Royal Navy Submarine Service
The
Royal Navy Submarine Service - sometimes known as the
"Silent Service", on account of a submarine being required to operate quietly in order to remain undetected by enemy
SONAR (or
ASDIC as it was known in the
RN pre-
1948) - is the collective name given to the
submarine element of the
Royal Navy. The service consists of 10
Attack submarines (
SSNs), of the
Swiftsure and
Trafalgar class, and four
ballistic missile submarines(SSBN), of the
Vanguard class. It also operates the
LR5 Submarine Rescue System ROV.
All of the Royal Navy's current submarines (with the exception of the
LR5, which is strictly speaking a
submersible rather than a submarine) are
nuclear powered.
|
The "Dolphins" badge, issued to all British submariners on completion of training. It is worn on the upper left breast, just above any medal ribbons. |
The United Kingdom was the last major maritime power not to use submarines at the beginning of the
20th century, as the idea of submarine warfare was considered by many senior personnel in the
Admiralty to be
"Underhand, under water and damned un-English" (
Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson VC, 1901). However, those in favour of experimenting with submarine technology eventually won the argument, and the
Royal Navy launched its first submarine,
Holland 1, in 1901.
The Submarine Service proved its worth in
World War I, where it won five of the Royal Navy's 14
Victoria Crosses of the war.
The Jolly Roger
Admiral Sir
Arthur Wilson VC, the Controller of the
Royal Navy, summed up the opinion of the many in the
Admiralty at the time when he said in 1901
"Submarines are underhand, unfair and damned un-English. The crews of all submarines captured should be treated as pirates and hanged". In response Lieutenant Commander (later Admiral Sir)
Max Horton first flew the Jolly Roger on return to port after sinking the German cruiser
SMS Hela and the destroyer
SMS S-116 in 1914. During
World War I, the submarine service came of age winning five of the Royal Navy's fourteen Victoria Crosses. The first by Lieutenant
Norman Holbrook, Commanding Officer of
HMS B11. In
World War II it became common practice for the submarines of the Royal Navy and
Royal Australian Navy to fly the Jolly Roger on completion of a successful combat mission where some action had taken place, but as an indicator of bravado and stealth rather than of lawlessness. The Jolly Roger is now the emblem of the
Royal Navy Submarine Service.
[General information on the Royal Navy Submarine Service use and history of the Jolly Roger]
* Royal Navy Submarines "A TRIBUTE TO THE PAST"
* Royal Navy Submarine Museum: WWII flashes added to a Jolly Roger
* Royal Navy Submarine Museum: Jolly Roger Examples The Jolly Roger was brought to the attention of a post World War II public when
HMS Conqueror flew the Jolly Roger on her return from the
Falklands War having sunk
ARA General Belgrano. In May 1991
Oberon class submarines
HMS Opossum and her sister
HMS Otus returned to the submarine base
HMS Dolphin in
Gosport from patrol in the
Persian Gulf flying Jolly Rogers, the only indication that they had been involved in alleged
SAS and
SBS reconnaissance operations
[Opossum and Otus were seen returning to HMS Dolphin ... with a jolly roger]. In 1999
HMS Splendid participated in the
Kosovo Conflict and became the first Royal Navy submarine to fire a
cruise missile in anger. On her return to
Faslane, on
July 9 1999,
Splendid flew the Jolly Roger.
[Barton Gellman U.S., NATO Launch Attacks on Yugoslavia Washington Post 25 March 1999][Swiftsure Class Nuclear Fleet Submarines] After
Operation Veritas, the attack on Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces following the
9/11 attacks in the United States,
HMS Trafalgar entered
Plymouth Sound flying the Jolly Roger on
March 1 2002. She was welcomed back by Admiral Sir
Alan West, Commander-in-Chief of the fleet and it emerged she was the first Royal Navy submarine to launch tomahawk cruise missiles against Afghanistan,
[ Trafalgar Returns March 1, 2002].
HMS Triumph was also involved in the initial strikes and on returning to port had a Jolly Roger that was emblazoned with two crossed Tomahawks to indicate her opening missiles salvoes in the
"war against terrorism" and
HMS Superb's whose flag had a dagger, for force protection, a bee for her nickname (the Super B), and two communications flashes
[HMS Triumph and HMS Superb].
More recently, on
April 16,
2003,
HMS Turbulent, the first Royal Navy vessel to return home from the war against Iraq, arrived in
Plymouth flying the Jolly Roger after launching fourteen
Tomahawk cruise missiles.
[Cruise missile sub (HMS Turbulent) back in UK by Richard Norton-Taylor in The Guardian April 17, 2003]The Perisher is a 24 week submarine command course all officers must take prior to serving as an
Executive Officer on board a Royal Navy Submarine. It has been run twice a year since 1917, and is widely regarded as one of the toughest command courses in the world, with an historical failure rate of 25%
[Perisher Sumarine Command Training in the Royal Navy].
If at any point during the training a candidate is withdrawn from training he will be nominated for boat transfer and kept occupied until the transfer. His bag is packed for him and he is notified of the failure when the boat arrives. On departure he is presented with a bottle of
whisky. A failure on Perisher means that the candidate will not return to the Submarine Service.
The Submarine Service has many traditions that are not found in the
surface fleet. These include slang unique to submariners (such as referring to the weapons storage department as the
Bomb Shop and the engine room as the
Donk Shop[Rick Jolly, Jackspeak: A Guide to British Naval Slang & Usage, FoSAMMA (2000), ISBN 0-9514305-2-1]), a special communications code known as the
Dolphin Code and the entitlement of a sailor to wear
Dolphins upon entering the service.
Attack submarines
As of 2006, the Submarine Service consists of two classes of
attack (sometimes known as
Fleet or
Hunter-Killer) submarines - the
Swiftsure class submarine and the
Trafalgar class submarine. Since they are all
nuclear submarines, they are classified as
SSNs.
Ballistic submarines
The four
ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) of the Royal Navy are all of the
Vanguard class. They are:
HMS Vanguard (S28),
HMS Victorious (S29),
HMS Vigilant (S30), and
HMS Vengeance (S31). They were all built by Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd, now
BAE Systems Submarines.
The four Vanguard class boats are responsible for the United Kingdom's
nuclear deterrent, and use the
Trident missile system.
LR5 Submarine Rescue System
The Royal Navy also operates the
LR5 Submarine Rescue System, an
ROV designed for retrieving sailors from stranded submarines. It is capable of rescuing 16 at a time.
The Royal Navy is to receive three new
Astute class submarines in 2009, 2010 and 2012. The
Swiftsure-class will be entirely decommissioned by 2010. HMS
Trafalgar is to be decommissioned in 2008, followed by HMS
Turbulent in 2011. The Astute Class submarine will be the biggest nuclear attack submarine ever to have been in service with the Royal Navy, nearly 30% larger than its predecessors. This is due to the powerplant, the Rolls Royce PWR2 reactor (developed for the Vanguard class SSBN). The armament of Astute class is set to be 38 Spearfish torpedos (the British equivalent of the US Mk48 ADCAP torpedos), Tomahawk Block III/IV Cruise Missiles and submarine launched mines.
It is unclear whether more Astute class submarines will be ordered. Another development project is the
Maritime Underwater Future Capability (MUFC). These will follow on from the Astute class and possibly replace the Trafalgar class. Reports (e.g. in
Defense News) have suggested that the MUFC studies may result in a single class of multi-role submarines to replace the Trafalgar class, Vanguard class SSBNs and eventually the Astute class. This would require a submarine capable of launching conventional land attack missiles, some form of nuclear missile (
ICBM or tactical nuclear missile) as well as conventional submarine munitions including mines and torpedoes.
*
Submarine*
Royal Navy*
List of Royal Navy Submarines*
Jolly Roger*
Submarine Service official webpage
