BAE Systems Announces Ambush Submarine Launch Date

Bar­row-in-Fur­ness, UK: BAE Sys­tems has announced it will launch the sec­ond Astute class sub­ma­rine on 16 Decem­ber 2010. The 7,400 tonne nuclear pow­ered attack sub­ma­rine, Ambush, will be rolled out and offi­cial­ly named at the Company’s ship­yard in Bar­row-in-Fur­ness, Cum­bria.

Lady Anne Soar, Ambush’s spon­sor and wife of the Roy­al Navy’s Com­man­der-in-Chief Fleet, Admi­ral Sir Trevor Soar KCB, OBE, will per­form the cer­e­mo­ny. Lady Soar will be joined by invit­ed guests from the Roy­al Navy, Min­istry of Defence and the Bar­row community. 

John Hud­son, BAE Sys­tems Sub­ma­rine Solu­tions Man­ag­ing Direc­tor, said: “The launch of Ambush rep­re­sents anoth­er sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone in the Astute pro­gramme, fol­low­ing the com­mis­sion­ing into ser­vice of HMS Astute in August this year.” 

After the cer­e­mo­ny, Ambush will be inched out of the Company’s main sub­ma­rine con­struc­tion facil­i­ty, the 51 metre high, 58 metre wide and 260 metre long Devon­shire Dock Hall. It is planned she will then be low­ered into the dock by a ship lift to allow fur­ther out­fit­ting, test­ing and com­mis­sion­ing to take place. 

In total BAE Sys­tems is build­ing sev­en sub­marines in the Astute Class. The pro­gramme employs more than 5,000 BAE Sys­tems peo­ple and involves 1,200 sup­pli­er com­pa­nies. Activ­i­ty on the first three boats alone is deliv­er­ing £1.6 bil­lion into the sup­ply chain. 

Each Astute sub­ma­rine is 97 metres long and fuelled by a nuclear reac­tor pow­er­ful enough to pow­er a city the size of Southamp­ton. The boats are armed with a mix of Spearfish tor­pe­does and Tom­a­hawk Land Attack Mis­siles, and their sonar suites have the pro­cess­ing pow­er of 2,000 laptops. 

The first boat, HMS Astute, left Bar­row for her oper­a­tional base of Her Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde, at Faslane, Scot­land, in Novem­ber 2009, and was offi­cial­ly com­mis­sioned into the Roy­al Navy in August this year. Boat three, Art­ful, is now well advanced fol­low­ing the inte­gra­tion of the Com­mand Deck Mod­ule ear­li­er this year. The final butt weld fol­lowed this to form a com­plete hull and out­fit­ting of the ves­sel con­tin­ues. Con­struc­tion of major steel­work for the fourth boat in Class, Auda­cious, con­tin­ues after its keel was laid in 2009. In addi­tion, ear­ly build phas­es have begun on boat five, and long lead items, includ­ing the reac­tor core, has been ordered for boat six. 

Editor’s note: HMS Astute is cur­rent­ly under­go­ing inspec­tion at Her Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde, in Faslane, Scot­land, fol­low­ing her ground­ing in the Kyle of Lochalsh, on Octo­ber 22. 

About BAE Sys­tems

BAE Sys­tems is a glob­al defence, secu­ri­ty and aero­space com­pa­ny with approx­i­mate­ly 107,000 employ­ees world­wide. The Com­pa­ny deliv­ers a full range of prod­ucts and ser­vices for air, land and naval forces, as well as advanced elec­tron­ics, secu­ri­ty, infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy solu­tions and cus­tomer sup­port ser­vices. In 2009 BAE Sys­tems report­ed sales of £22.4 bil­lion (US$ 36.2 billion). 

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:
Neil Laud­erdale, BAE Sys­tems
Tel: +44 (0) 01229 875714 Mob: +44 (0) 7525 391013
Neil.lauderdale@baesystems.com

Source:
BAE Systems 

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