THE commissioning date of Barrow’s newest submarine has been put back by three months to allow sea trials to continue.
Astute,
which was delivered to the Faslane naval base in Scotland in November,
was originally earmarked to be commissioned into the navy in a ceremony
at Faslane at the end of January.
But a spokesman for the base said
the commissioning date had “moved to the right considerably” and was
now not expected to take place until April at the earliest. He said
Astute - which technically still belongs to BAE Systems Submarine
Solutions until the Ministry of Defence agrees to take it over - is getting on with sea trials.
The
boat has to complete up to 18 months of trials before it becomes
operational. The boat’s patron, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, is
expected to be at the commissioning. The £1.2bn nuclear powered
hunter/killer class submarine left Barrow with a partial rudder to avoid
the danger of the deep draught device colliding with any mudbanks. The
remainder of the rudder has since been fitted at Faslane, said the
spokesman.
The second Astute class submarine, Ambush, is at an advanced stage inside the Devonshire Dock Hall, and is expected to be rolled out and launched next year.
BAE
has not announced any date yet but it could be towards the end of the
year. The Ministry of Defence is still deciding whether to slow down
the build rate for the Astute class, which is designed to hunt and
destroy enemy vessels, to save money.
A submarine expert in Barrow
who did not wish to be named said: “I am surprised it was going to be
commissioned in January, that sounds much too early. “The boat has only
just gone up there and they have got a lot of sea trials to do. April
sounds far more sensible.”
The submarine is crewed by Royal Navy personnel and BAE technicians and test engineers from Barrow.
The sub left Barrow on November 15 and was waved off by a crowd of well wishers lining Roa Island. (Original News)
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