Posted on 05/08/2007 3:32:56 PM PDT by Enchante
The Royal Navy showed off its largest and most powerful attack submarine Tuesday, a month before the over-budget, overdue vessel is to be launched.
Military officials say the HMS Astute will be able to circumnavigate the planet without surfacing, and its nuclear reactor is designed to last for the vessel's 25-year operational life, meaning it will never need to be refueled.
The Astute is due to be launched from the BAE Systems Inc. shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, northwest England, on June 8 and to enter service in January 2009.
The sub is to be followed by two more Astute-class submarines, Ambush and Artful. Together the navy estimates they will cost about $7.2 billion, more than $2 billion over the original estimate.
The project is also years behind schedule. The HMS Astute originally was due to enter service in June 2005, but in 2002 the government said the date had been pushed back to 2006. In 2005, the Ministry of Defense said it would enter service by 2009.
Nearly 40,000 acoustic tiles, designed to mask the submarine's sonar signature, have still to be attached to the ship's 318-foot hull, which is 30 percent longer than that of the submarines now in use.
Everything is a trade off. Making it as silent in operation as possible increases it's stealth capabilities. Weight actually would not figure into it. I've had some bubblehead friends tell me in some cases you make no noise to that can be picked up even dropping a wrench.
Could be worse...years ago we were hosted in Portsmouth by HMS Tiptoe and at the peak of Tiny Tim’s popularity .
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