval ships of NATO navies.

George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison

33 COMMENTS

  1. Glad no one was hurt but I hope this isn’t expensive to fix. We can’t afford to lose money from the budget on stuff like this and the Astutes have fancy acoustic tiles all over the outside don’t they so even a minor scrape might need some complicated repairs. Sometimes it almost feels as if there’s been a curse on the Astute class: collision, grounding, a murder onboard.

  2. Anyone believe this cover story? The most advanced sub in the world can detect boats leaving harbour hundreds of miles away yet can see a huge tanker on top of it! It’s been rammed by a Spanish vessel or Russian is my best bet!

    • Misjudged the depth of the vessel hull below the waterline . I suspect she was fully laden and you dont have a cllear line of sight your eyes is a screen Periscope depth for the digital cam scope to be deployed is 60ft . Possibly happend to quickly for the CO to order a crash dive . We have seen surface vessels collide with deadlier outcomes

    • Dan Brown this sort of thing used to happen in the Cold War a lot. In so called peacetime they don’t like using weapons tends to start wars. I doubt very much it was as they described and I doubt we will ever find out what really happened.

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