Picture: Sheila Weir / Royal Navy
The Warfare Zone column from the Drive.com weblog lately featured images of a Royal Navy Vanguard class submarine returning to HM Naval Base Clyde, which is also called Faslane, on the west coast of Scotland, after a 197-day nuclear deterrent patrol. The nuclear ballistic missile sub appeared like what they describe as a “sea monster that had emerged from a protracted slumber on the backside of the ocean.” The hull is certainly lined by a formidable progress of marine fouling.
After all, the mission of ballistic missile submarines, sometimes called “boomers,” is to function undetectable launch platforms for intercontinental missiles, which is to say that their job is to go discover a place to cover within the ocean for prolonged intervals of time. The chance to maintain the hull freed from maritime progress is, at greatest, restricted, even with the newest anti-fouling coatings now out there.
The place the befouled submarine was deployed and which of the 4 Vanguard-class boomers is captured within the pictures is unclear. The Royal Navy prefers to maintain info relating to their ballistic missile submarines secret.
The fouling, nonetheless, does present clues to knowledgeable observers as to the final traits of the mission deployment. Tom Sharpe, an ex-Royal Navy commander, posted on X/Twitter that the photographs counsel that the sub undertook warm-water operations, in littoral/shallow shores and at very low speeds.
What do we all know from this📷
1⃣Lengthy patrol – BZ group (new file?)
2⃣Heat water ops (widespread)
3⃣Littoral/shallow (much less widespread)
4⃣Sustained sluggish speeds (commonplace)
5⃣Exterior now as honking as inside (new)
6⃣I can’t do 100% critical tweets (commonplace)Welcome again everybody🫡 pic.twitter.com/Yo7I2Jw8pF
— Tom Sharpe (@TomSharpe134) September 11, 2023
Vanguard class submarine returns to Faslane after lengthy patrol
