Military Wiki
HMS Trafalgar (S107)
HMS Trafalgar, pictured during Tomahawk missile trials
HMS Trafalgar, pictured during Tomahawk missile trials
Career (United Kingdom) Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom
Ordered: 7 April 1977
Builder: Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd
Laid down: 15 April 1979
Launched: 1 July 1981
Commissioned: 27 May 1983
Decommissioned: 4 December 2009
Homeport: HMNB Devonport, Plymouth
Fate: Awaiting Disposal
Badge: File:HMS Trafalgar Crest.jpg
General characteristics [1]
Class & type: Trafalgar-class submarine
Displacement: Surfaced: 4,740 tons
Dived: 5,208 tons
Length: 280.1 ft (85.4 m)
Beam: 32.1 ft (9.8 m)
Draught: 31.2 ft (9.5 m)
Installed power: 15,000 shp (11 MW)
Propulsion:

Single Rolls Royce PWR1 nuclear reactor driving

  • 2 x GEC steam turbines
  • 2 x W.H. Allen turbo generators; 3.2 MW
  • 2 x Paxman diesel alternators 2,800 shp (2.1 MW)
Speed: Dived: 32 knots (59 km/h)
Complement: 18 officers
112 enlisted
Sensors and
processing systems:
  • Ferranti/Gresham Dowty DCB/DCG or BAE Systems SMCS data system
  • Type 2072 hull-mounted flank array passive sonar
  • Plessey Type 2020 or Marconi/Plessey Type 2074 hull-mounted active and passive search and attack sonar
  • Ferranti Type 2046 or TUS 2076 towed array passive search sonar
  • Thomson Sintra Type 2019 PARIS or Thorn EMI 2082 passive intercept and ranging sonar
  • Marconi Type 2077 short range active classification sonar
  • Kelvin Hughes Type 1007 I band navigation radar
  • Pilkington Optronics CK34 search periscope
  • Pilkington Optronics CH84/CM010 attack periscope
Electronic warfare
& decoys:
  • 2 × SSE Mk 8 launchers for Type 2066 and Type 2071 torpedo decoys
  • RESM Racal UAP passive intercept
  • CESM Outfit CXA
  • SAWCS decoys carried from 2002
  • Armament:
  • 5 x 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
  • Space for a combination of 30 weapons
  • Current weapons:

    Decommissioned weapons:

    Service record
    Operations: Operation Veritas (Afghanistan)

    HMS Trafalgar is a decommissioned Trafalgar-class submarine of the Royal Navy. Unlike the rest of the Trafalgar-class boats that followed, she was not launched with a pump jet propulsion system, but with a conventional 7-bladed propeller.[2] Trafalgar was the fifth vessel of the Royal Navy to bear the name, after the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar.

    Operational history[]

    Combat history[]

    After Operation Veritas, the attack on Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces following the 9/11 attacks in the United States, Trafalgar entered Plymouth Sound flying the Jolly Roger on 1 March 2002. She was welcomed back by Admiral Sir Alan West, Commander-in-Chief of the fleet and it emerged she was the first Royal Navy submarine to launch tomahawk cruise missiles against Afghanistan.[3]

    Grounding incidents[]

    In July 1996, Trafalgar grounded near the Isle of Skye in Scotland.[4]

    In November 2002, Trafalgar again ran aground close to the Isle of Skye, causing £5 million worth of damage to her hull and injuring three sailors. She was travelling 50 metres below the surface at more than 14 knots when Lieutenant-Commander Tim Green, a student in the "Perisher" course for new submarine commanders, ordered a course change that took her onto the rocks at Fladda-chuain, a small but well-charted islet. Commander Robert Fancy, responsible for navigation, and Commander Ian McGhie, an instructor, both pleaded guilty at court-martial to contributing to the accident. On 9 March 2004 the court reprimanded both for negligence. Green was not prosecuted, but received an administrative censure.[5]

    In May 2008 it was reported that the crash was caused by the chart being used in the exercise being covered with tracing paper, to prevent students marking it.[6]

    In fiction[]

    Trafalgar is featured in the novel Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy, in which the submarine is sunk by a Soviet mine.[citation needed]

    Decommissioning[]

    Trafalgar was decommissioned on 4 December 2009 at Devonport.[7]

    References[]

    1. Jane's Fighting Ships, 2004-2005. Jane's Information Group Limited. p. 796. ISBN 0-7106-2623-1.
    2. Graham, Ian, Attack Submarine, Gloucester Publishing, Oct 1989, page 12. ISBN 978-0-531-17156-1
    3. Trafalgar Returns[dead link]
    4. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm101102/text/101102w0001.htm#10110298000032
    5. Daily Record
    6. Guardian report
    7. BBC News Submarine's final sailing to base

    External links[]


    All or a portion of this article consists of text from Wikipedia, and is therefore Creative Commons Licensed under GFDL.
    The original article can be found at HMS Trafalgar (S107) and the edit history here.