HMS Superb - well not quite. Far called our navies melt away...

The Times/Sun report today that a watchman fell asleep while on duty on 32 year old nuclear submarine HMS Superb whilst it was docked at the Faslane naval base on the River Clyde in January . It is claimed that the watchman had been drinking lager and was found asleep in front of a DVD.

The sleepy DVD watching, drinking sailor was removed from the crew and is now awaiting court-martial.

In an extraordinary piece of mobile phone footage (link) obtained by The Sun a commander on the vessel identified by the paper as Geordie, Executive Officer Lieutenant Commander John Aitken, is seen and heard lambasting the crew the next day: “The incident last night is entirely . . . unacceptable.” ...
“We cannot have idiotic incidents like this undermining the safety of HMS Superb, or, indeed, all on board on it,” he is heard saying. BBC have the footage also and provide a transcripit from the Geordie of the more expletive loaded remonstration.

"Getting your f***ing napper down while watching a f***ing DVD and swigging lager isn't accepting responsibility for your shipmates.

"It's throwing that responsibility away and saying, to me - I don't give a f*** what happens to my mates on board the boat and I don't give a f*** what happens to the boat.

"That's the worst example I can f***ing think of, but it stirs up some of the other things that have been going on." .

HMS Superb a 272 foot long Swiftsure-class attack submarine with a crew of 112, hit an underwater pinnacle 80 miles south of Suez. on Monday May 27th damaging its sonar equipment, forcing it to surface. The commanding officer is Steve Drysdale from Miskin, near Llantrisant, Wales , he took command in December 2006 and was previously on sister ships HMS Sovereign and HMS Spartan....His interests include sailing dinghies and yachts.

An MoD spokesman the following day said the submarine's nuclear reactor was "completely unaffected" and there was "no environmental impact" from the collision.

"There were no casualties and the submarine remains watertight, is safe on the surface and able to operate under her own power." It was also revealed the vessel could not dive and the Royal navy were examinignmethods to return the vessel for repair.

HMS Superb was built by Vickers Shipbuilding at Barrow and commissioned in 1976. In 2001 she was deployed in support of operations in Afghanistan and was on counter-terrorism duties in 2006.

HMS Superb had a 7 month refit and extensive maintenance in 06/07 and did operational sea trials in August last year.

Some reports suggest that as a result of this accident it will be scrapped. HMS Superb stopped at Gibralter in early May which was the cause of much criticism by an noisy ecological group led by Antonio Muñoz spokesperson for Verdemar ‘Ecologistas en Acción’ .

This week a group called The Voice of Gibraltar said they would welcome HMS Superb returning for repair but say rather sourly ..."We consider it more likely that a repair will be effected in the UK, as the Ministry of Defence has run down its facilities on the Rock in a 'penny pinching' cost-cutting exercise to the level that they need to import generators to provide shore power for visiting ships. "

There is a very interesting video news report from Russia Today about the HMS Superb crash which mentions the onboard Tomahawk missiles and the unknown reason why the vessel was in the Red Sea. It is possible given the recent re-fit that these would be the Block IV long range (1,500 km plus ?) Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles (TLAM) test fired in March 2007 , at the time the MOD said they were ,"due to enter service with the Royal Navy in 2008 and will be used to equip the RN's existing attack submarines and the new astute class."

Lord Drayson said of the 64 Raytheon missiles bought for £70 Mn that they were,"a tangible demonstration of our ability to deliver precision attack at long range against selected targets. They will give the Royal Navy a world class capability and the ability to pre-position the missile covertly in our attack submarines gives enormous flexibility to our forces."

See post announcing fitting these missiles Friday, April 04, 2008 Royal Navy's new Yankee £1.5Mn. firecrackers now defending freedom , fighting global terrism,making profits for Raytheon

Anyway however world class the Royal navy's capability and the ability to pre-position the missile covertly in our attack submarines giving enormous flexibility to our forces it won't be being done by HMS Superb in the near future.