A NEW £1 billion Royal Navy nuclear submarine capable of firing Tomahawk missiles 745 miles with pinpoint accuracy has left its dockyard to undergo preliminary tests.
The cutting-edge craft, which was lowered into water for the first time yesterday, can circumnavigate the entire globe without surfacing The 318ft-long attack sub can circumnavigate the entire globe without surfacing.
Unlike traditional submarines it is not fitted with periscopes. Images are instead delivered to the Control Room via fibre-optic cables.
The 97-metre long attack sub HMS Audacious was edged from Devonshire Dock Hall in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, ahead of sea trials expected to take place next year.
The 7,400-tonne BAE Systems-built vessel is the fourth of seven Astute class submarines that will based at the Faslane Naval base on the Clyde and is armed with Spearfish torpedoes and Tomahawk land attack missiles.
Three more Astute class submarines are at different stages in the building process in Barrow All ships in the series can create their own oxygen and converts sea water into fresh drinking water.
The unveiling marks the fourth submarine from the series to be unveiled.
More than 39,000 acoustic tiles mask the vessel’s sonar signature, yet her sonar is said to be so powerful it can detect ships leaving harbour in New York City from a listen- ing point below the waters of the English Channel, 3,000 nautical miles away.
The first submarine in the class, HMS Astute, which launched in 2010, is due for an overhaul early next decade.
HMS Ambush, another Astute, crashed last July and is being repaired in the water at Gibraltar.
On top of the submarine a Union Jack fluttered from a pole that had the Royal crown on it.
There are already three Astute class boats, of seven, in the water with Audacious being the latest.
Built by BAE systems they are in control of the world’s most complex engineering challenge They are also the UK’s only designer and builder of nuclear powered submarines.
The elite submarines were first commissioned in 1997 and now 20 years later there are still three to come.
A spokesman for manufacturer BAE Systems said: “First, she will go in the water for the first time, then she will take her first dive.
“The Royal Navy will take her on some trials and will decide where she will be moved to or stationed next.”
“The next big milestone will be when she leaves Barrow, which we expect will be in around a year.”
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