nuclear-news

Britain’s jinxed nuclear-killer submarines

it was unacceptable for the MoD to spend £10bn of taxpayers’ money on the submarines, and still produce a boat with potentially fundamental design flaws that could, in theory, threaten the UK’s ability to defend itself.

“Even though they know some things are wrong, they keep on building them.

Britain’s nuclear hunter-killer submarines were doomed from the start The flawed thinking and design behind the fleet at the heart of Britain’s navy is now coming to the fore Nick Hopkins The Guardian,   15 Nov The problems with the cost and delivery of Britain’s new nuclear-powered hunter-killer submarines were set out in uncompromising detail in a report published by the National Audit Office  this time last year.

But the performance and safety problems of HMS Astute and its sister boats are only now coming to the fore, and that is only because people who know about submarines have been prepared to express their concerns.

At roughly the same time as the NAO was setting out in dry and
dispiriting detail the multiple delays and overruns that have affected
the Astute, its crew was dealing with a crisis of its own: bailing
gallons of seawater from a compartment that had flooded when a cap on
a cooling pipe for the boat’s reactor failed. How a cap made of the
wrong “soft” metal had ended up being fitted to such a critical pipe
on a new submarine, nobody at the Ministry of Defence is prepared to
say.

One insider, who spoke to the Guardian on condition of anonymity,
explained this was symptomatic of the difficulties facing HMS Astute,
the first of seven boats that will be the cornerstone of the UK’s
naval attack and reconnaissance capability over the next 30 years. A
leading submarine officer said that voicing his anxieties went against
all his military instincts, but he was so worried about the future of
the Astute class submarines that he judged keeping quiet would be
worse….. According to sources, the background to some of the present
difficulties can be traced to March 1997, when the decision was first
taken to commission a new fleet of nuclear-powered hunter-killer
submarines to replace the 1970s-built Trafalgar class boats.

From the start, the Astute programme was beset by design and technical
difficulties, and its budget rose. Three new boats were ordered – this
increased to eight – but as costs and delays kept spiralling, a
decision was taken to reduce the fleet to seven……. one officer who
spoke to the Guardian made clear he thought it was unacceptable for the MoD to spend £10bn of taxpayers’ money on the submarines, and still produce a boat with potentially fundamental design flaws that could, in theory, threaten the UK’s ability to defend itself.

The officer said it was unbelievable and unforgiveable that, with so
much at stake, there had not been a proper moratorium on the
construction and design process to prevent problems recurring.

“Even though they know some things are wrong, they keep on building
them. This is the boat the MoD deserved. They messed around with the
procurement. They kept changing the specifications. They kept delaying
the project. If this had been the US navy, they would have scrapped
the boat. They would have recognised the flaws and decided not to take
any risks.”….
to conceal the detail of the failures is wholly inappropriate because
it protects the incompetent and, quite possibly, permits an
unacceptable element of the nuclear safety risk to persist.
Overbudget, delayed, grounded and the shooting tragedy, together with
the serious underperformance, suggest HMS Astute and the class to be
jinxed boats.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/nov/15/astute-hunter-killer-submarines-doomed

November 16, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | UK, weapons and war