A Portuguese submarine taking part in exercises off the coast of Cornwall became caught in the nets of a French trawler, the Royal Navy has revealed.

The Tridente was caught around 6am on Wednesday morning, around 35 miles south west of Plymouth. It is understood that she was submerged after becoming tangled in the nets of the French vessel, Daytona.

A spokesman for the Royal Navy said there were no casualties:

“Divers are now on the boat trying to see what damage has happened to the submarine. The submarine was assigned to Flag Officer Sea Training out of Plymouth and was released for the night.”

The Tridente class, also designated as U209PN, is a diesel-electric submarine class based on the Type 214 submarine developed by Germany for the Portuguese Navy.

This class of submarines was acquired by Portugal to replace the last submarines of the Albacora class, then being operated by the navy. Originally, HDW proposed the Type 209 submarine (U-209) during the competition, but decided to later enter a new proposal based on the Type 214.

The class and its ships are the first to not be named after marine animals, thus breaking a tradition retracing back to 1913, when the first submarine entered service with the Portuguese Navy.

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

29 COMMENTS

  1. Forget the RN for coastal patrol, the fishing trawlers seem to able to do the job! Although how good is the sub if it cannot pick up a noisy old fishing trawler?

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