Royal Navy's entire fleet of attack submarines out of action

[Onkel Neal]

Royal Navy's entire fleet of attack submarines out of action

The Royal Navy has insisted it has a "world-class fleet" after a report claimed all seven of its attack submarines were out of action.

The service's four Trafalgar​-class boats and the three newer Astute-class are not ready for missions with just one at sea, it has been claimed—and that submarine is on trials after maintenance.

The Sun reported that repairs and maintenance were keeping the craft from their patrols.

Sources told The Sun the Trafalgars, the last of which was built in 1986, were "on their last legs".

Theresa May has dodged four times a question on whether she knew about a Trident nuclear missile malfunction ahead of a Parliamentary debate.

Sounds like the #2 NATO partner needs to step up their game and commit some resources to their navy. Only seven attack subs? And none capable of doing their job? That's not good.

[Oberon]

Transition periods, they're always a sod. Seven SSNs is all we're getting though, even when the Astutes are all online and the Traffies withdrawn we're only going to have seven Astutes, we only had seven Traffies, but we also had the Swiftsures running down at the same time (and there was only ever six of those). Our SSN fleet hasn't really gone above double figures in decades. We just don't have the manpower or money for it, and I can't see that changing post-Brexit.
Pretty unusual for all of them to be offline at the same time though, I mean they're not that old, no older than the Los Angeles class. Must be that the problem lies more with maintenance costs and scheduling.
Not too surprised that Astute might be offline though, she's been a bit of a problem boat since her launch, and Ambush ambushed a merchant with its conning tower last year , so I imagine if one boat is active it'll probably be Artful.

EDIT: According to the Beeb just now, Astute is the one who is at sea after maintenance so Artful must be in dock for repairs for some reason.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Not too surprised that Astute might be offline though, she's been a bit of a problem boat since her launch, and Ambush ambushed a merchant with its conning tower last year , so I imagine if one boat is active it'll probably be Artful.

Reminds me of a conversation I had recently with an ex-colleague who has a son in the service. He tells me they are commonly referred to as the 'Unmagnificent Seven'

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Reminds me of a conversation I had recently with an ex-colleague who has a son in the service. He tells me they are commonly referred to as the 'Unmagnificent Seven'

Oh dear, between this and the Upholders teething problems something has rather gone wrong at Barrow, hasn't it?

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Oh dear, between this and the Upholders teething problems something has rather gone wrong at Barrow, hasn't it?

I honestly can't say I know where the fault stems from but something is certainly not right/as it should be.

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by Onkel Neal

Sounds like the #2 NATO partner needs to step up their game and commit some resources to their navy. Only seven attack subs? And none capable of doing their job? That's not good.

This is what is meant by being caught with your pants down.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

This is what is meant by being caught with your pants down.

Buggery, then, on both sides of 'the English speaking pond' as I 'astutely' pointed out in my 'post recently! http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=2460041&postcount=1800

These defective parts, each probably valued on the order of $10,000 or less, have kept the $2.7 billion attack submarine Minnesota languishing in an overhaul for two years, while engineers attempt to cut out and replace a difficult to reach part near the nuclear reactor. Meanwhile, Navy engineers are scouring aircraft carriers and other submarines for problems and criminal investigators are gathering evidence.

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by Aktungbby

[COLOR=orange]Buggery,

Buggery on the high seas!!!

[lesrae]

It's certainly the lowest number of boats we've had in my lifetime, very sad.

For an interesting and in-depth view on the problems of supply vs demand vs time to build, read The Silent Deep by Hennessy and Jinks.

[em2nought]

Better bring back Downton Abbey

[u crank]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Oh dear, between this and the Upholders teething problems something has rather gone wrong at Barrow, hasn't it?

Canada says 'thank for the effort'.

[STEED]

We still got pea shooters and spud guns...Bring it on.

[Skybird]

Maybe it is more practical to focus on making the British isles as a whole submergable.

Sink Britain!

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Maybe it is more practical to focus on making the British isles as a whole submergable.

Sink Britain!

We've dug enough holes in the ground over the years, heck at one point in 1900 the French reckoned that we were working on turning Britain buoyant and floating away.

[MGR1]

This might be of some relevance:

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall...7-02-08a.152.2

Note that apart from one junior Minister there were no Conservative MP's present for the debate. Probably due to it being instigated by a member of the SNP.

Also this:

https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/what...ding-strategy/

Mike.