Future of HMS Sovereign

The future of the oldest nuclear submarine in service in the Royal Navy is unclear, following a statement from the Armed Forces Minister on 15 December.

Mr Spellar had been asked which Swiftsure class submarines he expected to be in service next year and replied: "HMS Superb, HMS Sceptre and HMS Splendid are expected to be operational next year."

There has been extensive maintenance work going on on HMS Sovereign at Faslane for some time. The vessel had been in Rosyth for a very long refit from August 1992 to January 1997 which had cost £192 million. Cracks were found in its tail shaft during post refit trials and these were repaired at Rosyth in June 1998. The submarine was used for Perisher submarine commander training in June 1999 and May 2000. It has also taken part in exercises off the West coast of Scotland.

The former Defence Minister George Robertson had said that HMS Sovereign would not be decommissioned until 2005 (Hansard 27 July 1998).

The MoD has not given any indication so far of what will be happening to HMS Sovereign next year.

Of the remaining Swiftsure class submarines, HMS Spartan is in a refit at Rosyth which is expected to continue into 2001. There are serious reactor problems with HMS Superb, HMS Sceptre and HMS Splendid which means that they none of them are currently operational. The Minister's reply indicates that the MoD are hoping that these will all be repaired.