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Posted on 05/09/2007 11:25:04 AM PDT by Stoat
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As Britain’s first stealth sub, she gives off less noise than a baby dolphin thanks to her extraordinary amount of sound proofing — despite weighing as much as 975 double-decker buses.
Older subs’ noisier propellers have been replaced by a multi-bladed “propulsor”, and the rest of the vessel has been lined with special rubber tiles that mute all internal noise such as TVs and radios.
Meanwhile, Astute’s own top-secret sonar system — the subs’ jumbo-sized ears — is the best in the world.
If water conditions are right, operators could pick up the QE2 cruise ship leaving New York harbour while sitting thousands of miles away in the English Channel.
Astute has devastating firepower and is the biggest attack sub ever built for the Royal Navy.
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| Making waves ... how it will look in the water |
She can carry 38 Tomahawk cruise missiles, which have a range of 1,240 miles each.
A vital weapon in the War On Terror, Astute can use them to blast land targets with pinpoint accuracy in North Africa from off the coast of Plymouth, in Devon.
She can also fire Spearfish torpedoes in ship-hunting missions.
Navy bosses allowed The Sun an exclusive sneak preview as workers put the finishing touches to HMS Astute in BAE Systems’ massive Devonshire Dock Hall in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.
Painted jet black, she towers a total of 12 storeys from keel to the top of the conning tower.
With a length of 106 yards and width of 12 yards, she is as much as 30 per cent bigger than her predecessors — seven Trafalgar Class subs — under the seas today.
With her revolutionary technology, the Astute Class packs double the punch of the current hunter-killer fleet too. On top of the two traditional roles of land attack and ship-killing, HMS Astute will also be a massive reconnaissance asset.
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Armed with powerful sensors and eavesdropping devices, her invisibility under water means she will be able to lurk just a few hundred yards off coastlines. |
There she can listen in to enemy transmissions and secretly land Special Forces teams.
In fact, her only downfall might be that she is TOO quiet.
Her position could possibly be given away because the normal sound of the ocean is louder, and her presence could be betrayed on a sharp-eyed enemy’s sonar screen as a black hole of nothingness.
Astute is the first sub ever to be built without a periscope. Instead she has an optical mast topped by an ultra-sharp TV camera equipped with long range thermal and infra-red lenses beamed to the captain by fibre-optic cable.
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| Sea phew ... awesome power |
The mast is raised above surface level for a three-second, 360-degree rotation to tell him everything he wants to know.
The Navy has asked for four Astute Class subs at £1.2billion each.
HMS Astute — the first — is launched next month for a year of sea trials before being handed over to the Navy’s Silent Service in August 2008. She will enter frontline service in January 2009.
HMS Ambush, Artful and Audacious will follow.
The Astute programme has come in for heavy criticism for being three years late and a whopping £750million over budget.
But Navy submarine boss Captain Mike Davis-Marks said last night: “The Astute class of submarines will quite simply be unbeatable worldwide for many years to come.
“Astute will have a capability that will keep us right at the top of the Premiership of the world’s navies — the Manchester United of submarine nations. With our proud heritage, Britain deserves nothing less.”
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When you find a Royal Navy name to match USS Manlove 
get back to me
The USS Manlove [DE-36] was named after Warrant Officer Arthur Manlove, a native of Tipton, Ind., who was killed aboard the battleship USS Arizona on 7 December 1941.
USS Manlove
Seaman Staines and Roger the Cabin boy reporting for duty!
for 11 passengers read “11 special boat service”. :)
I helped build Astute (in a rather minor capacity, I should add).
It is absolutely awesome (and so it should be, it took long enough to make). When it goes into service later on this year (by tradition they get handed over to the navy at sea) it will be the finest SSN on the planet The US Virginias currently under construction will probably be a match for it (one ahead in some respects, the other ahead in others, but by and large, pretty much on a par).
I took some photos from the commissioning ceremony and will post on this site later on today :)
It works like this:
The naming of ships is considered by the “Ships’ Names and Badges Committee”. They produce a list which is given to the First Sea Lord, who makes a reccomendation to the Queen. Yes, that’s right. One of the few powers her Maj still has is a veto on the naming of ships. It’s only fair if you think about it. They are after all “HMS” - “Her Majesties Ship”. If they are hers she should at least have a say in naming them! Normally of course she just accepts the reccomendation. The last time a monarch exercised the veto that I know about was during the naval arms race with Germany just before the first world war, when the navy wanted to call a battleship “HMS Oliver Cromwell”, and the then King argued most strenously that he wasnt going to name a major warship after a republican and regicide! In the end he relented and allowed a destroyer to be called “Cromwell”!
Policy for naming ships of the Royal Navy is informed by a number of guiding principles. For example, many ship names have a long and illustrious heritage, and a name with a tradition of Royal Navy use is preferred. Other factors in making a selection include the number of battle honours associated with a name, and whether a name is already classically associated with a particular type of vessel. “Ark Royal” for example, will always be an aircraft carrier (although the first one was a cruiser back before the Napoleonic wars). The RN is very big on reusing names from famous ships of the past. Many such names come from famous battles (on land or sea), great admirals, or intimidating words like Dreadnought or Invincible. These names usually go to the big, impressive ships.
Alternatively, a ship’s name might commemorate historically strong links between the Royal Navy and a particular town or district. In the case of submarines, the first batch of nuclear attack subs was the “Swiftsure” class, followed by the “Trafalgar” class. Then came the diesel electric “Upholder” class, then the Trident boomer “Vanguard” class. Get the pattern? The class beginning with “W” got cancelled, and they skipped X, Y and Z as being far too difficult to get enough decent names from!
“Astute” is a famous submarine from the past. The next one is “Ambush”, then “Artful”, and number four is apparently going to be called “Audacious” (I must admit I like that name best!)
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