Astute Class
In March 1997 the MoD announced that they were placing a £2000 million contract with GEC for the construction at Barrow of three Astute class nuclear powered hunter killer submarines to be named Astute, Ambush and Artful.
The Astute class are planned to replace the Swiftsure class when these reach the end of their life.
The planned in service date of the first submarine, Astute was reported in 1997 as being June 2005.
The long term plan is to build a total of five Astute class.