In a surprising announceme nt on Sunday evening, the Royal Navy revealed that the seventh and final Astute-class nuclear-powered submarine, previously named HMS Agincourt, will now be called HMS Achilles.
The change was shared via the Royal Navy’s official Twitter account, marking a departure from the name announced in 2018. The boat’s name was confirmed in May 2018, having previously held the in-work name of Ajax.
The Royal Navy stated: “The 7th Astute-class submarine is to be named HMS Achilles, as approved by The King. The name is appropriate in light of the 80th anniversaries this year of VE and VJ Day. Six ships have previously borne the name, earning six battle honours, including the River Plate and Okinawa.”
The name HMS Agincourt was initially confirmed in 2018 when the Ministry of Defence signed a £1.5 billion contract with BAE Systems for the construction of the vessel in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.
At the time, it was highlighted as the sixth Royal Navy vessel to commemorate the Battle of Agincourt of 1415 and a significant contributor to supporting 8,000 jobs in the UK.
HMS Achilles brings a storied legacy of its own, with six previous ships bearing the name and earning notable battle honours, including actions during the Second World War such as the Battle of the River Plate and the Battle of Okinawa. The decision to adopt the new name appears to align with commemorations of the 80th anniversaries of Victory in Europe (VE) and Victory over Japan (VJ) Day.
While the Royal Navy website still lists HMS Agincourt as the seventh Astute-class submarine, the latest announcement signals a definitive shift. The Astute-class submarines represent some of the most advanced hunter-killer submarines in the Royal Navy, equipped with cutting-edge technology for intelligence gathering, surveillance, and strike capabilities.
The rebranding of the submarine underscores the Royal Navy’s tradition of honouring its historical legacy while adapting to the present. As HMS Achilles, the vessel will carry forward a name rich in naval heritage and symbolic of strength and resilience.
The names
The name HMS Agincourt was originally chosen for the seventh Astute-class submarine in 2018, honouring the historic Battle of Agincourt in 1415. This name holds deep significance in Royal Navy tradition, as five previous vessels have carried the title, each reflecting the bravery and tactical brilliance demonstrated in that battle.
As reported in the Daily Express in January 2024, naval chiefs were criticised for allegedly discussing a potential name change out of “fear of upsetting the French.” According to the report, some observers labelled such deliberations as “woke nonsense,” reigniting debate over whether the name was appropriate given modern diplomatic sensitivities.
The new name, HMS Achilles, announced in January 2025, replaces the previous designation and marks a shift in symbolism. Achilles has a distinguished naval history, with six previous Royal Navy ships bearing the name and earning battle honours, including at the River Plate and Okinawa. The renaming pays tribute to the 80th anniversaries of VE and VJ Day, reinforcing the vessel’s role in representing strength, resilience, and the enduring commitment of the Royal Navy to protecting national and allied interests.
The Astute class
The Astute class is the Royal Navy’s latest fleet of nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs), designed to replace the Trafalgar-class submarines. Constructed by BAE Systems Submarines in Barrow-in-Furness, the class comprises seven boats, with the first, HMS Astute, launched in 2007 and fully operational by 2014. These submarines, integral to the UK’s maritime defence strategy, are estimated to cost over £1.65 billion per vessel as of 2015.
Astute-class submarines measure 97 metres in length and displace up to 7,800 tonnes submerged. They are powered by a Rolls-Royce PWR 2 nuclear reactor and MTU diesel generators, allowing unlimited range and a top speed of 30 knots. With an endurance of approximately 90 days, they house a crew of 98 and can carry up to 38 weapons, including Tomahawk Block IV cruise missiles and Spearfish torpedoes. Advanced sensors, such as the Thales Sonar 2076 and optronic masts, enhance their operational capabilities.
The Astute class has been a significant technological advancement for the Royal Navy, boasting superior endurance, stealth, and firepower. Currently, six boats have been completed, with five in active service and one under construction. These submarines will eventually be succeeded by the SSN-AUKUS class, as part of ongoing efforts to modernise the Royal Navy’s fleet.
Probably seen as too offensive to the French. Under Labour the next ships will be HMS Woke, HMS BLM, & HMS Greta Thunberg. After that the prefix ‘HMS’will be changed to a gender neutral version.
Are you British, Andrew? Or just a Russian troll? I hope the latter, as it it is slightly less embarrassing for you if so.
It’s called irony M, something that reflects on the society in which we live.
Totally Geoff! – Andrew has a point!
There are no issues with the new name itself and in the grand scheme of things is a trivial item, but it reflects Labour’s rather nauseating obsession with trying to avoid even potentially offending anyone that isn’t British. Today it’s a name, tomorrow it’s giving away overseas territories etc.
I thought giving away overseas territory was a few months ago. I’d hoped that was over and done.
I thought this had already been agreed when Gavin Williamson was defence secretary
Absolutely agree – complete governmental appeasement to the French. Without any doubt whatsoever.
Totally agree the French did say we committed war crimes in 1415. And far as people criticizing others at least be up front and don’t call your self M.
Or perhaps the rest of the UK, Agincourt being an English battle where Scot’s were on the other side and not a British one. I’m sure people in England would not be thrilled about HMS Bannockburn being one of the AUKUS class boats.
Don’t forget the Welsh Jim, their archers played a vital role in The Hundred years war (123 to be more precise) when Scotland gets its independence they can call their ships what they like, it wouldn’t offend me.
When pigs fly…
Next they’ll rename Tralgar Square.
Trafalgar was a British battle so no chance, no one in France cares about Napoleonic war battles.
TMS instead of HMS-as in Their Majesties ship ?
Isn’t HMS gender neutral already?
His Majesties Ship?
And was previously Her Majesty’s Ship.
Exactly it is indeed gender neutral.
Don’t know if anyone actually bothered to copy check this article but I do think the Battle of the River Plate didn’t really need to be emphasised three times.
As much as I hate the idea – that isn’t what gender neutral means. It would need to refrain from the assumption of gender all together.
“Their Majesties Ship” – There we go. How lovely?
Don’t really see that there is any issue with it, sometimes not pissing next door off over something as meaningless as a name is worthwhile and sometimes you want to make a point to next door…at present we want to be nice…
At least we moved the London Terminal for Eurostar from Waterloo, they didn’t think it was funny.
And yet they have an Austerlitz station.
I always found it hillarious Eurostar ended at Waterloo.
Yes, don’t remember the Austrians getting all hot and bothered about that!
I prefer Achilles, Agincourt after all was a land battle but it is still probably our finest ever away win.
Indeed. Everyone’s a winner. Nice to have grownups in charge.
I agree at this point considering what’s happening across the pond and every MAGA digital brown shirt queuing up to express hatred for Britain and other close allies probably sensible to realise that Europe needs to work very closely together if we are going to survive unscathed. It’s not like we can simply assume we get back to sanity in 4 years there are actually worse Republicans there than Trump and without Scottish mothers and golf courses ready to double down on Trumpism especially when non humans sorry non Americans decide that being threatened and blamed and not sinking to their knees and apologising for being foreign but instead retaliate in kind strike home.
Pipe dream getting Europe working together especially on defence. Look at the current conflict in Ukraine. At the outset Germany would not allow overflight by UK and US to Ukraine for fear of upsetting Putin. Europe have war on their doorstep and are at best ineffectual. Having worked alongside many NATO armies I would not trust any of them to cover my flank. With the exception of the Legion. They will fight, but would their politicians.
It is a matter of trust, capability and backbone. In most cases they lack all three.
Look at the Five Eyes agreement. Germany France and Holland would all dearly love to be in on information flow Yet not one of the Five Eyes support them. I wonder why.
Because 8 eyes does not have the same ring to it 😀
And the Kiwi commitment to defence spending is errr ummm…not terribly good for a wealthy country?
Their better trained units are actually very, very good in case anyone thinks I’m overly negative.
Canada much the same.
I agree at this point considering what’s happening across the pond and every MAGA digital brown shirt queuing up to express hatred for Britain and other close allies probably sensible to realise that Europe needs to work very closely together if we are going to survive unscathed. It’s not like we can simply assume we get back to sanity in 4 years there are actually worse Republicans there than Trump and without Scottish mothers and golf courses ready to double down on Trumpism especially when non Americans decide that being threatened and blamed and being punished for not sinking to their knees and apologising for being foreign but instead retaliate in kind strikes home at MAGA’s fragile egos.
Agreed.
One could also say that it’s message sending of its own as well; it would appear from the article that many of Achilles’ battle honours are from the Pacific theatre, could be a sign of intent regarding our presence east of Suez. A very subtle sign, but potentially one nonetheless.
Achilles was in the process of transferring to the RNZN when she participated in the Battle of the River Plate and did indeed spend the rest of WW2 in the Pacific as HMNZS Achilles.
Cheers CR
I suppose it make sense, Ajax and Achilles sort of go together both names used for Leander Class Frigates and Leander Class Cruisers. And to honest it’s a far more illustrious name in RN History than Agincourt.
Just hope she hasn’t any weaknesses 🤷🏼♂️
I don’t believe she was dangled over a cauldron and dipped..so should be all ok 😂🤣
So that’s what happened to the carrier propshafts! You’d have thought we’d have learned double-dipping techniques by now.
Agincourt was the battleship requesutioned on the onset of World War 1 that had been built and paid for by Turkey. To be fair HM Government planned on paying Turkey for it but obviously as things turned out didn’t have to…
Agincourt started out as the Brazilian battleship Rio De Janeiro actually
If it does have a weakness, will it be it’s Achilles keel?
🙂
Did the French really care that much? I wouldn’t mind if they named a submarine of theirs FS Hastings in return.
I don’t think you can really count the Norman’s as French to be honest, infact they had won a war against the French in 1054…they were another bunch of a rowdy bunch of vikings who happened to speak French.
Agreed but the Normans cobbled together a large group of French dukes and Barons as an allied force to take England.
No, the French don’t care it is English exceptionalism that leads to the idea they would. It’s like the ongoing tiresome belief amongst the English that the Germans are still coping and seething about losing the World Cup in 1996 hence the need to constantly go on about it despite having won no other major football tournament since. Ask any German about and they are genuinely baffled especially since it relates to a single tournament and they have won four World Cups and three European Championships.
“ The Astute-class submarines represent some of the most advanced hunter-killer submarines in the Royal Navy”
May I rephrase that?
“The Astute-class submarines the only hunter-killer submarines in the Royal Navy”
ABSOLUTELY SB – that one wasn’t lost on me either!!
Reading comprehension is clearly not your speciality, they clearly mean any hunter-killer class that has served with the Royal past and present.
Well, you can always try to use the Vanguard-class as an SSN…
More likely, it’s a hangover from before the last Trafalgar-class boat was decommissioned.
If you read down the article it then contradicts itself.
Proof reading large volumes of stuff is quite tough – I can’t do it well – I need a #2 to do that for me.
Whilst I don’t want to be overly critical of George and Lisa’s enormous efforts the issue is that there is a lot of copy and paste rather than writing extempore and we all *know* that they know the situation but the older version from 18 months ago is still being recirculated. This was OK when UKDJ had a lot smaller footprint.
Having written a lot of journal articles it is very very hard to keep ideas and expression fresh with copy/paste which is why writing fresh text allows expression, ideas and knowledge to evolve.
I suspect, if I was George, which I’m not(!!!) I’d reduce the number of articles by about 20% to invest that time in some fresher text?
It is a perspective thing – I think George is more interested in communicating fact than presentation?
Anyway UKDJ keep up the great work.
Should have called it HMS Exocet in memory of the French and Argentina…..
HMS Backstabber would be more accurate!
Given the UK sold everything up to full destroyers to Argentina, its always funny when there’s a “how dare the French do exactly the same as us” post. BTW from memory not only did the French refuse to supply anymore to them once the Invasion happened but also gave tech specs to the UK.
But yeah, how dare the French sell weapons to the nation that the UK sold weapons to!
Not true – Pierre Razoux (a former French defence minister) admitted there was a device in existence that could defeat incoming Excoet missiles but Mitterrand refused to share it with the UK – but hey, what are friends for.
That aside, the irony here is that the RN ended up buying Exocet from the French after the war ended…..
The RN had Exocet before Op Corporate. Broadsword, Brilliant and several Leanders all carried the weapon. The French aided the RN by having their Super Etebdards perform simulated attacks against ships of the Task Force as they headed south.
We were one of the first customers of Exocet in the 1970’s. In fact in 1982 we were the biggest user of it….
There is no kill switch….the RN was totally familiar with all aspects of Exocet.
The French actually got their Super Etendards to exercise with the RN so that the RN would be aware of the tactics and be able to detect the Agave radar and give advance warning of an Exocet attack by the Argentinian’s..they also got their Mirages to exercise with Sea Harrier so that appropriate tactics could be devised to counter them…
Thats bollocks, why would there be a device that defeats Exocet? What nonsense.
Considering back in 1957, the British Empire offered a Majestic (HMS Magnificient) and Implacable to Argentina (HMS Indefatigable) but both were rejected.
And the French deliberately wasted the Argentinian’s time with phoney offers to supply missiles.
The bigger problem was the re-programming codes to allow the air launched to be used as the improvised land launched version. How they got those is something that hasn’t been totally revealed as those should have been manufacturer only access.
I would have liked it renamed to HMS Acasta – a very plucky ship whose crew did their duty to the last.
We could have rename the T32 to the Non Binary’ class, given it doesn’t know what it is.
Maybe we get a few that way for reasons of quota.
Very bad luck under royal navy tradition to rename ship very bad luck
Yeah except the sub has not even been launched yet, so they are safe as the Royal Navy renames ships all the time and very few of them suffered misfortunes
Yeah the renaming of the last Astute could potentially mean an 8th Astute may be on the cards
HMS Additional…? LOL.
HMS ‘Ahh fuck, we’re at war!’ perhaps. I doubt that we would get another Astute-class in any other scenario, but it would be nice.
Sadly the build schedule has Dreadnought class and SSN AUKUS already full so even if there was money for no. 8 the capacity to build isn’t.
I do recall mention in this parish that no more RR PWR2 can be built as they already moved on to PWR3 for Dreadnought.
Yeah I think you might be mistaken as they can build another if they build it as a copy of Achilles but who said it could not use the PWR3 reactor
PWR3 won’t fit in an Astute.
You underestimate the British ship building industry especially in the age of computers
Yes, ABC has explained this many times.
Complete nonsense , just appeasing french sensibilities instead of celebrating a great victory
No it is not as they never complained about the HMS Agincourt that came before the SSN
Most of the previous ‘Achilles’ have been relatively light vessels, whereas ‘Agincourt’ has tended to be a name used for Capital ships. I would consider SSNs to be Capital ships personally.
Great name, been a while since the name was used and as the ship/sub /boat has not been launched its not bad luck to rename it s it was never named. I doubt it was changed to keep the French happy as they never complained. Just some here trying stir the pot.
Agree with you on all counts
Storm in a tea cup, or maybe a cafe au lait cup?
Wasn’t it HMNZS Achilles in WW2
Yup.
She was HMS Achilles at the Battle of the River Plate, but there were Royal New Zealand Navy crew members already on board as she was to be transferred to New Zealand… Hence most of her WW2 Battle Honours are for the Pacific theater.
Cheers CR
Intriguing, another necessary history lesson for non-natives. Never before realized that there were Commonwealth sailors, under respective flags, serving aboard RN vessels, before the advent of AUKUS. Evidently, RN vessels also loaned or sold to Commonwealth country(ies) during WW II? Additionally, request someone explain current apparent NZ phobia re nuclear powered/(armed?) vessels. Result of theoretical risk calculation or Woke political statement?
Hello FormerUSAF. The British Empire, especially among the so-called white dominions, were much closer in every respect in those days, so the Navies of Canada. Australia and New Zealand all flew, under one Flag- the White Ensign of the Royal Navy, in those days. They only acquired their own versions from the 1960’s onwards
Kind Regards
Geoff
ps although after the Statute of Westminster in 1931, most decision making powers not already devolved, were granted to these Dominions. In short, their Navies were subject to their domestic control although they continued to work closely with their Kith and Kin!
Woke political statement- albeit an unusually long-established one.
Re. Commonwealth personnel, all the UK armed forces have always considered them eligible to serve (although not in every role, and presently limited by quotas for some reason). e.g. the Nepalese Gurkhas are some of our best soldiers.
Maybe they are keeping the name Agincourt back for the type 83 “battle class” . We could have great fun upsetting everyone.
Agincourt Trafalgar – the French
Armada and Gibraltar the Spanish
Falklands the Germans and Argentinians
Matapan and Taranto the Italians .
The naming committee could give the Foreign Office Humphries a complete breakdown
Perhaps
🙂 Very funny…
I would like to see an Admiral Class and would like to add a couple of new names to the list, Cunningham and Ramsey. The latter is often overlooked but he organised the Dunkirk evacuation and Operation Neptune (Naval part of D-Day). These two were both remarkable achievements and probably two of the most important maritime operations ever undertaken by the RN.
Cheers CR
Witty Iain. I prefer the classics. The Leanders had the best names. The Flower class were fine by me. The very un-belligerently named H.M.S. Daisy sank two U boats in as many days in 1944.
This was reported to have been under consideration over a year ago but rejected as unnecessary and too woke.
Nothing wrong with the new name but pathetic reason to change to it.
I’d much prefer a complete rethink about the names of the T31s.
As an Englishman I know my people are happy when they grumble. Achilles is far more appropriate and is not as woke as one might think. Toxic Masculinity anyone?
Hilarious to see the conspiracy theories about upsetting the French.
HMS Agincourt is the submarine that is associated with the fire at Barrow. But HMS Achilles isn’t. Same boat, but with a quick renaming, association with an accident is distanced. Now it won’t work with those in ‘the know’, but to those that don’t follow naval matters, these are two completely different submarines.
It’s called PR spin.
Cool! So long as it doesn’t spend half the war sulking in its tent.
HMS Mers – el – Kèbir ?
Maybe in a few hundred years. 😉
Pathetic
Probably more to do with the hall fire than Anglo-French diplomacy.
Achilles? Of heel fame, no doubt. Poor choice of name.
It’s also a poor name if upsetting the French is a reason.
Oh so typical.
They don’t want to upset the Kermits, who should be upset on a regular basis.