DS Writes to Defence Committee with serious concerns over RN Astute SSN availability
RN Astute Scotland 2021
Royal Navy SSN Availability – DefenceSynergia Letter to The Chairman of the Defence Committee
DefenceSynergia has been so concerned regarding the UK’s lack of SSN availability we have written to the Chairman of the House of Commons Defence Committee, yet again, to seek answers. To that end some of the points we raised can be read below. For clarity, the letter concerned was dated 29 July 2026.
It is being reported to DefenceSynergia (DS) that no RN SSN has deployed in at least 2 months.
HMS Anson returned from Australia [having left around January] and after she re-deployed to the Arabian Sea. HMS Ambush has been laid up and non-active for circa 4 years - DS believes she has been 'store robbed' over the period to keep others SSN going. HMS Artful has not been at sea for circa 3 years and is alleged to be "regenerating".
HMS Agamemnon is still at Barrow conducting pre-seagoing trials which seem never ending! HMS Achilles (ex Agincourt, ex Ajax) now holds the dubious record for the longest RN submarine construction in history.
We in DS have pointed out that RN SSN numbers have been impacted by the slow pace of build.
This SSN availability issue has then been exacerbated by long term Treasury funding restrictions that have resulted in reduced maintenance facilities such as floating docks as MOD Navy, it seems, drags its feet whilst wrestling with spending priorities because of a lack of funding overall. The second SSN dry dock refurbishment at Devonport is not slated to finish until next year!
Indeed, in DS we strongly believe that decades of poor planning and management of the hulls and maintenance facilities have all contributed.
It is unclear to DS how much damage the downplayed 2024 fire in the Astute build hall caused to HMS Achilles, if any?
How did the UK come to the point of not having a single SSN for 2 months or more and prior to that only having a single boat operating worldwide?
