Royal Navy Submarine History
It is somewhat ironic that the nation that may have the highest quality submarine force in the world has itself been more victimized by submarines than any other in history. It was a British ship, HMS Eagle, that was the target of the first attempted attack by a submarine, the Turtle. It was also the British who were the intended victims of Robert Fulton's Nautilus and John Holland's early submarines built for the Fenian Society. And it was the British who suffered the most during two world wars from the efforts of Germany's U-boat fleets. Certainly no other nation on earth has such understanding of the damage submarines can do.
HMS Triumph (S-93). U.K. MINISTRY OF DEFENCE This is not to say that the British have had an easy time developing their submarine force. The truth is that until the late 1960s, the men who had chosen to serve in the Royal Navy sub force were regarded as pariahs and not considered to be gentlemen by the other line officers of fleet. As far back as 1804, when the British admirals got their first look at Robert Fulton's Nautilus, the submarine has been considered a sneaky and 'damn un-English' way to fight a war. This opinion had not changed by World War I, though the Royal Navy had begun a modest investment in such craft. Ironically, one of the first customers for John Holland's early submarines was Great Britain, which bought five for experimentation and establishment of her force. Nevertheless, the Royal Navy poured almost all of its funds into a fleet of modern battleships and escorting vessels, keeping funds for submarines scarce. With only a limited force of submarines to use in wartime, the Royal Navy made a point of putting only their most talented officers in command. This wound up paying great dividends, although they did not have the rich numbers and variety of targets that the U-boats had. The exploits of their captains, including the great Sir Max Horton, have become legend in the annals of submarine history, and gave the Royal Navy a tradition they were able to build on.
During the period between the world wars, the British experimented widely in submarine technology. They developed submarines that could carry aircraft and heavy guns, and a variety of new and different power plants. Along with the U.S. Navy, they led in developing the type of submarine that would have the greatest impact in World War II, the long-range fleet submarine. During World War II this force, particularly the 'T' class, did the bulk of the damage inflicted by British submarines. In the Mediterranean the 'T' boats of the 10th Submarine Flotilla based at Malta sank many supply ships destined for Field Marshal Rommel's Afrika Korps, helping keep him from the oil fields of Arabia. Several of the 'T' boats deployed to the Pacific, for which they had been designed originally, to assist in the fight against the Japanese. They even helped in the ASW campaign against the U-boats by sinking seventeen German and Italian submarines.
Another British achievement was in the area of special operations. Throughout World War II, the Royal Navy submarine had an exemplary record, ranging from the insertion of commando teams to the preinvasion surveys of landing beaches. Part of this record includes the use of miniature submarines, called X–Craft, to damage beyond repair the German battleship Tirpitz and the Japanese cruiser Takao, as well as providing navigation beacons for the British landing forces on D-Day. To this day, special operations are one of the hall-marks of the British submarine tradition.
After the war, the Royal Navy took its share of the German U-boats and technology that it had captured, and began to work on the development of its own 'super' submarines. Like the other fleets of the world, the dream of the British submariners was to find a technology that would allow a submarine to travel at high speed, for long periods of time, without having to use a snorkel tube and risk detection. The RN explored the conventional steps of hydrogen peroxide engines and other air-independent systems. Unfortunately they did not invest in the nuclear reactor program that the United States had started in the 1940s, and wound up having to accept that they had bet on the wrong technologies when it became obvious that nuclear power was the future in submarine development.
Because of the special relationship that had been forged between the United States and Great Britain during the war, however, the United States was willing to sell their reactor and power train technology to the British. So in 1963, the first British SSN, HMS Dreadnought (S-98), was commissioned into the Royal Navy. She was essentially a Skipjack-class SSN from the reactor aft and a British sub from there forward. And while she made a lot of noise, just like her American half-sister, the Dreadnought provided the Royal Navy with a foothold into nuclear submarine operations, and the beginnings of a cadre of experienced nuclear sailors. Following the Dreadnought, the Royal Navy commissioned five additional SSNs of the Valiant (S-102) class. These new SSNs were contemporaries of the Permit class, and used U.K.-built reactor plants based on the U.S. design.
During this period the British government was trying to find a way of maintaining a credible nuclear deterrent force that would be under British control. The force of RAF 'V' bombers were quickly losing their ability to penetrate the air defenses of the Soviet Union, and the development of an ICBM force that would reside on British soil was simply beyond the financial resources of Great Britain. So the British government made the decision to buy the Polaris A3 missile system from the United States and build a force of four SSBNs to carry them. Thus was born the 'R' class of SSBNs, the first of which, HMS Resolution (S-27), was commissioned in 1967. For over a quarter century the 'R' boats have provided the United Kingdom with their nuclear deterrent force, helping keep the peace.
By the late 1960s the Royal Navy was beginning to think about expanding further their force of SSNs. Part of the reason was the expanding force of Soviet SSBNs, which had started making themselves known by this time. So a new class of SSN dedicated to ASW tasks was ordered. Called the 'S' class, the first unit, HMS Swiftsure (S-126), was commissioned in 1973. Contemporaries of the American Sturgeon class, five of the six units built are still in service today.
It was the 'S' class boats, along with several of the 'V' class SSNs, that provided the Royal Navy with its primary antiship punch during Operation Corporate in the 1982 Falklands War. Three of the boats, HMS Conqueror, HMS Splendid, and HMS Spartan, were the first Royal Navy units to arrive and set up operation in the British- declared Total Exclusion Zone (TEZ) around the islands. They helped give the TEZ credibility long before the surface task force arrived in the area, as well as helping land the first of the special operations teams that were to be so effective during the war. Later, when the Argentine Navy tried to engage the Royal Navy task force, HMS Conqueror sank the cruiser General Belgrano and scared the rest of their navy back into port, never to come out again.
The year after the Falklands War, the Royal Navy took delivery of what, up to the writing of this book, is the last class of SSNs built, the 'T' class. Delivered in 1983, HMS Trafalgar (S-107) is the ultimate expression of British SSN design. Still powered by an American-designed reactor (called PWR-1), it was the lead unit of a seven-boat class. And in the area of SSBNs, the Royal Navy has begun trials of their replacement for the 'R' class SSBNs, the 'V' class. The lead boat of this class, HMS Vanguard, will help maintain the British nuclear deterrent force into the twenty-first century. Powered for the first time by a British- designed reactor, the PWR-2, she will carry the same Trident D5 missiles as the Ohio-class SSBNs in the U.S. Navy. A total of four 'V' class SSBNs has been ordered.
The Royal Navy's newest SSBN, HMS Vanguard, arrives at her new home at Faslane, Scotland. She is escorted by one of the older 'R' class SSBNs. U.K. MINISTRY OF DEFENCE 
