Then There Were Four – The movements of our Fleet Submarines are of course confidential and on paper we have a force of seven (7) but as you will see from the following chart that works back to only four (4) being operational and on operations.      The TRENCHANT is about to replace the TRIUMPH "East of Suez", leaving the TIRELESS and TALENT to cover the Atlantic (North and South including the Falklands).
 

 

Longer term the TORBAY (from maintenance) will replace the retiring TURBULENT and the ASTUTE will become finally operational late this year, just in time to replace the TIRELESS which is due to depart the fleet next year.   True we now have the relative “luxury” of having a building programme that will mean we will have an new “Astute” more or less carrying out sea trials but whether these would ever be used (or useful) on operations is a moot point.  So for the next decade and more (until 2025 ?) we will have just four (4) and just maybe (5) units in operational service, bar any accidents or mishaps.   This is the situation:-

Non Operational

Submarine	Status	OSD in 2005	Actual OSD	Replaced By
TRAFALGAR	Decommissioned	2008	Dec. 2009	ASTUTE   (2012)
TURBULENT	Decommissioning	2011	July 2012	AMBUSH  (2013)

 

Operational

Submarine	Status	OSD in 2005	Commissioned	Replaced By
TIRELESS	Southampton - March 2012	2013	October 1985	ARTFUL    (2015)
TORBAY	Assisted Maintenance	2015	February 1987	AUDACIOUS   (2018)
TRENCHANT	Working Up	2017	January 1989	ANSON    (2020)
TALENT	Simonstown  – May 2012	2019	May 1990	AGAMEMNON        (2022)
TRIUMPH	On Station – East of Suez	2022	October 1991	AJAX      (2024)

Building Programme

Submarine	Status	ISD
ASTUTE	In February 2012 was at the Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (Bahamas) for a series of war games, vessel scheduled to be handed over to the Royal Navy for operational service in late 2012.	2012
AMBUSH	Completed initial dive test in Sept. 2011 -  To begin sea trials this Year	2013
ARTFUL	Under construction	2015
AUDACIOUS	Under construction	2018
ANSON	Under construction	2020
AGAMEMNOM	Ordered	2022
AJAX	Confirmed (Not ordered)	2024

                     OSD = Out of Service Date                                           ISD = In Service Date