HMS Vanguard (S28)

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The Vanguard off Florida in 1994
The Vanguard off Florida in 1994
Overview
Order May 30, 1986
Keel laying 3rd September 1986
Launch March 4th 1992
1. Period of service flag
Commissioning August 14, 1993
Technical specifications
displacement

16,000 tons

length

149.9 meters

width

12.8 meters

Draft

12 meters

crew

135

drive

1 nuclear reactor, 1 wave

speed

25 knots

Armament

16 ICBMs, 4 torpedo tubes

HMS Vanguard (S28) is a nuclear-powered submarine of the Royal Navy and is one of the Vanguard class of. As a missile submarine , the Vanguard carries 16 UGM-133A Trident II ICBMs .

history

The submarine was commissioned in 1986 as the first of its class and in the same year it was laid down at Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering in Barrow-in-Furness . It was launched in 1992 and was christened Vanguard . Already nine Royal Navy ships bore this name, as before her vanguard means. In August 1993 the Vanguard was officially put into service.

The submarine was stationed at the Clyde Naval Base in Faslane-on-Clyde , Scotland and carried out nuclear deterrence patrols from there . In 2002 the Vanguard was docked in a new dry dock at the Devonport base and overtaken there. The overhaul was not finished until the end of 2004. While removing the nuclear fuel, an accident happened when the elevator that lifted the nuclear fuel out of the reactor hit the scaffolding around the submarine. According to official information, the accident was not relevant to safety. The critical organization Trident Plowshares , however, doubted this.

In 2005, the Vanguard resumed its patrol routine. During a voyage on February 3 or 4, 2009, the Vanguard collided in the Atlantic with the French Triomphant (S 616) nuclear submarine of the Triomphant class . According to the Royal Navy, both boats were traveling at very low speed and there were no injuries. The Vanguard had therefore returned to Faslane under its own power after the collision. The reactor was not affected by the accident. Just a few days after the incident, the French Navy announced that the Triomphant had probably collided with a container and was slightly damaged. The collision between the two submarines only became public on February 16.

In 2015 the reactor core of the "Vanguard" had to be replaced for 120 million pounds. Since too much radioactivity was measured in the cooling water during a test at the Vulcan Naval Reactor Test Establishment in Dounreay in 2012, the early replacement of the core is intended to prevent possible reactor problems on British nuclear submarines in advance.

Web links

Commons : HMS Vanguard (S28)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BBC: HMS Vanguard leaves after refit (English)
  2. ↑ HMS Vanguard Damaged in Devonport Accident ( Memento from July 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  3. ↑ release of the Royal Navy (English)
  4. ↑ The Guardian: Nuclear submarines collide in Atlantic (English)
  5. ^ Nuclear submarine to get new core after test reactor problem. In: BBC News. March 6, 2014, accessed March 6, 2014 .