Royal Navy Receives Fifth Astute-class Submarine

BAE Systems handed over the fifth Astute class submarine, HMS Anson, to the U.K. Royal Navy.

The boat departed the Company's shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, and headed out to open sea for the first time. It will sail to Naval Base Clyde, home of the UK's Submarine Service.

HMS Anson will undertake sea trials before joining HMS Astute, HMS Ambush, HMS Artful and HMS Audacious, in operational service with the Royal Navy.

The submarine, which was formally commissioned into the Royal Navy during a ceremony in Barrow last year, is 97 metres long and weighs 7,400-tonnes. The Astute class are equipped with world-leading sensors, carry Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missiles and Spearfish heavyweight torpedoes and can circumnavigate the globe submerged, producing their own oxygen and drinking water. BAE Systems has delivered the first four submarines in the Astute class and the sixth and seventh boats are at an advanced stage of construction in Barrow.

The Dreadnought class submarines, which will replace the Royal Navy's Vanguard class, carrying the UK's independent nuclear deterrent, are also being designed and built in Barrow-in-Furness with manufacturing work underway on the first three of four boats.

BAE Systems is also undertaking early design and concept work for the Royal Navy's next generation of submarines which will eventually replace the Astute class, referred to as SSN-Replacement (SSNR).