Astute-class submarine

The Astute class is the Royal Navy's current class of nuclear-powered fleet submarines, built by BAE Systems Submarines at Barrow-in-Furness to replace the Trafalgar class. Seven boats are planned. The lead boat, Astute, was laid down in 2001, launched in 2007 by the Duchess of Cornwall, commissioned in 2010 and declared fully operational in 2014. The design came out of studies begun in 1986, and the contract was won in 1997 by the GEC-Marconi team, whose business became part of BAE Systems in 1999. The programme suffered years of delay and cost growth because the design skills at Barrow had thinned out, and the use of three-dimensional computer design and modular ring construction needed outside help before the work stabilised. Each boat is driven by a Rolls-Royce PWR2 pressurised water reactor with a pump-jet propulsor, a reactor that needs no refuelling for twenty-five years, and the hulls are about thirty percent larger than earlier British attack submarines. The boats were designed for a top speed of 29 to 30 knots.