Submarine: A Guided Tour Inside a Nuclear Warship

After the United States, the largest builder and operator of nuclear submarines in the western world is the United Kingdom. Currently the British operate a force of twelve SSNs and four SSBNs. In addition, they also operate a small force of four diesel attack submarines. While this may seem like a minor force compared to that operated by the United States, the British fulfill an important role in the structure of NATO. In addition, since they are located much closer to potential points of conflict in Europe and Africa, the responsiveness of their submarine force is multiplied far beyond their small numbers.

If you were to travel throughout the world and talk to submarine captains, and the captains of the surface ships who might have to oppose them, and ask them whose submarines they most fear, you might be surprised. For while everyone deeply respects the Americans with their technologically and numerically superior submarine force, they all quietly fear the British. Note that I use the word fear. Not just respect. Not just awe. But real fear at what a British submarine, with one of their superbly qualified captains at the helm, might be capable of doing.

Royal Navy Submarine History

It is somewhat ironic that the nation that may have the highest quality submarine force in the world has itself been more victimized by submarines than any other in history. It was a British ship, HMS Eagle, that was the target of the first attempted attack by a submarine, the Turtle. It was also the British who were the intended victims of Robert Fulton's Nautilus and John Holland's early submarines built for the Fenian Society. And it was the British who suffered the most during two world wars from the efforts of Germany's U-boat fleets. Certainly no other nation on earth has such understanding of the damage submarines can do.

This is not to say that the British have had an easy time developing their submarine force. The truth is that until the late 1960s, the men who had chosen to serve in the Royal Navy sub force were regarded as pariahs and not considered to be gentlemen by the other line officers of fleet. As far back as 1804, when the British admirals got their first look at Robert Fulton's Nautilus, the submarine has been considered a sneaky and "damn un-English" way to fight a war. This opinion had not changed by World War I, though the Royal Navy had begun a modest investment in such craft. Ironically, one of the first customers for John Holland's early submarines was Great Britain, which bought five for experimentation and establishment of her force. Nevertheless, the Royal Navy poured almost all of its funds into a fleet of modern battleships and escorting vessels, keeping funds for submarines scarce. With only a limited force of submarines to use in wartime, the Royal Navy made a point of putting only their most talented officers in command. This wound up paying great dividends, although they did not have the rich numbers and variety of targets that the U-boats had. The exploits of their captains, including the great Sir Max Horton, have become legend in the annals of submarine history, and gave the Royal Navy a tradition they were able to build on.

During the period between the world wars, the British experimented widely in submarine technology. They developed submarines that could carry aircraft and heavy guns, and a variety of new and different power plants. Along with the U.S. Navy, they led in developing the type of submarine that would have the greatest impact in World War II, the long-range fleet submarine. During World War II this force, particularly the "T" class, did the bulk of the damage inflicted by British submarines. In the Mediterranean the "T" boats of the 10th Submarine Flotilla based at Malta sank many supply ships destined for Field Marshal Rommel's Afrika Korps, helping keep him from the oil fields of Arabia. Several of the "T" boats deployed to the Pacific, for which they had been designed originally, to assist in the fight against the Japanese. They even helped in the ASW campaign against the U-boats by sinking seventeen German and Italian submarines.

Another British achievement was in the area of special operations. Throughout World War II, the Royal Navy submarine had an exemplary record, ranging from the insertion of commando teams to the preinvasion surveys of landing beaches. Part of this record includes the use of miniature submarines, called X–Craft, to damage beyond repair the German battleship Tirpitz and the Japanese cruiser Takao, as well as providing navigation beacons for the British landing forces on D-Day. To this day, special operations are one of the hall-marks of the British submarine tradition.

After the war, the Royal Navy took its share of the German U-boats and technology that it had captured, and began to work on the development of its own "super" submarines. Like the other fleets of the world, the dream of the British submariners was to find a technology that would allow a submarine to travel at high speed, for long periods of time, without having to use a snorkel tube and risk detection. The RN explored the conventional steps of hydrogen peroxide engines and other air-independent systems. Unfortunately they did not invest in the nuclear reactor program that the United States had started in the 1940s, and wound up having to accept that they had bet on the wrong technologies when it became obvious that nuclear power was the future in submarine development.

Because of the special relationship that had been forged between the United States and Great Britain during the war, however, the United States was willing to sell their reactor and power train technology to the British. So in 1963, the first British SSN, HMS Dreadnought (S-98), was commissioned into the Royal Navy. She was essentially a Skipjack-class SSN from the reactor aft and a British sub from there forward. And while she made a lot of noise, just like her American half-sister, the Dreadnought provided the Royal Navy with a foothold into nuclear submarine operations, and the beginnings of a cadre of experienced nuclear sailors. Following the Dreadnought, the Royal Navy commissioned five additional SSNs of the Valiant (S-102) class. These new SSNs were contemporaries of the Permit class, and used U.K.-built reactor plants based on the U.S. design.

During this period the British government was trying to find a way of maintaining a credible nuclear deterrent force that would be under British control. The force of RAF "V" bombers were quickly losing their ability to penetrate the air defenses of the Soviet Union, and the development of an ICBM force that would reside on British soil was simply beyond the financial resources of Great Britain. So the British government made the decision to buy the Polaris A3 missile system from the United States and build a force of four SSBNs to carry them. Thus was born the "R" class of SSBNs, the first of which, HMS Resolution (S-27), was commissioned in 1967. For over a quarter century the "R" boats have provided the United Kingdom with their nuclear deterrent force, helping keep the peace.

By the late 1960s the Royal Navy was beginning to think about expanding further their force of SSNs. Part of the reason was the expanding force of Soviet SSBNs, which had started making themselves known by this time. So a new class of SSN dedicated to ASW tasks was ordered. Called the "S" class, the first unit, HMS Swiftsure (S-126), was commissioned in 1973. Contemporaries of the American Sturgeon class, five of the six units built are still in service today.

It was the "S" class boats, along with several of the "V" class SSNs, that provided the Royal Navy with its primary antiship punch during Operation Corporate in the 1982 Falklands War. Three of the boats, HMS Conqueror, HMS Splendid, and HMS Spartan, were the first Royal Navy units to arrive and set up operation in the British-declared Total Exclusion Zone (TEZ) around the islands. They helped give the TEZ credibility long before the surface task force arrived in the area, as well as helping land the first of the special operations teams that were to be so effective during the war. Later, when the Argentine Navy tried to engage the Royal Navy task force, HMS Conqueror sank the cruiser General Belgrano and scared the rest of their navy back into port, never to come out again.

The year after the Falklands War, the Royal Navy took delivery of what, up to the writing of this book, is the last class of SSNs built, the "T" class. Delivered in 1983, HMS Trafalgar (S-107) is the ultimate expression of British SSN design. Still powered by an American-designed reactor (called PWR-1), it was the lead unit of a seven-boat class. And in the area of SSBNs, the Royal Navy has begun trials of their replacement for the "R" class SSBNs, the "V" class. The lead boat of this class, HMS Vanguard, will help maintain the British nuclear deterrent force into the twenty-first century. Powered for the first time by a British-designed reactor, the PWR-2, she will carry the same Trident D5 missiles as the Ohio-class SSBNs in the U.S. Navy. A total of four "V" class SSBNs has been ordered.

British Skippers-The Perisher Course

History and tradition are fine, but just what makes a British SSN such a tough proposition to take on? It is, in a word, personnel. As in the United States, the Royal Navy has a submarine school at Portsmouth (called HMS Dolphin), which is equipped with a range of classrooms and trainers that would look quite familiar to any U.S. submariner. The British system for manning their submarines, while similar to the U.S. system, has some important differences. It is not all that different in the area of enlisted personnel, though there are some minor differences in the course for enlisted men (women do not serve on Royal Navy submarines as yet). The real difference is for the officers, whose career track is completely different from that of their American counterparts. Starting very early in his career, following graduation from the Royal Navy Academy at Dartmouth, the submarine officer is asked to make a choice of four separate tracks to follow for the rest of his naval career.

One track takes him into the supply branch and can lead to command of a naval depot or a program office. Another is the Marine Engineering Officer (called MEO) track, which allows him to operate a nuclear, steam, or gas turbine power plant. There also is a track for those who desire to specialize in weapons employment. Accepting this option, called the Weapons Engineering Officer (WEO) track, means that an officer can rise to head the weapons department on a submarine or ship. The greatest differences are in the track that leads to command.

For those officers who desire to command one of Her Majesty's submarines, the Seaman Officer's career track must be followed. Much like his U.S. Navy counterpart, the young seaman officer spends his first tour on a submarine qualifying for his "dolphins" and learning how things are done on a submarine. The important difference is that although he spends considerable time watchkeeping and learning the aspects of nuclear engineering that directly concern him, his training is concentrated on making him aware of all aspects of the boat's operations. From the very start of his career, the seaman officer is being groomed for command.

Another difference from his American counterpart is that the young officer spends his entire career assigned to submarines. Shore and "joint" tours are virtually unknown in the British submarine service and are seen as a sign that one may not be suitable for command. As the officer rises through the hierarchy of the wardroom, he becomes first a Navigator, then a Watch Leader or Officer of the Watch (WL/OOW). During this tour a critical decision about his future is made by his captain and the Chief of Staff, Submarines, at Northwood, England: whether or not to send him to the Perisher.

Perisher is the Royal Navy's submarine command qualification course, which every prospective submarine captain and first lieutenant (the equivalent of the U.S. executive officer) must pass before he can move up into those positions. It is a course unlike anything else in any other service. An American probably would consider it a postgraduate-level course, with an extra helping of stress built in. There is more to Perisher than stress and learning how to drive submarines. It is a test of the trainee's character, designed to tell the Royal Navy whether or not a man is qualified to command one of the most powerful conventional weapons systems in the British arsenal. Probably the closest thing that might be compared to Perisher is the U.S. Navy Fighter Weapons School (Top Gun) at NAS Miramar, California, though Top Gun tests only the skill of a pilot and radar operator, not the ability of an officer to command more than a hundred men. The average Perisher student is in his late twenties or early thirties, with between eight and twelve years of experience in submarines.

About twice a year, ten officers are selected to attend the Perisher course, which is based at the Royal Navy submarine base at Portsmouth. If there are not enough RN officers to fill all ten spots, these vacancies are made available to the prospective captains of other selected navies' submarines. To date, officers from Canada, Australia, Denmark, Holland, Israel, Chile, and many others have taken the Perisher course. The only modification made for these officers is that the parts of the course specifically involving nuclear submarine operations are replaced with instruction on the diesel submarines more commonly found in those navies. Surprisingly, no American officer has ever taken the Perisher course-and it has been run since 1914! I should point out, conversely, that no British officer has ever taken and completed the American PCO course. The two countries have different focuses to their command qualification courses, and both seem satisfied with the products produced.

The faded accounting ledger that is the logbook of every Perisher course since 1922 (the earliest time that they kept records) is filled with a "who's who" of Royal Navy submarine history, including Admiral Sir John Fieldhouse; Admiral Sir Sandy Woodward, who led the RN forces during the Falklands War; and the current senior Perisher "teacher," Commander D. S. H. White, OBE, RN.

Commander White and the other Perisher teachers are the keepers of the institutional memory where command of Royal Navy submarines is concerned. Just two years ago, the Perisher course underwent a significant change in its curriculum, with more emphasis being placed on nuclear submarine operations, long-range weapons employment, and tactics for war at sea. Since that time, the teachers continually try to keep the course and what it teaches as up to date as possible.

The five-month course begins by dividing the ten trainee officers (also called "Perishers") into two groups, each supervised by one of the Perisher teachers. The Perishers visit all the manufacturers of equipment that goes into the RN boats, as well as Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering, Limited (VSEL), where all the British submarines are currently built. Then they head into the attack simulators to learn approaches to surface targets. After the simulator runs are completed, they head up to the RN Clyde Submarine Base at Faslane, Scotland.

Here the real test of the Perishers begins. Each group of trainees is taken aboard a Royal Navy submarine and begins to do visual approaches on a frigate charging at the submarine. Each trainee gets to do five runs a day for a period of several weeks. As the course progresses more frigates are added, until the Perisher trainee has three of them simultaneously charging at his periscope. The idea is for him to safely operate the submarine, fire off a shot, and not get run over by one or more of the frigates. All the time that a Perisher student is at the conn of the sub, the teacher is evaluating the trainee's reactions and ability to maintain his awareness of the tactical situation.

It is an emotionally brutal regime, with a very high dropout rate. On average, between 20 percent to 30 percent of the Perisher trainees don't make it, and failure rates on individual courses may be as high as 40 percent. Unfortunately, to drop out of Perisher is to never step aboard a British submarine again. When it happens, the teacher's coxswain gives the trainee a bottle of whiskey, and escorts him back to shore.

If the trainee survives the approach phase, he heads into an equally challenging operations phase in which the Perishers play the roles of actual submarine captains on missions. These may include sneaking up on a coastline in the British Isles to deliver a Special Boat Service (SBS) commando team, snap some pictures of a coastline, or practice laying mines. The final phase of the course has the trainees taking part in a war-at-sea exercise, designed to see how each trainee can handle actual command of a boat in combat. When it is all over, and the Perisher has checked off all items on the teacher's checklist to the instructor's satisfaction, he is what every seaman officer dreams of being, a Perisher graduate and qualified to command a Royal Navy submarine.

The Perisher course is a very expensive proposition for the Royal Navy. If it did not already have the assets in place to conduct the course, the cost per individual trainee would be approximately PS1.2 million. The human cost is also high. Failed Perishers usually transition into what is known as General Service if they choose to stay in the Navy. If they are lucky, they may even rise to command a frigate or destroyer. But the stigma of being failed Perishers will always follow them.

For all the costs, just what does the Perisher course produce? Arguably the world's finest quality submarine captains. Perisher is the Royal Navy's commitment to making sure that the men who command their submarines are as good as the boats themselves. With only about twenty submarines in the force, they feel they must have them commanded by the very best. This is not to say that the U.S. commanding PCO course is not a good course-it is. But by separating the engineering career paths from the service officers at an early point, the future captains can concentrate on being captains, not nuclear engineers. This does not mean that U.S. skippers are not as good as their Royal Navy counterparts, only that the Royal Navy has a procedure in place that automatically selects and qualifies the best of their submariners for their command, not engineering, skills.

Once the Perisher trainee has graduated, he will be assigned as the first lieutenant of a Royal Navy submarine. In the past, when the RN had more diesel submarines, a Perisher graduate could count on getting command of one of these boats directly after completion of the course. Now, of course, all of them do a tour as a first lieutenant. This means that every Royal Navy submarine has two men who are fully qualified to command the boat. Once he has done this tour, the officer will likely be given command of his own boat. In, fact, it is not impos-sible that a good Royal Navy submarine captain might command a diesel boat, an SSN, and an SSBN before he is finished in submarines.

The British like to get their money's worth out of the men they qualify for command, and a really good captain is not done yet. Once a captain has finished with submarines, the Royal Navy frequently sends him to drive ASW frigates such as one of the Type 22 Broadsword class or Type 23 Duke class. By this time a full captain, he is ready to move on to command a task group or naval base, and then, flag rank. This is the big difference between the American system and the British. The U.S. Navy system creates superior submarine drivers and engineers; the Royal Navy system is designed to produce pure leaders like a Nelson, Rodney, or Woodward.

The Trafalgar Class-A Guided Tour

HMS Triumph (S-93) is the seventh and last unit of the Trafalgar class. It is based at the Royal Naval Station at Devonport, near the town of Plymouth in southwest England. She is part of the 2nd Submarine Squadron, which includes the seven "T" boats, and the four diesel boats of the "U" or Upholder class. Ordered in 1986 and laid down at VSEL in 1987, she was launched on February 16, 1991, and commissioned into the Royal Navy on December 10, 1991. At the time this book is being written, the Flag Officer, Submarines, for the Royal Navy is Vice Admiral R. T. Frere, RN. His Chief of Staff, Submarines, is Commodore Roger Lane-Nott, RN. They command the British submarine fleet from the Royal Navy operations center at Northwood, near London.

HMS Triumph is the tenth ship (and the second submarine) of the RN to carry the name. Her predecessors carry a total of sixteen battle honors, starting with the battles against the Spanish Armada in 1588. The current Triumph is commanded by her commissioning commanding officer, Commander David Michael Vaughan, RN. His first lieutenant is Commander Michael Davis-Marks, RN. Both are Perisher graduates, and each has even commanded one of the cherished "O" class diesel boats before he came to Triumph. They are an excellent team, generally considered to be two of the best command-qualified officers in the Royal Navy submarine service. They are aggressive, confident, colorful, and seem fully capable of any tasks that might be asked of them and their boat. Her crew is made up of twelve officers and ninety-seven enlisted men. It is a trim, neat-looking boat with a definite polish to her. Let's take a look for ourselves.

Hull and Fittings

Triumph is somewhat different from the Miami in that she is built not so much for speed as stealth. She is smaller than a 688I, at 4,700 tons displacement versus the 8,100 tons for the 688I, and is shorter, around 250 feet/76 meters long. In addition, her hull is more like the classic shape of the Albacore, and is somewhat more hydrodynamically stable than the 688I. Her hull is covered in rubber tiles like the 688I, but these are hard and stiff. This coating is anechoic, designed specifically to defeat active sonars that might be trying to get a "ping" off the hull. She may also have a decoupling coating on the inside of the hull to help reduce any machine noise produced internally.

Much like the 688I, her fittings are designed for a minimum of drag, and the only protrusion is the sonar dome for the Type 2019 acoustic intercept receiver forward of the conning tower. Her dive planes are recessed in the forward part of the hull, and she has a fairly conventional set of cruciform tail surfaces aft. At the tip of the vertical stabilizer, the Type 2046 towed sonar array is attached. Unlike the 688I array, this unit is clipped on, not rolled out. This means that it has to be attached and removed whenever the sub enters or leaves port. The 2046 is roughly analogous in capability to the American TB-16.

Though it is not obvious when she is sitting at dock, the most noticeable difference from the 688I is that the boat has no propeller. Instead, Triumph is equipped with a device called a pumpjet propulsor. If you could see her in drydock, you would see what looks like a lampshade attached to her stern; this is the pumpjet. This device works like a ducted fan, to push water aft and drive the boat forward. The advantage of this system is that it is somewhat quieter than a propeller, and it operates more smoothly. By the way of example, Triumph can speed up from 5 to 18 knots without its crew feeling any vibration from the shift in speed. So efficient is this system that the U.S. Navy is planning to use pumpjets on all their future SSNs, including the Seawolf class.

Conning Tower

The conning tower of Triumph is much like that of the Miami, except that hers has somewhat more room. In fact, there are two separate positions for lookouts and officers to work topside. There is the usual array of periscopes and masts, including a huge dome for the Racal UAP ESM system. Both of the periscopes appear to be RAM coated to keep down their radar signature. Getting down the conning tower trunk into the control room is, if possible, tighter even than on Miami. In fact, almost everything on Triumph seems to be about three-fifths size compared to Miami-sort of like the difference between Disneyland in California and Walt Disney World in Florida!

Sonar Room

If you drop down the ladder into the control room and take a U-turn to the left, you will be in the sonar room of the Triumph, where all the equipment and displays for the sonar systems are contained. I should say here that the British have nothing like the BSY-1 combat system in service right now. There is a plan for a system called the 2076 in a few years, but right now, all contact data handed off between sonar systems is done manually. The sonar suite on Triumph might be compared favorably to that on a Flight I Los Angeles-class boat. The various sonar systems include:* Type 2020, the main sonar array (both active and passive) in the bow of the boat. Unlike the dome sonar on Miami, it is composed of an array of elements around the "chin" (conformal array) of the boat. It can track several targets at once, and can pass data directly to the fire control system. One of the more interesting features is the "captain's key," which must be inserted in a slot in the 2020 control console before the active mode can be used. It is equipped with a special signal processor, Type 2027, which (if the tactical situation is right) can automatically calculate ranges to the target and feed the data to the fire control system.* Type 2072, the new flank array (passive listening only), which can only be described as huge. It is designed to detect broadband targets at long range.* Type 2046, the "clip-on" towed sonar array (passive listening only), attached to a tow point on the tip of the horizontal stabilizer. It is capable of detecting both broadband and narrowband signals.* Type 2019, the acoustic intercept receiver for detecting active sonars and torpedoes. This is a French system that is manned, as opposed to the automatic operating mode of the U.S. WLR-9.

The sonar systems on Triumph provide excellent coverage in both spectrum and azimuth. Only the lack of a fully integrated combat system and the TB-23 towed array system keeps it from being the equal technically of the BSY-1.

Control Room/Fire Control/Navigation

If you duck back around the corner where you came from originally, you may be surprised to find that the landing for the conning tower ladder has now been converted into a chair for Commander Vaughan. From this position, he can view the repeater for the sonar systems, the fire control consoles in the track alley, and the plotting area. Just aft are the two periscopes and the mast for the UAP ESM system. The scopes are first-rate, with the CK 034 search scope easily being the equal of the American Type 18. It is equipped with readouts for the ESM receiver mounted on top of the mast as well as a 35mm camera for taking photographs. The CH 084 attack scope, which has a very small head (to make it hard to detect), is also equipped with a low-light TV camera. Both are very quiet when raised, and have excellent optics. Two differences are the use of a split image rangefinder, as well as more automated controls.

The fire control alley is equipped with six positions for fire control technicians. The system is set up to track and engage several targets simultaneously. The screens are round, red- or amber-colored plasma displays; a light pen is used to designate the targets and move between the various operating modes. All the fire control solutions are generated automatically, and there is no manual TMA solution being plotted to back up the automated system. The British seem to prefer this because they believe that most engagements will probably be at relatively short range. This is like what they might encounter with a diesel boat, in which the reaction time for getting the first weapon in the water is the deciding factor. Thus the sonar/fire control fit of the Triumph, as well as the training of the crew (and especially the captain in his Perisher course), is a reflection of the current RN combat doctrine.

Traveling aft from the track alley, you come upon the two plotting tables, called SNAPS tables. These are automated and can be fed with plotting information from the fire control system and navigational aids. In addition, they can make use of standard navigational charts, the coordinates of which are stored in the computer's memory. Supporting the navigator is a Navstar GPS receiver, as well as a SINS system (the gyro compartment is down in the third level portside) to help keep Triumph on course.

Across the control room to the port side, you find the ship control area. It is laid out similarly to the one on Miami, the main difference being that the British have automated the control system so only one man controls both the bow and stern diving planes from a single position. The ballast control panel is to the right of the ship handling position, with the diving officer seated behind them. The boat dives in about the same time as the Miami, though she seems to be somewhat easier to trim. Triumph handles extremely well, able to turn at over 1 degree per second with only a moderate rudder on. She also speeds up and slows down very quickly and smoothly, with no noticeable sound or vibration as she changes speed. It is the pumpjet that makes most of the difference in noise and vibration over a propeller system like that on the Miami. Also, her hull shape is somewhat better from a maneuvering point of view.

The ESM/Radio Spaces

Aft of the plotting area is the radio room. The British communications capabilities appear to be quite similar to those of the Miami, though it appears this system may not have an ELF capability. Just aft of the ship control is a door marked RADAR WARNING ROOM. This is the space where the readouts for the ESM system and communication intelligence (Comint) systems are located. Both systems are fed out of the mast antennas, especially the big ESM dome. These are really impressive systems, and are clearly a great deal more capable than a standard 688I. This is not to say the U.S. Navy and the Royal Navy do not have boats specially configured for ESM/Comint purposes; they do. But if I were an American admiral planning to use a sub to monitor radio or radar activity off a hostile coast, and I did not have one of those special boats, I might just ask the British to borrow a Trafalgar-class boat for the mission.

The Engine-The Reactor/Maneuvering Spaces

Aft from the control room, you walk under the main access hatch to the deck, and into the access hatch for the reactor space. As with the Miami, visitors are not allowed to enter this space. The Triumph's reactor, called PWR-1 (Pressurized Water Reactor-1), is derived from the American S5W plant. Therefore the British have to abide by all of the procedures and security regulations set down in a 1958 joint RN/U.S. Navy agreement. The PWR-1 supplies about 15,000 horsepower, translating into a top speed of about 30 knots when she is at depth. As far as layout, the machinery spaces are roughly equivalent to those on Miami, with two of everything (turbines, motor generators, etc.) except for the main power train.

Living Spaces

Coming back forward on the starboard side is the captain's cabin. The accommodations for the commander of a British SSN are positively Spartan by U.S. standards, with the cabin being only about a third the size of that on the Miami. On the forward end of the cabin is a small desk, with a single bunk along the outer bulkhead aft. Maximum use is made of the space, with a bookcase built over the end of the bunk.

Commander Vaughan likes to add a few homey touches to his cabin, like a pile of books on naval warfare (how pleasing to find a hardcover of The Hunt for Red October on top!) in the bookshelf, a small sound and video system paneled into the bulkhead, and a Thomas the Tank Engine bedspread, courtesy of his son. While it is somewhat cramped, and he does not even have a head to share with Lieutenant Commander Davis-Marks, he likes it. It is close to the control room, and he can get to his action station in just a matter of seconds.

If you proceed down the accommodation ladder to the second deck, you find the rest of the living spaces. Over on the port side are the officers' quarters and wardroom. The first lieutenant and the navigator share the single two-man cabin, with the rest of the officers sharing spaces with three-high bunks. There is a single lavatory for the officers in the passageway leading to the officers' wardroom. There are the usual amenities of a stereo and video system, as well as plenty of storage for the liquid refreshments that make the Royal Navy seem so much more civilized at times than the U.S. Navy. A small pantry serves the officers' wardroom, though all the food is cooked in a central galley serving all the men on the boat.

The rest of the crew eats and assembles in a pair of small mess areas (senior and junior ratings) on the starboard side of the second level. They are just as comfortable as the officers' wardroom; the senior rating mess has the added luxury of a bar with both Foster's Lager and John Courage on tap. Like the officers' wardroom, both are equipped with stereo and video systems.

The berthing areas are split (senior and junior ratings), with access for all of them located on the second level. Again, they are three-high bunks with stowage trays for personnel gear. As on the Miami, there are more junior enlisted personnel than bunks, so some "hot bunking" is required to fit everyone in.

Life Support Systems-The Machinery Spaces

Unlike the 688I-class boats, in which it is all located in one compartment, the Trafalgars have their life support equipment scattered in a series of different spaces in various parts of the boat. The CO scrubbers and the oxygen production plant are down in a compartment on the third level forward, surrounded by an acoustic enclosure. Up on the second level, just above the scrubber compartment, is the air-conditioning plant, also in an acoustic enclosure. Up on the first deck forward, in the same compartment as the forward escape trunk, are the CO/H burners that are used in the event of an emergency. The main H burners are located on the second deck. The two auxiliary diesel engines are located aft in the engine room. The reason for spreading these different pieces of equipment out around the boat is to put them in places where they can be most effectively isolated, from a noise standpoint.

Weapons-Torpedoes and Missiles

Down on the third level and forward, you come to the torpedo room, which the crew calls a "bomb shop." Here are stored the various weapons that arm HMS Triumph. She is equipped with five 21-inch /533mm torpedo tubes (two per side, with one going out under the chin of the bow) and can store twenty-five weapons in the compartment. The torpedo tubes utilize a water ram system similar to the one on Miami, and use a similar loading system. The fifth tube makes it possible to fire a salvo of four weapons of one type, for instance, while still having one weapon of another type in reserve.

Currently the RN is deploying two different types of torpedoes. One is the Mk 24 Tigerfish Mod 2, which is an electrically powered wire-guided torpedo designed primarily for ASW work. It has a 200-lb /91-kg warhead, a maximum speed of 35 knots, and a range of 22,000 meters at 24 knots. It is very quiet (the British captains are fond of calling Tigerfish the stealth torpedo), though the small warhead makes it less effective for shooting at surface vessels.

Replacing the Tigerfish is the new Spearfish torpedo, which has a much larger warhead (660 1b/300 kg), comparable range (approximately 13 miles/21 km), and a maximum speed of around 60 knots. This torpedo is a monster, with many of the same kinds of guidance improvements and capabilities as the Mk 48 ADCAP.

In addition to the torpedoes, the RN deploys a version of the UGM-84 Harpoon antiship missile to give the Triumph a long-range antiship capability. Called Royal Navy Sub Harpoon (RNSH), it is equivalent to the U.S. Block 1C version of the missile.

While the Triumph does not deploy quite the variety of weapons that Miami does, one should remember that the British boats do not pursue the same role and missions as the U.S. fleet. And while the Royal Navy captains might like a weapon equivalent to the Block ID or Tomahawk cruise missiles, budget constraints will probably force them to be satisfied with what they currently have. Nevertheless, they are already capably armed and quite deadly.

Escape Trunks/Swimmer Delivery

Much like the Miami, the Triumph is equipped with a pair of escape trunks for emergency transfer to a DSRV, swimmer delivery, or emergency ascent escape. There is a two-man escape chamber in the forward machinery space on the first level, as well as aft in the machinery space. These chambers are designed to allow emergency escape from depths down to 600 feet/183 meters when used in conjunction with the RN Mk 8 egress/exposure suit. This suit, which uses the same kind of air reservoir breathing system as the American Steinke hood, provides the user with an insulated suit for survival on the surface. So effective is this system that test subjects have been able to survive for up to twenty-four hours in water simulating North Atlantic conditions. Although the British operate in areas where the water is, on average, shallower than that where the U.S. subs operate, they still train all their submarine personnel for deep-water egress. This is regularly practiced in a tower at their submarine school in Portsmouth.

Acoustic Isolation

The Trafalgar-class submarines, much like their American 688I counterparts, are designed to be extremely quiet. And while the British seem to be using many of the same quieting techniques and equipment, there do appear to be a few interesting features. Like Miami, the Triumph appears to use a large machinery raft with isolation mounts for all the large pieces of equipment (turbines, generators, etc.). Even the shaft that is connected to the pumpjet propulsor has a flexible mounting to keep down bearing noise.

As we discussed earlier, many of the noisier pieces of equipment seem to be set in their own acoustic enclosures. In addition, all the electronic equipment is set on leaf spring mounts to provide protection against the shock of a nearby explosion, as well as some sound isolation. Triumph also has a fairly extensive self-monitoring noise system, both to detect any untoward noise as well as to help locate any pending failures. Triumph is also equipped with systems to reduce the risk of detection from the boat's magnetic signature, as well as reducing the electrical field generated by the corrosion of the boat in seawater. All in all, the Triumph is probably the equal of the Miami in noise reduction.

Damage Control

A hallmark of the British character is their power of understatement and reserve. Yet if there is one thing that personnel on board the Triumph are fanatical about, it is damage control, particularly firefighting. The British experience with fire during the Falklands War in 1982, specifically the loss of HMS Sheffield and RFA Atlantic Conveyer to uncontrolled fires, has left a permanent impression. This shows in the design of their boats, which have the ability to isolate compartments and flood them with Halon. Virtually every electronic equipment rack has a port to inject CO gas to snuff any electrical fire. Like the 688I, Triumph has an EAB system with forced-feed air masks for every man on the crew. And then there are the firefighting tools themselves.

Their firefighting crew suits are made of chemically treated wool, which they say provides better insulation against the heat of a compartment fire, with protection as good as that of Nomex. Instead of the EAB masks or an OBA to breathe, the RN uses a compressed-air cylinder pack (called a Scott Pack) to provide breathable air to their firefighters. They are equipped with the same kind of thermal imager as the U.S. Navy has, as well as infrared fire detectors (which look like flashlights), and a full array of fire extinguishers, air test kits, and first aid kits.

The crown jewel of the Triumph's firefighting capability is their fixed AFFF (Aqueous Fire Fighting Foam) system. One of these is located on every level of the boat forward of the reactor, and I assume they are also back in the machinery spaces as well. This system, which looks like a small water heater, mixes seawater with the AFFF mixture and feeds it through a pressure hose. Crew members on Triumph indicated that they could lay down over 100 gallons/377 liters of AFFF slurry per minute with this system, which compares well with the still very effective AFFF fire extinguishers used on the Miami.

Life Aboard

Life aboard Triumph is not all that different from on the Miami. Though the food is a little different (cheese buns for lunch and curry salad dressing are normal), the diet is healthy and hearty. The cultural difference between the two services appears in the attitude toward alcohol. Unlike the U.S. Navy, the Royal Navy still allows their crews to have beer and wine aboard (the daily "tot" of Pussers Rum is unfortunately no longer served to the ratings). The attitude of the Royal Navy leadership for over six centuries has been that if a man is responsible enough to go to sea with its risks of quick death and isolation, then he should not be deprived of the basic pleasure of a drink if he should want it. In reality, most of what is carried aboard is consumed while in port; most men just don't drink at sea while they are working.

Other aspects of the Triumph lifestyle closely parallel that on Miami. Water is in short supply, and Navy showers are the rule. The crew uses many kinds of equipment, like the TDU, which any American submariner would feel quite at home with. Watches are roughly the same, with the same problems of having to "hot bunk." The daily routine includes lots of drills of all varieties, ranging from damage control to tactical drills. As for messages from home, the RN seems to follow the U.S. practice of "Familygrams," though probably not quite as often. It is a good life at sea, and the men enjoy it.