The Royal Navy’s newest and most advanced hunter-killer submarine, HMS Anson, is on the verge of joining operational duties following intensive tests in the Atlantic.
HMS Anson, the fifth Astute-class submarine, underwent rigorous trials off the east coast of the United States and in the Caribbean Sea, testing her state-of-the-art systems and weaponry.
The Astute-class submarines, the largest and most advanced attack submarines operated by the Royal Navy, are equipped to launch long-range Tomahawk missiles and lethal Spearfish torpedoes, capable of hitting land targets accurately and defeating enemy submarines.
Anson, which left the shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness in February last year, underwent thorough trials and tests before joining her sisters in operations. She spent time in waters off the UK coast and then sailed north of Scotland, successfully firing both Spearfish torpedoes and Tomahawk test missiles.
The trials intensified in the Atlantic as Anson headed to the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC) in the waters around the Bahamas. The AUTEC base, operated by the US Navy, is a hub of world-leading experts and technology. The ranges off Andros Island – southwest of Nassau – are centered on the Tongue of the Ocean, a deep-water bowl crammed with sensors and hydrophones to record data on submarine, torpedo, and sonar performance.
Tests at AUTEC are crucial for Anson’s future operations, ensuring she can hunt adversary submarines without detection. These sea trials also provided the crew with the opportunity to rest on Andros Island.
“The opportunity for the majority of the Ship’s Company to spend a few days on Andros was fantastic,” a submariner said. “This afforded us a few days of rest from the sea trials we were conducting and allowed us to spend time on the beach in the sun relaxing and playing volleyball with base personnel.”
If only we had more, scrapping Astute 8 and slowing down the entire nuclear submarine program production has to be the worst decision of the Cameron government.
Hopefully we can get back up to 12 with SSN AUKUS.
And we cannot foresee the need for an aircraft carrier for ten years…..six months Arab Spring and Libya rolls past…..Call me Dave….”can we send an aircraft carrier.”….”err no….you told us….”
Supportive (unless your name is Dave) Bloke. We gambled and there were no dire conseqences. We might not be so lucky next time but we are going to gamble anyway.😂
Hopefully. Plus unmanned might be on the cards😀
So many very bad decisions..but yes that was up there as one of the bad ones along with: 1)deciding to not ordering the type 26 in 2010 and telling BAE to go back and develop a 5000 ton cheap frigate… 2) cutting the escort fleet from 23 escorts when the Conservative Party came into power..down to 19 in the 2010 review but only managing to keep 15 by the time they undoubtedly leave power. 3) flogging one nearly new amphibious vessel for pennies in the pound. As for the carriers..that was more luck than judgement ( well actually Gordon brown… Read more »
Are you trying to rewrite history or just stupid? Hard to tell!
Which bits are wrong?
I would say it’s a sweeping statement made by a man ill informed, both on politics, defence and more importantly history and reality!
You’re so funny it hurts…it was not a sweeping statement it was a set of facts with some narrative…maybe just maybe you could provide your conclusions instead it of being an insulting troll.
Since it’s all fact and something you can read in various references and articles I’m not sure what your problem is..maybe highlight the bit you think is wrong and I can then provide you with a reference you can read…otherwise your just making yourself look like a bit of a sad troll and you don’t want to look like a sad troll do you Trev.
Or you could point out your sources that indicate it’s wrong…considering what I have taken is from the actual 2010 defence review…I’m not sure how you can call it I’ll informed…unless you feel the 2010 defence review was I’ll informed….maybe it lied about going to 19 escorts…or selling of an amphibious vehicle or going to one carrier….if you feel something is incorrect in what I have written please do point out the incorrect facts and what you believe is true…and maybe go beyond spouting “fake fact”…without the evidence to back it up.
You are funny nipper, go back and reread your original post! 2010 it’s 2024 now, has there been a need for more ships? No, you can say they got it right and saved money! But I think you’re a fantasy fleet pleb idealistic who can cut and paste well done you lol
Stop trolling. You know perfectly well there has been a need for more ships, from our being forced to send an Ice Breaker to work in the Caribbean to only a few months ago when a frigate was sent to the Red Sea to do the job of a destroyer (and with due respect to HMS Richmond, not do it anywhere near as well), to the times when we needed extra escorts in Hormuz, such as when the British flagged Stenna Imperio ended up impounded by Iran. Do you remember around 2015 when we gave up patrolling the South Atlantic… Read more »
Trev Government is all about choices. In the case of the Cameron-Osbourne clown show there was money available but they decided the NHS and foreign aid was more important than defence of the realm. Their funding decisions had both primary and secondary effects. The primary effects were obvious and those were the removal of capabilities and the diminishing of force numbers. The secondary effects were and are more insidious. By divorcing funding from requirement you set the MOD up for perpetual failure. A nuclear deterrent, overseas bases and sufficient conventional forces require higher funding than some notional percentage of GDP.… Read more »
you my friend are a very small person..who clearly has little or no understanding of complexity in systems, impact and risk..We now have patrol boats doing the job of frigates and destroyers, when we should be showing maximum deterrent .we are very likely to be in a position of having the smallest number of escorts in the fleet at a time we are most at risk of a major peer war ( 2027-2030)..we have a huge recruitment and crewing issue again with a likely causal factor being the state of the fleet. Your flawed assumption is that you only need… Read more »
Yes a depressing long list of failures from the Tory Lib dem government, both paying the price now is suppose but it is 10 years late.
Agreed. Imbeciles.
Indeed unfortunately one of the worst administrations we ever had in regards to so many things ( I can tell you the Langley reforms to the NHS are what essentially destroyed its ability to modernise) what really gets me is we now have that man Cameron as foreign secretary….to be honest that man is a sinophile who in his time helped facilitate one of the biggest risks to the west.
People wanted the tax cuts sold by the Tories as part of getting elected. No votes in defence, so dimbo Cameron and slasher Osborne slashed UK Forces to below a credible level.
Did u offer to pay more tax? Do you not remember the financial crisis? Idealism is not contagious thank whatever god you believe in nipper!
Foreign aid went up to 0.5% of GDP. NHS funding increased every year and reform of the NHS was minimal remember Andrew Lansley’s attempted reforms? Government is all about choices. It’s easy to be a Prime Minister and spend money on things which make you popular and to not do things which make you unpopular. Unfortunately the job is bigger than that and if you can’t make good decisions because you have a psychological need always to be liked you are self evidently not good enough to be in that job.
It was even worse, foreign aid went up to 0.7% of GDP and its still enshrined in law. That was 100% paid for by cuts to the defence budget.
Foreign Aid actually went up to 0.7% of GDP; I bet Putin and XI are shaking in their boots at all the Ferris wheels we purchased.
I hate foreign aid,makes me sick spend money, give some cu– money and don’t change fuck all….
How would you feel if the tables were turned, and the UK needed aid from elsewhere?
Can’t see Pakistan or India giving us money, the janks “helped” us but I don’t think we got much free. If you know otherwise let me know 👍
Flogging the Bay to AUS was very silly.
There might have been some value in a cheaper frigate but RN didn’t want that and BAE weren’t playing that tune until Babcock came along.
indeed, the problem was they were trying to get down to a 5000 ton frigate and that really was not happening…also the time had elapsed…in 2010 they simple needed to order a batch of what they had ready..and then maybe look at a cheaper design later..Infact exacting what they did..just 5-6 years too late to save the escort fleet numbers….also the 19 escorts that came out of the 2010 review was a joke..that assumed we would not be at risk of a peer war…we could say it smacked of the same group think that occurred in the 1920s..but in this… Read more »
They didn’t want any more Blair’s wars.
So the amazingly naive assumption that if they didn’t want war there wouldn’t be war…..
That was until they realised that leadership and the P5 thingy comes with responsibilities…..
It is interesting that no one really took onboard the lessons of the Cold War…if you don’t want a war and want peace, arm yourself to the teeth.
👍
Is this the same Cameron who is now lecturing NATO allies on increasing their defence spending!!!
When was there an astute 8? Do we have any evidence it was actually part of the plan.
It was discussed heavily at the time when Astute 7 was ordered. Originally there was suppose to be an entire SSN successor to Astute but that was first got rid of then they wanted to delay Dreadnaught class so they have to mess around with the build schedule which is why we just had a massive gap between Astute 5 and Astute 6. So Astute 8 was never ordered or confirmed but clearly there was a gap in the build schedule which they ended up paying BAE money to cover. It was mentioned by the defence Secretary at the time… Read more »
If only we had MANY more of these as well as frigates and scrapped the stupid carriers! Standing by for a load of abuse now, but it’s what I believe
I think the MN is also suffering from the same problem: if you look at the French counterpart of UKdj, Opex 360, you’ll see a lot of posts lamenting the fact that only 6 Suffren class subs are planned and many people advocate either (a) more Suffren hulls or (b) some conventional Barracuda shortfin subs to supplement the nuclear attack subs.
But like you we don”t know how to finance this surge in our submarine force.
It is a shame both navies dont seem to be able to add some SSKs to both our SM fleets, their inclusion would be a much needed capability boost in areas where SSKs excel.
It is a long time since we both operated SSKs, your Daphne’s/Agosta’s outlasted our Upholders despite the latter being some 15-20 years younger!
I remember ‘playing’ with some French and Spanish Agosta’s back in the day, good boats.
I suspect the navy decided that keeping electric boats would risk SSN numbers..in the end the SSN numbers collapsed anyway and you do need a minimum number of SSNs if your going to have an at sea nuclear deterrence so they could not go lower…so it was probably a mistake to get rid of the electric boats..after all the North Sea is pretty critical strategically.
We always had SSKs within the SM service, the decision to not replace the the O boats was purely financial, as was the decision to reduce the numbers of SSNs (the peace dividend – look how that turned out).
There are many tasks within the SM world that are far better suited to SSKs, especially those within littoral waters and as an area denial weapon. A smallish fleet (5/6), would release our SSN fleet for their primary tasking and enhance our capabilities considerably.
Alas dear Yoric, its not going to happen.
I suppose the only bright side is that at some point they may get a autonomous system that is large and capable enough to come close to an SSK for more local area denial…not that it would be able to ever fully replace that capabilities of an SSK… as for not going to happen with a new SSK…I suppose never say never, even if it’s profoundly unlikely…we don’t yet know how badly the world is going to fall down the multi polar/Cold War rabbit hole…20 years time could see the west and another Powerblock armed to the teeth and staring… Read more »
SSK’s are nearly useless for most British theatres of responsibility. They are very useful in the Med but then it’s a NATO lake so not really much point in us spending our hard earned money there.
They are of little use in the Atlantic or Indo Pacific, distances are just too large.
Sorry fella thats rubbish, shows a lack of understanding of how the various SM operations/capabilities actually work. We have until the collapse of the Soviet Union, always had a strong SSK presence. Indeed our Oberon class (10 remaining in late 80’s) were originally going to be replaced by 12 Upholders in 3 batches from the late 80’s early 90s onwards, so, no, not useless at all. The only reason they were cut and the 4 Upholders actually built sold very early in their lives was purely financial. It has been a capability gap we have had to cover with a… Read more »
Yeh I remember the O’s.Deep32. Now me being a ex waffu, don’t have an in depth knowledge of your world, respectfully, but I was always disappointed and confused why HMG got rid of the electric boats. ASW helos always had a tough time with E boats. We even had a tame submariner sonar op aircrew. (he was very good. Good games. 👍🙃🕳️
I know a couple that went over to become Waffu’s, one LS even went onto be a helo pilot in your world. 1-2 actually went to Nimrods, can you believe it! Although cant recall any ever coming our way, who would have thought that!😂
Stranger still….. He lost a few digits on one hand, due to an explosion in the 2deck mess, Ark Royal. Splash target 🎯 deployed, Harriers bomb practices, one deflects?? Enters thru the F/deck. Few others injured. Who would of 💭, 👍😶🕳️
Great to hear the French perspective on this.
The USA, Russia, China, India and Australia are all having similar issues. Everyone wants more SSN’s but they are really hard to build. Even if you have the spare cash like China, the USA and Australia it’s nearly impossible to increase production.
Be happy people. HMS Anson closer to being operational. Good news.
I’m no expert but that looks like a D5 launch and not a TLAM?
Obvs Astute doesn’t do D5….
Could be the missile has yet to deploy wings & orientate to level flight.
Way too thin for a D5
Looks very squat length/width ratio for a TLAM?
Just the angle.
A D5 has a far greater diameter.
Good luck trying to attack land targets with Spearfish torpedos, as the article kinda reads.
Are Astutes able to employ the smaller 12.75″ ASW torpoedos that surface escorts & helicoptors use, or do they only have spearfish to engage enemy subs?
Spearfish only fella, its duel use, ASuW and ASW.
The USN managed to hit a land target with mk14 in World War II so it can be done 😀
I wonder what the airborne range is if you made it jump out of the water at max speed?
A ton of high explosive flying over the harbour wall would, I would respectfully suggest, have minor impact on morale in any naval base on Earth.
“a submariner said. “This afforded us a few days of rest from the sea trials we were conducting and allowed us to spend time on the beach in the sun relaxing and playing volleyball with base personnel.””
Changed days, it was mostly getting ballbagged and ‘borrowing’ golf carts when I was last there. The odd game of uckers at the beach shack was as sophisticated as it got. 😀
Amen to that Shipmate 😉🏴☠️
Ain’t no party like an S boat party…….
And in Andros Island if you went into the water you got attacked by the huge doctor flies the stuck their probe in you to get the salt from the sea water, pissed myself laughing at the troops who had been in swimming from the Gemini that I was driving and had kept my long sleeved shirt on and denims as I knew about the nasty big suckers, they made a right mess of our boat’s scribs, his calf’s had huge blisters all over them lol, poor sod it took weeks to get rid of it and apparently very painful… Read more »
It’s all a little late in the day concerning a build program and catching up on countries like china Russia and North Korea. We are well behind and slow at embracing new technological ideas.