Slow moving Ambush

The 235 tonne forward section of Ambush, the second of the Astute class submarines being built by BAE Systems in Barrow in Furness, north west England took to the road last Thursday, 11 May.

The steel construction, which is the height of a four-storey house, was carried on a 48-wheeled Scheurerle transporter on the quarter of a mile journey from the Barrow site’s new assembly facility to the Devonshire Dock Hall where the hull of the 7,800 tonne first of class Astute nuclear-powered attack submarine is already complete.

The forward end construction will join seven other sections of Ambush already being fitted out in the Devonshire Dock Hall, the largest shipbuilding complex of its kind in Europe. Covering an area of 25,000 square metres, the hall is 51 metres high.

According to BAE Systems, Astute-class submarines will be the most advanced and powerful the Royal Navy has ever operated and will play a key role in the UK’s defences for decades to come. They form part of a substantial modernisation programme, as outlined in the Government’s Defence Industrial Strategy, that will enhance the capability of the UK’s Royal Navy through its emphasis on fewer but more capable platforms.