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Astute on Shiplift
The 1998 Strategic Defence Review reaffirmed the UK’s need for submarines – but with increasingly flexible capabilities.
Astute’s role as a hunter killer relies on her being stealthier than her underwater environment. Astute will undertake a range of tasks, including intelligence gathering and anti-submarine warfare. Designed to operate in isolation or as part of a military task force with other naval vessels, aircraft and land forces, Astute’s challenge is to remain undetected, thousands of miles from home and hundreds of metres underwater while still being able to communicate securely and effectively with allied forces via satellite.
Astute has a greater weapons capability, improved communications facilities and enhanced capability to operate in littoral waters in comparison with the Swiftsure and Trafalgar class.
A powerful threat to enemy ships and submarines, Astute also has formidable firepower against land targets. Armed with heavyweight Spearfish torpedoes and Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles, she can strike at targets up to 1,000km from the coast with pin-point accuracy.
Astute is positioned as the UK’s most capable military asset and weapon of choice in the 21st century – the latest in a long line of boats built in Barrow for that ‘most silent service’.
Traditionally, UK submarines have followed the principle that performance should be optimised by designing the smallest submarine possible with little regard to cost. However, with the advancement in modular construction and the cost benefits that this brings, the design philosophy has changed. Astute will reap the benefits that modular construction can bring, allowing size, speed and cost to be optimised. As a result, the Astute class design is some 600 tonnes heavier than first anticipated. The submarines will be significantly larger than the Swiftsure class they replace.
A number of features have been incorporated into the design to improve performance, support the modular build concept and reduce through-life cost. These include an increased diameter to accommodate the PWR2 nuclear plant, which is capable of powering the boat for its entire 25-year life without the need to refuel, a larger main propulsion machinery package and an ‘optronics’ periscope to avoid hull penetrating masts, as well as additional weapons stowage. All these inclusions are possible due to the increased size of Astute and the modular build concept.
