Stealthy alternative

A £1.2 billion nuclear-powered hunter-killer submarine is a somewhat unconventional source of civic pride. For most of us, those feelings are usually reserved for a new library, or maybe a particularly well-kept flower bed. But to the people of Barrow in Furness, who live in the shadow of BAE Systems’ massive shipyard and have ship-building in their blood, civic pride sums it up nicely. So great is the local enthusiasm for the leviathan being assembled in their midst that one is tempted to regard it as a tourist attraction in the making. It isn’t of course. For soon Astute, the first of the Royal Navy’s latest attack submarines, will leave its birthplace for a life of shadowy military operations in the murky depths of the world’s oceans.

The largest submarine of its kind ever built for the Navy, the 97m-long, 7,800 tonne vessel is expected to be lowered into the water in June next year. Following an extensive programme of sea trials, it will be handed over to the MoD in August 2008 and should enter service in 2009. It will be followed by two sister subs — Ambush and Artful. During the development of the ship, which is the first UK sub to have been entirely designed using CAD software, a team of about 800 engineers has generated more than 7,000 design drawings. The vessel, kitted out with 10km of pipework and more than 100km of cabling, will spend the whole of its 25-year working life in the sea.