20 NAVY NEWS, JANU JANUAARRY 2010Y 2010
● HMS Astute arrives on the
Clyde during her maiden voyage
from Barrow
HMS Astute
Clyde Naval Base, Argyll and Bute
Well-appo
Price: In excess of £1 billion
Description
e delighted to pr
esent this
esque loch-side location in
Builders BAE Systems Submarine Solutions and the Royal Navy ar
-power
ed submarine now based in a pictures of submarines, but also benefits
well-appointed nuclear
e rar
e.
Wester
n Scotland. The asset boasts many traditional featur
den. V
iewing opportunities ar
from r
ecent technological advances. No gar
Passageways
tively) spacious

HMS
Astute benefits from (rela
passagew
ays, such as tha
t on 2 Deck
(right)
.
At 7,400 tonnes,
the submar
ine is half as big again as
s were
ts which she and her sister
the
Traf
algar class boa
yet she has a complement around 25
designed to replace,
T-boa
ts.
per cent less than the
s will apprecia
te
Under nor
mal conditions crew member
rying a
although when car
the g
reater amount of room,
s, or stor
ing ship
, it still all feels
full load of contractor
just a little snug.
Lounge/Dining Room
tes’
Communal areas such as the Senior Ra
mess
(left)
benefit from the more practical
t in rela
tion to such
design aspects of the boa ies.
facilities as the galley and pantrtainment such
There is more room for enter TVs
.
as games consoles and wide screen
Galley
(right)
which
Astute benefits from a spacious galley isticians (ca
tering ser
vices
should keep the chefs (or log
(prepara
tion))) happy
(right,
again)
.
, the ship’
s compan
y are
And if the chefs are happy
happy
.
Astute
ould see the crew of
A typical ten-w
eek pa
trol w
erage of 18,000 sausages and 4,200
get through an a
v
Weetabix for breakf
ast, and it is the storage space for food
trol.
after
which limits the extent of a pa ver about a month,
Fresh food can be eked out o
wn.
1
that the tinned and frozen food comes into its o
HMS
Astu
te de
tails.....
BathrBaBathth
rooomsomm
s
The ba
throoms (or heads,throoms (or
(l(left)
heads
f ) and her sister
if yif you prefer) on board o
u pref
)
b
Astute
classes – b
s are less of a squeeze than in previous
ut bijou is still probably the kindest ter
them.
m for
No gas boiler
s in sight here – these ba
provided with r
unning hot and cold w
throoms are
reactor,
which crea
tes the po
ater by the nuclear
manuf
acture and w
wer (and hea
ar
t) for the boa
t to
Astute’
m up w
s sanitar
ater.
y fittings compr
toilets,
two ur
inals and eight hand basins for a crew of 98 –
ise fiv
e sho
wers,
five
the Commanding Officer has his o
wn hand basin.
The Master Bedr
oom
● HMS Astute makes her way
Actually the Captain’
up the Clyde for her fi rst visit to
than the senior and junior ra
s cabin,
boasting a little more space
her home port
to swing a ca
tes b
t,
ut still not quite sufficient
should the need ar
Clyde pictures: LA (Phot) JJ Massey
Astute’
s CO
,
ise.
Cdr
ago as a junior ra
Andy Coles,
joined the Na
ting
vy 30 y
ears
Invincible before training as an officer in 1984.
, serving as a radio opera
tor in HMS
Cdr Coles ser
ved in HM submar
and
Talent before teaching new officer
ines Splendid,
Osir
is
submar
ine school.
s at the RN’
s
He w
as then appointed Ex
missile submar
ecutiv
ine HMS
e Officer of ballistic
command of HMS
Victor
ious, and la
Turb
ter took

T-boa
t under
ulent from 2003-06,
took a round-the-w
when the
Cdr Coles w
orld deplo
as appointed OBE in the Queen’
yment.
Honour
s List in June 2005. s Birthda
y
Bedr
ooms
There is a bed for ev
bunks to spare – a rare thing indeed in the Silent Ser
erybody on board and a handful of
Deeps mo
ving on board vice.
noticed a little more storage space for their per
Astute while in Bar
row also
belong
ings. sonal
But there will still be the need for the extra bed
spaces in the
Weapon Sto
particularly as
wage and Handling compar
Astute under
takes some 18 months of
tment,

sea tr
ials with her RN crew augmented by 30 or more
contractor
s and training staff
They will be spending their nights on the racks nor
.
used by the boa
ts automa
mally
deal with the 38 Spearfish tor
ted w
eapon handling system to
missiles car
pedoes and
ried on board – more than an
Tomaha
wk cr
uise
submar
ine.
y previous RN
HMS A
stute d
etails.....
2
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