British Hunter Killer Submarine Emerges from Revamp

The Royal Navy nuclear-powered hunter killer submarine HMS Torbay has emerged from refit at Plymouth at the cutting edge of war-fighting and surveillance capability.

The Trafalgar Class submarine has been in a revalidated assisted maintenance period (RAMP) which has seen it upgraded and the nuclear power plant given a new lease of life.

Her Commanding Officer Cdr Andy Johns said: “Having completed an extensive period of maintenance in Devonport, my Ship’s Company and I are genuinely excited about the prospect of heading out to sea and getting the boat underwater for the first time in over two years.”

Although the submarine has been in harbour for over two years, this does not mean the crew has had an easy time, despite the common misconception that it is ‘easy being on a RAMP boat with early finishes and long weekenders’.

The crew of HMS Torbay will never again subscribe to these generally held beliefs as she comes to the end of an extremely busy period full of many challenges in one of the most technologically sophisticated single engineering projects.

HMS Torbay will shortly return to operational duties, ready to take on the busy schedule of a duty patrol submarine.

However, first they have to undertake weeks of training and assessment under the staff of Flag Officer Sea Training to ensure man and machine are working smoothly together and are able to undertake the full spectrum of operations they might be called upon to perform; including fighting fires, flooding or dealing with other battle damage.

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Press Release, March 26, 2014, Image: Royal Navy