The Royal Navy currently has nine nuclear-powered submarines in service, including four nuclear-armed vessels maintaining the UK’s continuous at-sea deterrent, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.
Responding to a question in the House of Lords, Defence Minister Lord Coaker said the submarine force consists of four Vanguard-class ballistic missile submarines and five Astute-class attack submarines.
“The Royal Navy has a fleet of nine submarines currently in service,” he told peers. “It operates four Vanguard class nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed submarines in Operation Relentless, the continuous at-sea deterrent, which has been successfully maintained for over 56 years.”
Lord Coaker added that the Vanguard-class boats will be replaced by four Dreadnought-class submarines, which are scheduled to enter service in the 2030s. He also confirmed that two additional Astute-class submarines are currently under construction. The exchange followed a question from Lord Trefgarne, who asked how many nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed submarines are currently in service. In a follow-up, he asked whether the deterrent submarines are being maintained and operated to the required standard.
In response, Lord Coaker emphasised the importance of the continuous at-sea deterrent, stating: “A key point for all of us in this House, our nation and our alliances is that it is a continuous at-sea deterrent, and I reassure everyone that we maintain that.”
He described the deterrent as having underpinned peace and security for decades and said it has been sustained under successive governments. Lord Bruce of Bennachie later questioned how many submarines are operational at any one time, citing periods when boats have been unavailable due to maintenance, and raised concerns about the ability to sustain the programme while delivering future commitments such as AUKUS.
Lord Coaker declined to give figures on operational availability, saying: “I will not go into the number of submarines that are operational for obvious reasons.” However, he referred to the Royal Navy’s submarine recovery plan, which aims to improve docking and maintenance capacity in order to increase availability. He said those measures are intended to ensure the fleet can meet current requirements while supporting future submarine programmes.
How many are working? What a going no where nothing new story, its like the Navy confirming it has two Carriers, this is just another nothing story by the MOD about nothing new.
How many currently at sea? 2.
iof we are lucky, another shambles
They are all working.
Really ?
😅
no, wrong
It’s not a MOD story though, it’s a UKDJ one. A question was asked in the House of Lords and an answer was given. The UKDJ then thought it sufficiently interesting enough to put up an article about it. Why get annoyed at that?
what a stupid question to ask in house of Lords its fully known how many subs we have and how many work, 3 at most. House of Lords full people asking dead end questions,
“Two additional Astute-class submarines are currently under construction”
That’ll be a surprise to the crew who dived HMS Agamemnon last October. I’ll bet they didn’t realize we did basin dives while the ship was still under construction. I do hope the scaffolding didn’t get in the way. Come to think of it, it’s a commissioned ship too. The King turned up and everything.
Maybe they meant Ten ? 😁
I mean, its hardly in service, its still in trials.
“Trials” means close to service, “Construction” means something not ready yet.
This is Fantastic news, to think we have 9 Cutting edge World class, State of the art Submarines all ready at the push of a button (NOOO not that button 😱) ready to “Unleash Hell” on any aggresso, makes one feel safe at night.
I’m guessing It’s two then ? r
Hopefully we can get the Astute maintenance program on a more even keel and the last two boats into service. We are suppose to be deploying an Astute permanently to Australia in a few years which should be very doable from a fleet of 7.
You would think an “Even Keel” would be a given really.
id hardly say very doable, nominally naval vessels operate on a 3 to 1 rule, so with 7 well have 2 available to deploy with the occasional 3rd.
Probably not given the situation in the North Atlantic now.
Been said before, but between Astute’s now and SSNRs later why not a small fleet of 3-4 SSNKs (eg. 212CD), co-build with Germany and Norway, for littoral, regional patrols, that could check on coastal and deeper undersea infrastructure, mothership drones, deploy SFs and importantly free up the Astutes? It doesn’t all need to be nuclear.
It seems that’s what the autonomous platforms are for? To serve as short, medium and long term options.
Thats common sense. A quality sadly lacking in politicians, the RN and MoD.
Good idea
We shouldn’t replace subs, we should add to them. Stop the bullshit about recruiting only this or that to get the complection of our armed forces ‘right’ and recruit anyone willing to fight. Stop the has to be under 40 bullshit as well, I can use a spanner, I can use a keyboard, I can use a joystick I can work for days of long hours, weeks if needed, I can do all that is required despite being in my 60s
SSBN –
1 in long term refit (Plymouth)
1 in shed in Faslane (January 2024)
1 alongside Faslane (working up)
1 at sea (since October 2024
SSN’s
1 at Sea (in Gib as of 17/01 on way to Australia for 2 year deployment)
2 in Plymouth refit
1 under gong trials
1 in build up trials
1 finishing refit at Faslane
1 being robbed to keep the others active
“1 at Sea (in Gib as of 17/01 on way to Australia for 2 year deployment)”
Not entirely true! No plans to station one in Australia, just yet for a while.
Can you clarify what part is not true? There is only ONE SSN at sea (granted alongside) in Gib… I await your response never stated she is going to be stationed in Australia – your words – she is not due home until December 2028… go on enlighten me.. “Meirion X “… prove me wrong..
You yourself Dave, said that a SSN is going to be
stationed in Australia! Not at the moment, I would say!
A SSN arrival in Gibraltar, could mean a deployment to the M.E for now.
Deep32:
“The original SUF-West rotation had the UK providing an Astute boat from sometime in 2027 onwards for a period of several years I believe.”
Evaded the question I see, and quite rightly for operational security reasons.
That said, saying we have nine is like saying Land Rover has xxxx thousand cars registered on UK roads…. But not how many are actually fit to drive tomorrow morning, and how many are in for repairs, how many are showing faults on the dash etc….
I’d like to think that the Royal Navy would not out put to sea in a submarine with the equivalent of fault lights on the dash…..
Pretty sure at any time, the figure isn’t close to nine, and the Hunter Killers are nothing to do with the continuous deterrent