Laid down by Vickers at its shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness and finished by BAE Systems, HMS Astute is Britain's latest, and by far, most sophisticated nuclear powered submarine. She was launched on June 8, 2007 and will be commissioned in about a year. While cost over-runs and delays in completion of design specifications have brought criticism to the project, the fact remains that Astute is equal to the best in the American arsenal of attack submarines.

She is the first of three in the Trafalgar series, with HMS Ambush and HMS Artful to follow. If past production of British submarines represents what is to follow, the cost of succeeding submarines will not be much less than the 960 million pounds of Astute. The series was first envisioned in the mid 1990s, but advances in electronics and the changing demands of world politics meant many revisions to original plans. The British Admiralty bombarded Vickers with design modification demands and each revision meant cost over-runs. The dilemma was to produce an obsolescent submarine within cost or to produce one that was state-of-the-art at a much higher cost. The British government chose the latter. When BAE took over the design phase, its engineers consulted with Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut to gain a better understanding of cost-cutting measures. Recommendations included the design of hull modules vertically oriented to allow easier installation of tight-fitting equipment. The British engineers stuck to their guns in not allowing production to begin until comprehensive computer modeling detailed every step of the process.

The first British nuclear submarine was HMS Dreadnought, launched in 1960. Like the Nautilus, (SSN-571) she was essentially a test platform for its nuclear plant. That boat, being a success, brought on the Valiant, Swiftsure and Trafalgar classes of attack submarines. Each boat constructed within a class represented a more modern version of the boat preceding it. Constructed in series, as is the flow of American submarines, each boat was an improvement in performance. Most of the early Valiant and Swiftsure boats have been retired. One such modernization was the addition of conformal anechoic hull tiles to reduce sonar signature. Rolls-Royce, the producer of nuclear power plants for British submarines, perfected its PWR 1 pressurized water reactor over the years to a standard design that is durable and reliable.

Astute is larger than its predecessors at 323 feet in length and a 37 foot beam. This is similar to American designs and is determined by the volume necessary to give a reasonable freeboard when the weight of vessel is dictated by its heavy equipment. The boat's draft is about 33 feet. Its Rolls-Royce PWR 2 is the same basic design as the PWR 1, but is lighter and has a longer lasting core. With a life expectancy of 25 years, Astute will never have to be refueled. Indeed, the hull construction does not provide for refueling. Its ducted propulsor, similar to that of American Virginia class submarines, drives the boat at about 30 knots. Its passive sonar is at a par with America's best, having ranges up to 3000 miles. It will carry a crew of about 100 with berthing for another 10 special operations type personnel. It has equipment to continually extract oxygen from sea water, thus replenishing interior breathable air.

The boat's only limiting factor is the amount of food able to be stored in the already cramped space. Some things in submarines never change. U-boats hung wurst from overhead piping and stuffed boxes of canned goods outboard of engines. American Guppies and nuclear attack boats stacked crated canned goods in passage ways, bilges and every nook and cranny. Astute will probably do the same.

When commissioned in about a year, Astute will be a significant addition to the British ability to strike an enemy from long range. It will carry both torpedoes and Tomahawk missiles with ranges of over 2500 miles. It will be a submarine of great value in the coming struggle against terrorism.