HMS Audacious has completed her second Mediterranean patrol, conducting maritime security operations for the UK and her NATO allies, say the Royal Navy.

The boat – normally based at Faslane on the Clyde, but operating out of NATO’s base in Souda Bay, Crete, for the past six months – has been working alongside NATO surface ships on Operation Sea Guardian, monitoring tankers and cargo vessels.

According to a Royal Navy press release, it is one of the alliance’s premier missions, building up a detailed picture of movements – regular and irregular – in the busiest sea lanes, sharing the intelligence gathered in real time with NATO authorities.

“The unique abilities of the Astute-class submarine means the boat can remain submerged at periscope depth, take 360-degreee images in an instant – day or night – and then return to the depths to pore over the photographs captured at leisure. Such visual capture of contacts of interest is just one of the methods of intelligence gathering HMS Audacious’ 98 crew can exploit from the boat’s impressive suite of sensors.

HMS Audacious alongside HMS Penzance

When not assigned to Sea Guardian, Audacious, which is the fourth boat in the Astute class, has been honing her anti-submarine warfare skills with the Italian Navy, in particular its frigate ITS Carlo Margottini. After six months of near continuous operations, Audacious returned to Souda Bay to undergo maintenance – not just on the hi-tech sensors and systems inside the boat, but her hull as well.

As with all ships, barnacles grow on the side and underwater – especially the case when moving slowly or in warmer waters; the central Mediterranean in high summer is roughly twice as warm as Audacious’ home on the Clyde. Specialist divers were flown out from the UK, running over the entire length of the submarine’s 97-metre-long hull with what is effectively a giant, heavy duty dental hygienist’s tooth polisher – the bristles on the brushes strong enough to sweep away barnacles, but not too firmly that the black tiles which cover Audacious and are key to her stealth are not damaged or dislodged.”

George Allison
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
Twitter

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

137 COMMENTS

          • Britains crushing defeat in the Battle of Bretton Woods condemned Britain to a second rate status You can thank Churchill for that.The formerly preeminent RN is miniscule and relies entirely on the victor— America for any effectiveness it has.The UK has an ambition to field 74 F35s against Americas paltry 2456 But then again there are none so blind as those who cannot see.Have you never wondered how and why this came about?McDonalds hahaha.That shows the extent of your servitude toUncle Sugar

          • How bitter is that? Great Britain is a geographic term – a big island, not a grandiose boast. The British have never been a major power. In the Napoleonic period Blighty had a population of 10 million; France together with Spain, had 44 million. At various times the Royal Navy was not pre-eminent; but it had persistence and that counts. Formerly there was an empire but after the Commonwealth replaced this, many countries have their own forces now; you may have noticed the contribution of Australia, Canada and New Zealand in two world conflicts and several later peace keeping operations all founded by Great Britain as was the foolishly truculent United States (can’t win them all). India, unified by the British, always defended itself, for the first 230 odd years under British leadership. Other countries of less prominence have secure boundaries recognised in international law set up by Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Commonwealth and its Allies post 1945. For a small, nay, tiny, country we achieved much that lasts. Our greatest contributions have always been in the power of ideas. There are many like you who would wish us Brits gone for good; intriguingly you choose to do so using our crowning achievement – the English language. Funny old world, isn’t it?

          • Only the English would think the English language was our crowning achievement.

            In Scotland it’s a toss up between antibiotics, industrialisation or whisky

            I lean to the later 😀

          • Then don’t use ‘our’ language. You will be easier to ignore. Incidentally, Scots were up front when it came to spreading English around the globe.

          • Sorry does your “language” include the use of emoji’s? In that it’s a joke, like dry your eyes. Also little known fact the majority of Scotland’s population is from the area south of the Forth which was Angle so it’s our language too.

          • That’s very true actually after all much of it was Northumberland originally and southern Scots were (until recent times at least) more closely genetically related to the English than they were the highland Scots so it is all a little complex in reality. And then there’s the bloody Reivers …aah we could go on all day I guess with identities and cross identities but hair doesn’t wash itself.

          • Well as antibiotics was really down to a New Zealander I guess it’s one or the other of the other two. And thinking of all the Global Warming I too might go in the direction of Whisky or is it Whiskey. Actually I think self parody is pretty high up the list and something most non Brits rarely get.

          • Control the language you control the debate: the English language comes with a whole canon of writing, thinking and literature, as do other languages such as French, which also has it’s own canon and assumptions. Which is why the kermits wring their hands when English displaces French.

          • Same could be said of the Spanish Empire ,Portuguese Empire,Ashoka Empire,Chin et al.India was not unified by Britain it was unified by the Moguls and long before that Ashoka.Britain raped and pillaged India.The East India Company was the largest company that has ever existed to date.

          • You can’t argue with sheer scale, population and industrial might. The post war monetary system was always going to be dominated by the US. Every country in the world uses it, as does whatever country you are from. Quite how this diminishes the UK, then or now, I have no idea. Pegging the system to the USD was always more preferable than being forced to use the DM!

          • Considering about a third of the value of the US economy was somewhat owned or financed over here pre war and mostly surrendered in payment of lend lease, just imagine how we (or to be precise the rich and ruling classes I guess) might have shared in that post war boom across the pond. Geez even JP Morgan originated in London.

          • You are comparing chalk and cheese. Any nation compared to the world’s only superpower will seems ‘second rate’. That does not mean ‘no good’ – it just means smaller.
            like to think we are amongst the best of the second rate nations.

          • Considering our size even if we have just dropped below India now in size of economy, it’s still pretty impressive I guess. Especially when compared to the largest Country on the planet having an economy smaller than Italy … and shrinking. Just wish with the second biggest money market we were more inclined to invest in innovation and British ingenuity rather than safe bets and property for the most part. So much great work going on presently in technology and space innovation with a very green edge to it in many cases here, yet it barely gets any publicity nor the investment it deserves.

          • Everyone should buy British and show more pride about who we are and what we bring to the table in everything

          • You think there is more than one superpower? You might be in the minority there. Who is it or who are they?
            China? The country is still developing a globally deployable bluewater navy. Aircraft carrier operation is still in its infancy. Its armed forces have little combat experience. Don’t think they have overseas bases. It has low GDP per capita and poor human development indices. Its economy has been wobbly for a few years now, with growth rates nothing like they were.

          • Alan Sugar? Don’t be taken in, it’s all for show mate can’t believe you think he’s taken seriously. As for Karren Brady she’s no better tbh Im shocked you are so easily fooled, seriously that show’s about as real as Basil Brushki.

        • It is a pleasure to follow you and your fellow contributors over the last few years especially for the astute and artful comments when you ambush trolls like John in MK
          Good to see Audacious in Agamennon’s backyard but should be a couple more after Agincourt named maybe accurate arrow
          Pity we don’t have someone like Lord Anson as P:M in charge who transformed the RN 

          Sorry boys🙂

        • You’ve another couple of years to go in your English language classes, but in the interim, we’ll sit back here and laugh at your efforts. 😊

          Which is best, four candles or fork handles ?

          • What were the the surrender terms imposed on Britain subsequent to the Battle of Bretton WoodsPlease inform people Why should i do ALL the thinking.

          • You are seriously out of date. The Bretton Woods system faded away during Vietnam. ‘We are all Keynesians now’ said President Nixon.

            https://en dot wikipedia.org/wiki/We_are_all_Keynesians_now

            Replace ‘dot’ with a full point (.)

          • I once drove past Bretton Woods. Almost all that Keynes wished for came about. America asserted itself after 1945 as the country that had spent the most treasure if not blood for the Allied cause. The Bretton Woods system has been over for decades; Vietnam saw to that. The U.S. is stuck on the edge its own dollar Black Hole. We have Globalisation now. This has blurred the concept of a national superiority in finance and production. One American government adviser tells a nice story. Having decided to buy a Japanese car he was told this would look bad; so he switched to an American brand. The salesmen pointed out that both car’s parts were about equally split between both Japan and the U.S. such is the global supply chain. When the U.S. aircraft manufacturers complained about Airbus and ‘unfair competition’ (!) George Bush Snr. told them to pipe down; most of the expensive parts in Airbus planes were made in the U.S. Funny old world, isn’t it.

          • Mr Moore is living in the stone age when it comes to economics. I suspect he thinks – wishes – Bretton Woods was an humiliation for the U.K and we ought to be nursing a grudge. We don’t – unlike the Celtic Fringe – dwell on such things, but get on with life. Today most historians and economists think Keynes was right on the subject of a world reserve currency; Bretton Woods eventually back fired on the U.S. economy, whose massive debts are held by other countries, not Americans.

          • He hasn’t actually got a clue what it was about, it’s another subject his handler has told him to push! He wouldn’t have a clue about reality anyway, just another sad bot troll who cannot even string a sentence together 👍

          • No, no you don’t, keep it up as always informative and always interesting (with a sly bit of dry) 👍

          • I await even one of your lectures.I`ll give you ten years to see the bigger picture and produce one, o simpleton.

          • I did not refer to the Bretton Woods System or anything as trivial as economics.I refer to POWER.The Battle of Bretton Woods led to a complete loss of British power across the world as evidenced in 1956,1968 and 1991 in which Britain was made a laughing stock.Which US president said this to which British Prime Minister(tape recorded)?”When i call you,you get here now,NOW!with your shirt tails flapping out of your pants,NOW” The user is always superior to the used and the master to the servant A bird in a gilded gage is never fully whole.”Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven”But i guess that birds such as you don`t even realise it,mere seekers of comfort and ease, bread and circuses.You may speak for the masses and be content to be a used servant,more fool you.

          • Should you not be selling T72 parts and lorry wheels on the Russian black market? The rest of your comrades are, it would be a pity to miss out on a few extra potatoes while you’re wasting your time posting unintelligible rubbish here. Probably all that you’re good for.

          • From the psychological aspect, the most interesting part about your comment is that you wish it was true. For if it were, why would you need to post it? Why, indeed, would an American President need to summon a British Prime Minister if this tiny island country were not somehow much more significant than in your estimate? That is the problem with all those who decry Blighty today or yesterday. It is still here and proving to be significant in world affairs. Oh, how you wish otherwise!

            Please do not resort to personal abuse because I never do. If you persist I shall have to ignore you. That would be a shame. The entertainment value of these exchanges is widely appreciated I gather.

          • According to Winston Churchill the second world war was fought for “the power and prestige of GREAT Britain” There is no evidence to support your rediculous mumblings.

    • If wit was sh*t, you’d be constipated. If you don’t like what is reported on this very good site, why don’t you just bugger off?

  2. Considering the switch in operations from launching Tomahawk at suspected terrorist or rouge nation related targets, back to the very real possibility of full pier anti Submarine and surface warfare, must have made the SSN force switch up a gear in training …. Not that they ever let of the gas of course, but certainly a realignment of priorities within the training programme, must have occurred this year.

  3. Very nice, it looks lovely in Souda bay.
    The astute class really are lovely looking boats. The shaping instead of just round is meant to help with radar reflections I think. Looks lovely.
    The crews that operate for months at a time in essentially a metal tube are a great bunch.
    Let the barnacle scraping commence.

  4. Interesting to read that Ben Wallace has commissioned a review to consider if we have enough submarines! He is clearly impressed by what he’s learnt of the capabilities of an SSN, but also unimpressed by the inability for the current force (just 3 operational subs?) to deploy a boat in the event of a sudden urgent operational requirement. Deploying even one operational boat to Australia long-term will leave the remaining subs unable to do much else than escort SSBNs and the QEC.

    It’s crazy things have been allowed to get to this state. I did a media visit to BAE Subs a decade ago and was told that that funding constraints meant that construction of the A’s had been slowed to the absolute minimum compatible with maintaining the yards ability to build what are now Dreadnought’s. The construction rate was so low that every boat was effectively becoming a ‘first of class’ from a workforce perspective, whilst incorporating parts that had often been in storage a decade or more!

    But there is now no quick fix to the problem regardless of funding, 7 Astute’s (4 or 5 operational) is going to be as good as it gets for decades.

    • SSN’s are the dreadnoughts of the day. You can never have enough and we should build as many as a reasonable budget and the size of our industrial base allows. If the US is to ask us for anything in the coming decades as they face off against China, it won’t be an armoured division or even a carrier strike group, it will be as many SSN’s as we can send.

      • If all the money went on the Ssn number the surface fleet will suffer which is what’s happened since the RN were allowed to get away with saying that they would have all nuclear boats, and not conventional ones. The weak government should have told them.you will get what your told you will.

    • If you were up to speed youd know Wallace didnt see the practicality of a 50% increase in the defence budget as Britain lacks the industrial capacity to utilise it,One of his questions is why does it take Britaib10 years to build a Type 23 when it only takes Japan 3 years to build the far larger and more capable MAYA class Aegis ships?Answer —–British inefficiency at anything other than talking.

  5. Strictly as a matter of curiosity, what criteria would dictate usage of Souda Bay vs. Gib? NATO vs. UK specific tasking? Area of ops? Other?

    • Her tasking has her operating in the Eastern Med, it’s some 2000NM back to Gib to replenish supplies. Just getting to and then back from Gib would take at least 10 days, so much more time in area if you use Souda.

      • Thanks, Deep. Logistics constraints are
        typically unyielding. Does USN or RN ever practice RAS for submarines? Have never seen it mentioned in the open press. Is it even feasible, too hazardous, or simply not discussed?

        • A SM doing a RAS is normally a big no no.,far to dangerous an undertaking. To get stores down the boat you have to either
          A) Open the main access hatch – never a good idea at sea or
          B) Take stores down via the fin – very restrictive in terms of space/size.

          If push comes to shove SMs do conduct a high line transfer from the fin to get a person on/off, or use it to get a vital piece of kit down the SM. Using the fin severely restricts what size of kit you bring down.

          I’ve done both from the fin, it’s pretty dangerous with only space for 4 people in the fin.
          Was on a SM where we had ‘hands to bathe’ it was a pretty calm sea, but still got a wave over the casing, had a full bore down the hatch for 5-6 secs, spent days cleaning the mess up!!

          • Have some idea of the involuntary emotion generated during those seconds; encountered the “pucker factor” myself on several occasions during flight test sorties, while internally questioning the pilot’s judgment/sanity!

    • Gib is neglected it’s strategic influence has lessened with the plummeting numbers of ships going there as a matelot and I loved the place, but now all the old sailors haunts are gone there are less ape’s than there was.

  6. Is it a good idea to have a 7,000 ton SSN in the Med? I would argue no. The most important thing that an SSN has going for it is the freedom to manouevre, the Med does not give you that. First it is a closed sea and second it is not very deep added to that you have the issue of getting from the Western Med to the Eastern Med via a choke point. Then come the next set of issues, unlike the Atlantic that is murky, choppy and just at times down right misrable the Med has clear water, and fairly calm. This makes spotting a sub at shallow depths by aircraft not to difficult. To prove the point, during WW2 T class subs (1,700 tons) were deemed to big to be effective and many were lost after being spotted from the air whilst submerged. The Med has not changed it still has clear water and fairly calm, so if a 1,700 ton sub was deemed to big what the hell is a 7,000 ton sub doing there. As for stealth, yes the Astute is good but I don’t quite remember but I think that all subs crossing the Straits of Gib must do that surfaced, if that is the case any potential enemy knows a SSN is in the area somewhere.

    The Med is the Italian navy’s back yard, they build type 212 boats and even they are questioning the size, Sweden that operates in the Baltic build the 1,500 ton A-26 boats. So if two nations that have fairly shallow closed seas as their play ground build small boats to operate there should the UK either build small boats to operate in Seas with limited area of manouevre or not deploy subs in those areas but leave them to the nations that are friendly to operate.

  7. Scenario:. Mad Vlad and his merry band slobbering Orcs remain in a stalemate or are slowly losing territory into the autumn. Vlad decides to increase the ante by completely cutting off the supply of NG to Western Europe (WE), further orders surreptitious mine laying at all WE and Middle Eastern LNG terminals. Additionally, orders Russian Navy to plan, organize and signals intent to conduct unrestricted submarine warfare on LNG tankers in the Med and Atlantic.

    Gray zone or Article V actions? Understand NATO has two standing mine clearing flotillas; however, are there sufficient NATO assets to successfully conduct high tempo mine clearance ops? Have any of the Allies practiced convoy techniques since WW II? Would convoys be a viable countermeasure? Presume NATO would respond w/ASW assets (e.g., SOSUS, all Intel assets, P-8s, T-23s and equivalents, carriers, etc.). Does Mad Vlad have sufficient boats to sustain this while simultaneously protecting his SSBNs in bastion locations?

    Hope there is a NATO planning group conducting red/blue exercises and simulations .

  8. Good morning friends at UKDJ. Democracy has to have some limits. For example,one would never allow an Adolf Hitler a podium or other means to disseminate his evil views, but there has to be some point on the margin where the decision to censor is taken. Putin in my view is an individual at that point-should we allow him to try and justify his madness-I would really want to understand how and why he took the decision to brutalise his blood brothers and sisters in the Ukraine but then maybe he really is just mad?
    I still get angry thinking about Oxford University refusing to give a man like Enoch Powell a chance to speak!
    And then here at UKDJ, we have ‘A Moore” not a candidate for censorship but unecessarily aggressive.
    What to say? Another ethical question to ponder!
    The Royal Navy of today is, yes-small but packs some powerful punches as in the Astutes above, so still rates as one of the world’s top fleets.
    Off to cycle on the Durban beachfront. Light North Easterly and rising to 25 degrees C.
    Cheers

  9. In response to A Moore’s provocative remarks regarding the Royal Navy I did some research and rankings vary widely according to what information is utilised. One list based on number of ships places the RN 42nd!! But then again includes Columbia and Finland in the Top Ten! Based on tonnage the RN was ranked 5th in 2014(only one I could find)-I should imagine it at least equals that today with the commissioning of the QE’s. The one that seemed to make the most sense included criteria based on capability,global reach,numbers, tonnage equipment, backup facilities etc and placed the RN at 9th although a similarly ‘academic site’ put it in 4th position.
    The possesion of the Nuclear armed subs should also play a big role in the ranking as would the UK’s access to a number of bases worldwide-probably second only to the USN!

    • I wouldn’t bother wasting time trying to fact check anything that that shrieking half educated cretin vomits up. Methane from the pond life of a 10th rate Russian troll farm is all A. Moore is. You’d get better grammar and spelling from a monkey with a typewriter.

    • Good points Geoff. I am always bemused to look on the Global Firepower Index that the UK is only 8th – but countries above us include:
      Russia (poor performance of army and poor morale and poor quality equipment in many areas); China (does not have a Level 2 bluewater navy and has little combat experience); India (no L2 bluewater navy, much ageing equipment, no combat experience except for occasional border skirmishes); Japan (no nuclear weapons, no L2 navy, no combat experience, little experience of global deployments); South Korea (no nukes, no L2 navy, no combat experience since the 1950s, no global deployment experience).
      Based on the above we should be ranked in the top 3.

      • Hi Graham-well said. Some of the sites that put out these rankings are pretty flimsy in the research department and much of the dialogue is off the shelf and pieced together complete with some pronunciation howlers!
        Cheers from durban

  12. We’re giving India a natio with a booming economy and quickly growing navy, over£290 million in foreign aid the same to their neighbours Pakistan, a neighbor who house’s terrorists and allows the use of its lands for the training of extremists how can we say that the defence budget should fund it? We also give £millions to Syria, a nation run by a despot who has used chemical weapons against his own people. It’s time for a real debate about the whole foreign aid issue and that of institutions like the BBC WHICH IS ANOTHER BLACK HOLE WHERE THE TAXPAYERS MONEY GOES TO.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here