Swiftsure-class submarine

HMS Spartan in 1993
Class overview
Name	Swiftsure class
Builders	Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd. (VSEL)
Operators	Royal Navy
Preceded by	Churchill class
Succeeded by	Trafalgar class
In commission	17 April 1973 – 10 December 2010
Completed	6
Retired	6
General characteristics
Type	Submarine
Displacement	4,400 t (4,850.17 short tons) standard 4,900 t (5,401.33 short tons) submerged
Length	82.9 m (272 ft)
Beam	9.8 m (32 ft)
Draught	8.5 m (28 ft)
Propulsion	Nuclear Reactor
Speed	In excess of 28 knots (52 km/h) when dived
Range	Unlimited (nuclear)
Complement	116 (13 officers)
Sensors and processing systems	Bow, flank, active intercept, and towed array sonar, periscopes (attack and search), collision avoidance radar
Armament	5 x 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes Spearfish torpedoes RN Sub Harpoon missiles (until c.2004)[1] Tomahawk missiles (not all fitted)

The Swiftsure class was a class of nuclear-powered fleet submarines in service with the Royal Navy from the early 1970s until 2010.

Six boats were built and commissioned. Swiftsure was decommissioned in 1992 due to damage suffered to her pressure hull during trials. Splendid followed in 2004 after defence cuts caused a reduction in the size of the Royal Navy submarine fleet. Spartan was decommissioned in January 2006, with Sovereign following on 12 September 2006. Superb was decommissioned on 26 September 2008. The remaining boat in the class, Sceptre, was decommissioned in December 2010.^[2] The six boats of the class were not replaced, although the seven boats of the successor Trafalgar-class submarines are in the process of being replaced by seven boats of the Astute-class submarines.

A few were upgraded with the capability to launch Tomahawk cruise missiles in addition to their original armaments of torpedoes, mines and anti-ship missiles. They were also the first class of Royal Navy submarines to be built with shrouded pump-jet propulsors.^[3]