Nine members of the crew of a Trident carrying submarine have been expelled from Royal Navy amid cocaine and affairs allegations.
HMS Vigilant is the third Vanguard class submarine in the Royal Navy. Vigilant carries the Trident ballistic missile, the United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent.
The nine personnel were discharged from the Royal Navy after testing positive for drugs.
A Royal Navy spokesman said:
“We can confirm an investigation is under way, but it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage. Any allegations of wrongdoing are taken very seriously and will be dealt with appropriately.”
The Daily Mail reported that the drug detected by the tests was cocaine.
It is also being reported that a Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has demanded mandatory drugs testing across the entire submarine fleet.
Last month, the submarines captain was relieved of his command after an alleged “inappropriate relationship” with a member of his crew and is currently being investigated following the allegations, which involve a female member of crew.
Along with the captain, the Executive Officer was also removed from his post amid allegations of an improper relationship with a different female crew member.
They seem to have a few problems on the subs at the moment. Spending long periods of time submerged is almost certainly going to make people want to let off steam, but taking category A drugs is not a reasonable pass time for crew of a nuclear submarine.
having seen the effects of cocaine addiction first hand i utterly agree these crew members cannot remain on the submarines, they have been compromised and potentially if addicted could compromise the mission or nuclear deterrent. I guess with a programme of drugs addiction recovery and rehab with drugs testing/ monitoring they could remain in the navy possibly just not on the subs.
Not going to comment about the inappropriate relationship with female crew members other than to say professional military relationships and honouring rank are vital. You cannot have a captain or senior officer submerged with female crew members for 3-4 months and getting into any type of relationship. Although we are all human.
If you put male and female crew members together in a confined space for three months there is a better than even chance that something will happen but a Captain and and X O having affairs with two separate women on the same boat as nine crew members taking coke. What the hell is going on.
I lost an old school friend to heroin some thirty years ago after he had done his third tour of Northern Ireland. His nerves were shot and he ended up living like an alley cat. Another school mate and I got him out twice but within weeks he was in trouble again and died of an overdose.
There was no way he could be trusted. I understand drug and alcohol abuse but I wouldn’t want a person with either problem in any dangerous environment, let alone a nuclear sub. so in my opinion they should go but with the help that Dave never got.
I think a fair question would be are the guys getting enough help to cope with the stresses and strains of their type of work. I would have expected mandatory drugs tests to have been in place for some time now across the whole UK military and also some sort of advance psychological and mental wellbeing help.
It seems to me that not enough is being done on the basics of mental and physical wellbeing for the troops and perhaps this is an under appreciated area that has not received the funding it requires.
Absolutely right. We all post a lot about equipment and budgets and whatever. I am sure that we all care for the most important item of ” kit ” and that’s the man or woman behind everything but there is certainly more that can be done. Another item for your M P ?
Personally I have no sympathy. It’s pretty well sign posted within the military that there is zero tolerance for drug use. So if you’re big enough to take drugs whilst serving, you’re big enough to accept the consequences.
As for the affair, I find it hilarious that the government allowed women to serve on submarines, but only as officers…..cos officers aren’t subject to human feelings? ??♂️?
I mean after going through officer training I guess that theyre meant to appreciate the consequences of their actions a bit more over the enlisted personnel. They knew the consequences of their actions just like any personnel that took drugs. They enforce that throughout training so ops shouldnt be any different
It seems likely that the Vigilant was docked at the time in the US, and that the crew were ashore at the time, but tested when they came back on board – on command of the officers.
Not really sure what to make of it myself, they weren’t actually on active duty at the time.
But with the media scrutiny and delight at anything that makes the RN look bad, even including fishing boats apparently discovering a huge smoky hulking aircraft carrier moored up in the Moray Firth (in international waters, outside the 12 nm), they really have to be squeaky clean. No wonder they’re demoralised, we’re all human.
We treat our armed forces badly. We cut back what they need and don’t cut any rear echelons or civil service hats. We give them bad heavy rifles, bad boots, make them share kit and body armour. We don’t give them enough helicopters so they have to travel in Land Rovers through areas that the RAF have bombed. They get blown up, they are shot at, overworked, underpaid, under protected by a government that looks after MOD and industry jobs more than it looks after them. They are all under threat of more cuts except Majors and above who will get a good working lifetime and pension. They suffer PTSD. Many are invalided and suffer because they served their country. Some of them die. Many know someone who died or got blown up. We get them to live in barracks that havn’t seen a drop of paint for years. They spend months away from their families time and time again because total numbers are so low. They have to retire their MCMV to serve on an OPV that was only built to protect jobs on the Clyde. Their flagship is about to get sold. They have less Tanks and less Apaches than even just a few years ago and still they get told we have a rising defence budget.
I can’t approve of drug use at all but I think this is a problem of young people not being made to feel like they are being valued, and it is probably a problem that is not limited to just one Submarine.
Sadly Tim, so much of what you say is true. Your post sounds like a story from Napoleonic times and the tragedy is that it’s happening now. I can remember, particularly looking at Gordon B’s smug face rabbiting on about something or other while our people were getting blown up, stitched up and f….d up because of the lack of almost everything they needed.
The thing that amazes me and makes me feel humble is the strength of character shown by the men and women concerned. If a youngster ever needed a real hero……..
Yes the rifles are heavy, but I’d say our personal kit is pretty decent these days. Boots especially are a huge improvement from the CS95 rubbish.
And by the way, “reports” say Vigilant was in the US to pick up warheads. Err, no, it would be Trident missiles and it’s very unlikely there’d be one single warhead on board.
this is not something new when i was serving in the military it was common place for the camp to be locked down the nominal roll for all personnel in the camp would be taken names would be selected, then off to the drugs team you would go,you would be asked if your on any medication which would be checked on you medical record and by the M/O,then you would be tested if you failed you would be gone by the end of the following day..a lot of lads i know if they wanted out knew this was the quickest option as they were not sent to colly or anywhere near a prison just SNLR and gone… and that was in the 80,s 90,s
I was onboard HMS Eskimo in 1980. We did an Africa run ashore in Abidjan (Ivory Coast). I was on duty on one day and couldn’t go ashore – but when I got to the mess later in the day (prior to rounds) the mess smelled of weed and everyone inside was wasted. The OOD came to our mess as part of evening rounds, the mess door was opened and everyone just sat there, mouths opening, laughing and high as kites. They were arrested quickly by MAA, locked in the fridge flat and made to sleep on bare steel deck, and flown off in Rio for a stint in DQ’s and then exiting the Navy dishonourably. New guys arrived from UK to replace about 9 people – they were flown into Rio and enjoyed a really wonderful trip.
Very sad and unnecessary pain and loss of career – but my point I suppose, is these things have actually been happening for a very long time in the RN.
9 crewman on powder and the Captain and XO both sleeping around with their crew. I wouldn’t know whether to condemn the crew or give them a unit citation for getting any work done at all. However I do think that Nukes and cocaine are really not a match made in heaven. I know contraband has always been common but it seemed that hiding it has become a lost art.
A lot of this i believe is down to the lack of boats. It is too difficult to manage fatigue whn you have so few boats. If they were to increase the number of boats then the rest time will be a lot longer and maybe retention would be better as well.
Humans eh!
Few I suspect would condone white powder traces and I won’t either.
What I will say is Fallon’s response has been particularly pernicious as a way of slapping down the navy at the moment for being a bit too big for their boots in the press trying to lobby to protect their vitals.
He is a 1st class anchor
In the Downing Street port their are a lot of em
And in a delicious ironic twist Fallon is named in the Tory sexual miscreants whips list for having ‘odd sexual penchants’
Sound like a lack of strong leadership to me. But since the lead officer was a bit busy screwing one of his crew, who’s surprised?
The recently-depose Captain should do time.
For what? Locking men and women in a tube for months on end without castrating them first. Well the the result is predictable to anyone with a ounce of cynicism/realism. Cashier him yes along with whoever he was screwing but prison no.
The drug use is far more concerning.