The
Royal Navy’s newest submarine has blasted Tomahawk missiles far
across the North American skies, as part of its first test firing mission.
Pictures show the Tomahawk weapons, which rocketed from HMS Astute at
up to 550 miles per hour (885kph) across the Gulf of Mexico. The 5.5-metre-long
cruise missile weighs 1,300kg and has a range of more than 1,000 miles.
Astute’s Commanding Officer, Commander Iain Breckenridge, said:
“This first-of-class firing proves that Astute is a truly
capable submarine. It means that the UK submarine service will be able
to provide the UK’s strike capability for many years to come.”
HMS Astute is in the Gulf of Mexico for the first test run of her system.
She has the largest weapon-carrying capacity of all the Royal Navy’s
attack submarines and can hold a combination of up to 38 Tomahawk missiles
and Spearfish torpedoes. |
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The UK is the only other country supplied Tomahawk
technology by the USA. It has been in operation since 1999 and has been
launched from various submarines to support operations in Afghanistan,
Iraqand, most recently, Libya.
The Astute Class of nuclear powered attack submarines is the most technologically
advanced submarines to serve with the Royal Navy and will progressively
replace the Trafalgar Class currently in service. They have been designed
with modern operations in mind and are vastly different in shape, size,
capacity and capability to their predecessors.
Commander Breckenridge said:
"The most noticeable difference for the ship’s company
is that for the first time everyone has their own bunk.
"Design changes that will make an operational difference include
the fact that we have a reactor that will never need to be refuelled
in the boat’s 25 year life.
“We have optronic masts instead of traditional periscopes, which
means we have saved lots of space in the control room as well as having
the benefit of digital cameras instead of traditional optical periscopes.”
HMS Astute will continue her trials in the USA until the early spring
before returning to the UK for training before her first operational
deployment.
Source: royalnavy.mod.uk
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