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HMS Astute agound off Skye


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#1 wbeedie

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Posted 22 October 2010 - 01:46 PM

http://www.bbc.co.uk...slands-11605365

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The Royal Navy's newest and largest attack submarine HMS Astute has run aground off Skye, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has confirmed.

An eye-witness said the sub - described as the stealthiest ever built in the UK - appeared to have grounded.
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A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman said: "This is not a nuclear incident.

"We are responding to the incident and can confirm that there are no injuries to personnel and the submarine remains watertight."

The spokeswoman added: "There is no indication of any environmental impact."

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) was alerted to the incident at about 0819 BST and confirmed it had run aground.

A spokesman said: "We have sent a coastguard tug to where the submarine ran aground on rocks at the Kyle of Lochalsh near the Skye bridge.

"It will stand by and monitor what will be going on. We think on the rising tide, at around 1800 BST, there should be some movement of the vessel."

A Royal Navy helicopter has also been at the scene.
Map

Eye-witness Ross McKerlich said the submarine was about a mile from his home and appeared slightly tilted.

He said: "When I woke up this morning and looked out my bedroom window I could see the submarine.

"I am very surprised how far in it has come as there are good navigational buoys there."

Mr McKerlich added: "There was a helicopter hovering over the top - it's now gone back and there are two Naval vessels from the local base, Kyle of Lochalsh, standing off to the north of her.

"Earlier in the day they did have ropes and they were trying to tow but now the tide has gone back and they're just standing off."

Martin Douglas, a former nuclear submarine engineer, said a concern for the crew was the provision of sea water to the boat's reactor.

He said: "The sea provides the primary cooling for the reactor system.

"There are many, many levels of back up systems, but they may have to find some interesting ways of getting sea water supply to the reactor."

Mr Douglas said the skipper and crew were highly trained to deal with extreme situations.

Click to play

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A look around the Astute's control room

But he added that as the tide dropped more HMS Astute would be on display and secrets of its propulsion revealed.

HMS Astute, built by BAE Systems in Barrow in Furness, Cumbria, is believed to have been undergoing sea trials as it is not expected to enter service until next year.

Aside from attack capabilities, it is able to sit in waters off the coast undetected, delivering the UK's special forces where needed or even listening to mobile phone conversations.

The 39,000 acoustic panels which cover its surface mask its sonar signature, meaning it can sneak up on enemy warships and submarines alike, or lurk unseen and unheard at depth.

The submarine can carry a mix of up to 38 Spearfish heavyweight torpedoes and Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise missiles, able to target enemy submarines, surface ships and land targets, while its sonar system has a range of 3,000 nautical miles.

Speaking to the BBC last month, HMS Astute's commanding officer, Commander Andy Coles, said: "We have a brand new method of controlling the submarine, which is by platform management system, rather than the old conventional way of doing everything of using your hands.

"This is all fly-by-wire technology including only an auto pilot rather than a steering column."
HMS Astute

Submarine HMS Trafalgar sustained millions of pounds worth of damage when it ran aground off Skye in 2002.

Two senior commanders were reprimanded after admitting that their negligence caused the incident.

The sea around Skye and the island of Raasay is a training ground for the Royal Navy

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#2 wbeedie

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Posted 22 October 2010 - 02:33 PM

http://news.stv.tv/s...rocks-off-skye/
http://news.stv.tv/s...anded-off-skye/
http://www.dailyreco...86908-22559936/
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#3 codender

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Posted 22 October 2010 - 03:37 PM

re, the officers statement ,,,,we have a brand new way of controling the submarine,
pity they didny have somebody who knew how to navigate the right side of a bouy.....


#4 3762dazzer

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Posted 22 October 2010 - 03:53 PM

Dogged by misfortune this boat, scuttle her now :knuppel2:

#5 wbeedie

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Posted 22 October 2010 - 03:54 PM

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re, the officers statement ,,,,we have a brand new way of controling the submarine,
pity they didny have somebody who knew how to navigate the right side of a bouy.....

Think they were testing putting boys ashore but your right about not being able to navigate heads will roll :knuppel2: :D
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#6 wbeedie

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Posted 22 October 2010 - 03:59 PM

http://www.thesun.co...s-on-rocks.html

Haha The Red tops got the incident with the Trafalger wrong , says it happened a close distance to where this one happened ,,well if forty or fifty miles is close then so be it
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#7 wbeedie

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Posted 22 October 2010 - 05:03 PM

http://www.bbc.co.uk...slands-11606046

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One of four emergency tugs to be withdrawn under UK government plans has been sent to the scene of the grounded submarine HMS Astute.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency-chartered Anglian Prince was sent from Stornoway on Lewis and tasked to stand by on the scene.

The tugs are to be taken out of service in 2011 to save £32m over four-and-a-half years.

Two Highlands Lib Dem politicians have attacked the withdrawal decision.
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Charles Kennedy, a former leader of the party, said on Thursday the vessels could prove critical in an emergency.

Highland MSP John Farquhar Munro said he was furious at plans to scrap them in the government's Spending Review.

John Laing, transport chairman at Highland Council, said it was "unthinkable" to be withdrawing the tugs.

He said: "How ironic it is that only two days after the government announced the end of funding for emergency tugs in the Highlands and Islands that the Stornoway tug is required to rescue the Royal Navy's newest and largest attack submarine.

"We have fought long and hard to have a tug service protect our shores and this incident brings into sharp focus the need for the tug at Stornoway.

"This is exactly the kind of incident that the tug is required for."

The tugs are based in Falmouth, Dover, the Northern Isles and Western Isles.

Anglian Prince, Anglian Princess, Anglian Sovereign and Anglian Monarch - are chartered by the MCA for use in pollution control and towing vessels that are in difficulty.

The government said it should be the responsibility of companies and their insurers for the salvage and clean-up of stricken vessels.

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#8 Jammy

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Posted 22 October 2010 - 10:43 PM

"We have a brand new method of controlling the submarine, which is by platform management system, rather than the old conventional way of doing everything of using your hands.


hmm me thinks he has put mouth in gear befroe brain on this one


#9 wbeedie

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Posted 22 October 2010 - 11:15 PM

Maybe went to the JJ school of maintainance  ;D
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#10 Barry McCrindle

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Posted 22 October 2010 - 11:41 PM

if it has been that school, the west of scotland would have been declared a nuclear waste land, as the lump hammer and stilson just gave it a wee tweek.......  :P
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#11 3762dazzer

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Posted 24 October 2010 - 04:16 PM

Got to love the BBC news. This morning they reported that the Navy will hold an inquiry into the grounding, they then had some Professor from Portsmouth University on who is a 'Submarine expert' and when asked what might have caused the accident he replied;

Well if it wasn't a mechanical fault it would almost certainly be human error !!!!!

Get on, I thought it was little green men!!!!! Shit the f***ing bed, what are these people on :D Wait for the frigging inquiry and they'll tell you :uglystupid2:

#12 Guest_Steve Ellwood_*

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Posted 04 November 2010 - 09:17 AM

This from the Daily Record @ http://www.dailyreco...86908-22691209/

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Revealed: Rescue tug crashed into stranded submarine HMS Astute causing millions of pounds of damage

Nov 4 2010 Exclusive by Craig McDonald

THE tug sent to rescue the Navy's grounded showpiece submarine crashed into her and tore off one of her fins, the Record can reveal.

And insiders fear the damage from the collision will cost millions to fix.

We have learned that HMS Astute got away with relatively minor dents when she got stuck on a shingle bank off Skye two weeks ago.

But when Coastguard tug Anglian Prince tried to pull the £1billion nuclear-powered sub free, the two vessels collided.

The impact ripped off Astute's starboard foreplane, one of her navigation fins.

A source said last night: "The damage from the grounding was minor. Astute just had some denting to her casing, which is nothing massively serious for a ship of her size.

"But the damage done by the tug could result in a multi-million pound repair bill. It's ironic."

It's understood the Anglian Prince ran into Astute after her crew attached a tow rope to the sub.

We have been told the rope got snagged in the tug's propellers and the two vessels were pulled together.

The repairs to Astute, described as the world's most modern submarine, are expected to take weeks. Sources say she's not likely to be able to resume her sea trials before March next year.

Astute got stuck near the Skye Bridge on the morning of October 22 as her crew practised transferring personnel from shore to the sub during the trials.

The 100-metre long vessel was stranded for 10 hours as bemused locals gathered on the shore to take photos.

The Anglian Prince was sent from her base in Stornoway to rescue her and the Astute was dragged free at about 6pm.

Divers checked her hull for damage before she headed back to her base at Faslane on the Clyde under her own power.

She was hauled from the water last Thursday so experts could examine her hull and rudder.

A Navy spokesman confirmed last night: "There was a collision between Astute and a tug, which resulted in damage to the submarine's starboard foreplane.

"This will be repaired at Faslane and trials will resume in due course.

"The inquiry into the damage sustained by Astute is now complete, although the findings have still to be released to naval officers."

The Navy has also launched an inquiry into why the sub ran aground.

Reports at the time said she was outside a safe sea lane, clearly marked on Admiralty charts, at the time. A Navy spokesman said last month: "One of the things being looked at is if the charts were up to date with recent seabed changes in the area. The seabed can change quickly."

The probe will look at possible negligence by the crew. The Navy have refused to speculate on whether the Astute's commander, Andy Coles, could face a court martial.

Astute, the first in a class of six new submarines, was launched in 2007 and formally commissioned into the Navy this August.

She weighs 7800 tons - as much as nearly 1000 double-decker buses.

Her nuclear reactor means she will never have to be refuelled and she makes her own air and water supplies. She can sail around the world without having to surface.

She doesn't carry nuclear weapons but is armed with Spearfish torpedoes and Tomahawk cruise missiles which can hit targets 1200 miles away.

The sub has 39,000 acoustic panels on her surface which mask her sonar signature and allow her to sneak up on enemy ships.

The Coastguard tug fleet was set up in 1994 after the Braer oil spill off Shetland. It is on standby 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and is kept at 30 minutes "readiness to sail".

But days before the Anglian Prince rescued Astute, the Con-Dems announced that the tugs were being axed to save money.

The SNP MP for the Western Isles, Angus MacNeil, said: "The most expensive and advanced submarine in the world has had to be pulled to safety by the tugboat which the Westminster government wants to scrap.

"The Anglian Prince is a vital service. It is regrettable that it is to be removed."




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