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Secret MoD report reveals concerns at design of submarine where two officers were shot. Exclusive by Rob Edwards
The report reveals that the new £1.2 billion high-tech stealth submarine has less recreational space for submariners than boats built 45 years ago. It also highlights the spiralling stresses caused by an acute and worsening shortage of skilled submariners.
The revelations shed new light on the circumstances that could have contributed to one officer, Lieutenant Commander Ian Molyneux, being shot dead and another, Chris Hodge, being seriously injured on Astute while she was moored in Southampton on Friday.
Yesterday, a 22-year-old Able Seaman from London, Ryan Donovan, was quizzed by Hampshire police on suspicion of murder. He was reported to have been “furious” that he had been ordered to go to sea again because of manning problems, after being promised shore leave.
Astute had been at sea for more than 40 days and was due to leave again this week for further trials after an official five-day “goodwill” visit. The two officers were shot in the control room just after noon on Friday by an SA80 assault rifle.
Ryan Donovan was said to have collected the gun from the submarine’s weapons store, ready to go on sentry duty, when an argument broke out. He fired six rounds before being wrestled to the ground by a visiting dignitary, Royston Smith, the leader of Southampton City Council.
Submariners say that putting a new submarine such as Astute through its initial paces can be particularly stressful as so much time is spent at sea. “I know some of the stress involved in the year after commissioning,” said one, writing under a pseudonym on a naval website.
“Only three weeks in the home port in the first year and a lot of sea time. There by the grace etc etc,” he wrote. “If you stop a guy’s weekend and then give him a loaded weapon...” Another added: “I think most of us serving and ex- will have a good idea about what has happened here and the circumstances surrounding it.”
Fred Dawson, a former senior safety official with the MoD, said that the tragic events on Astute “may reflect pressure either domestic, or at work, on crew manning submarines”.
He added: “My concern is about the failure of management to pick up on people like this, and that such people are key to the safety of nuclear systems.”
The MoD report, a heavily censored version of which was released under freedom of information law, is a study conducted for senior officials on the Defence Board in 2009. It is a detailed examination of the human resource shortages plaguing military nuclear activities.
It concluded that one of the problems that needed to be addressed was “to ensure that the quality of life for our submariners is improved”. Future designs “must take very careful account of the standards of accommodation and rest and recreation facilities”, the report said.
“We must not repeat the retrograde step made with the Astute class, where the sailors will have less mess-deck space than in HMS Valiant built 45 years ago.”
New submarines “should ensure that on-board accommodation standards and quality of life issues are thoroughly addressed in order to avoid the mistakes made with the Astute class”.
Among the recommendations for future designs were that the use of space should be maximised, recreational and working areas should be kept separate and sailors should be able to walk upright in all operational areas. It was also necessary to “provide sufficient bathroom and WC facilities to accommodate demand at peak periods”.
Astute had to return to its home port at the Faslane naval base on the Clyde in February because problems with sewage systems put toilets out of action. The MoD report also recommended a series of measures for reducing the strains caused when tied up in harbours.
These included “ease alongside watchkeeping routines” and “mitigate ‘harbour hassle’ by waiving food charges”.
There was a need “to address the elements of shore support and onerous routines that make time alongside even more demanding than at sea”, it said.
There was a “significant skills shortage” facing nuclear-powered submarines like Astute, the report concluded. “The resurgent civil nuclear power programme poses a major threat to the Royal Navy and MoD’s nuclear expertise and will do so for the next 10-15 years.”
Other internal safety reports released by the MoD have disclosed how the Royal Navy has been struggling to cope. Skilled staff have had their time ashore restricted and submarine operations have been cut back.
The latest report, from 2009, suggested that the trade-offs that had been made were becoming impossible. “Some areas were barely resourced to deliver their outputs (including safety) with a considerable load on a small number of key individuals,” it said.
There was a 14% shortage of civilian safety experts and a 7% shortage of submarine reactor engineers, the report stated. Engineers had been restricted to “minimum time ashore”, while other gaps had been dealt with by “moving the holes around”.
An MoD spokesman said: “While a police investigation remains ongoing into the circumstances of the events on HMS Astute it would be inappropriate to speculate at this time.”
A Royal Navy source said: “The accommodation on Astute is quite austere but that’s what every member of the Navy is used to when they go to sea. There’s nothing unusual about the conditions on Astute -- she’s a formidable vessel.
“We are all very experienced living and working in tight spaces and those on the boat will expect no different.”
