A Vanguard-class submarine used for Britain’s nuclear deterrent has resurfaced after a record-breaking 204 days at sea. Relatives gathered on the Rhu Narrows point yesterday to welcome back their loved ones as the sailors returned to HM Naval Base Clyde, in Scotland.
When the submarine departed last year, it was still summer, President Biden was in office and Chancellor Rachel Reeves had yet to deliver her first budget. The boat would have sailed out to open sea, dived and followed a pre-planned route known only to the commanding officer and a handful of others on board, meticulously avoiding any other vessel in her path.
She will have remained underwater for the entirety of the next 204 days. Unsurprisingly, when the submarine resurfaced yesterday, she looked grey, barnacled and rusty compared to her sleek, black replacement, which had swept down the Clyde four days earlier.
Welcome Home!
— Sheila Weir (@SheilaLWeir) March 17, 2025
Vanguard class submarine inbound to Faslane this morning.@RoyalNavy @NavyLookout #submarine #navy #naval #shipping #firthofclyde pic.twitter.com/qH6INXOUBR
That a British submarine can even spend 204 days underwater is testament to the Senior Service’s grit and professionalism. The Royal Navy has successfully maintained the Continuous at Sea nuclear Deterrent, known as Operation Relentless, for more than 55 years.
But maintaining Britain’s nuclear programme has become significantly harder in recent years. The fact that patrols are routinely now over five months long – rather than the normal three – is ‘bittersweet’. These long periods at sea – caused by decades of relentless cuts by Labour and Conservative governments – are tough for both the submarine hulls and the men and women on board.
HMS Vanguard, the lead boat in her class of Trident ballistic missile submarines, was commissioned into the fleet in August 1993 in front of Diana Princess of Wales. All four of the submarines built in this era have remained in service for far longer than initially anticipated.
Their replacements, the Dreadnought-class submarines, were only finally procured in 2016 and won’t join the fleet until 2032. Serving submariners concede this cannot come soon enough. By that time, the Vanguard class submarines will have been in service for almost half a century.
The stakes could not be higher if we want to maintain our nuclear deterrent. Russian Yasen-class submarines, ‘hunter killers’ designed to attack enemy submarines, occasionally loiter off the Scottish coast hoping to intercept one of our Vanguards.
Fortunately for our Vanguards, they do not have to detect and evade Russian submarines on their own. We have an Integrated Undersea Surveillance System (IUSS), which involves a classified network of detectors on the ocean floor, which help track Russian attack boats. Nato warships equipped with sensors add further intelligence, as do maritime patrol aircraft and our own hunter killer submarines.
Despite Russian submarines benefitting from technology upgrades and becoming harder to find, IUSS can still detect them as they slip through the gap between Greenland, Iceland and the UK into the Northern Atlantic.
Yet our aging boats are becoming progressively harder to keep seaworthy and stealthy. For the last ten years, at least one of the four deterrent submarines has been in dry dock for a major refit. Before being launched again in 2023, HMS Vanguard’s repairs took almost seven years to complete, which took its toll on the remaining three boats.
Then there’s the toll on the crew itself. Unsurprisingly, spending such a long stint submerged with neither sunlight nor fresh food has repercussions for the ship’s company.
For the senior leaders onboard, record-breaking deployments are generally positive and a feather in the cap. The commanding officer may even find himself being honoured with one of those OBEs for which there is no public citation.
For young matelots the effects are bleaker. These deployments place gruelling demands on their professional and private lives, and chip away at morale and retention.
Some of the crew serving in the submarine which came up yesterday will have returned to a changed life – fledgling romances snuffed out, missed milestones in their children’s development, family bereavements or a spouse filing for divorce.
Last October, I worked on a story about how sailors on a recent deterrent patrol went hungry when food stores on board ran perilously low. Medics feared there might be loss of life from fatigue or concentration lapses after plans to resupply at sea were scrapped.
It had been hoped that this latest patrol would return in mid-December, although the senior management team prudently planned for any delay, which can be caused by anything from glitches when preparing their replacement to snooping Russians.
When they finally were able to resurface, they would have been met by either a senior politician or civil servant, who sails out to meet the submarine on the day she returns from patrol, in recognition of the vital role the crew play in defending our country. Last September, it was Defence Secretary John Healey, who stood grim-faced, surveying a clearly battered casing as sailors stood to attention.
With time, the Dreadnought submarines will roll out of the shipbuilding yard at Barrow-in-Furness and 200-day long patrols will become an uncomfortable memory. But until then, retaining sailors prepared to regularly submit themselves to this grim test of endurance will remain a challenge. Submarines operate in defence watches of six hours on and six hours off. Doing this 204 times without a break is more than many can take.
First Sea Lord Ben Key knows all too well that his Royal Navy is nothing without its people – and seems to genuinely care for those who serve. It is successive governments which have cynically hollowed out the service that must take the blame for this avoidable, grave issue currently faced by the Ministry of Defence.
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