HMS Tireless to Be Decommissioned

The Royal UK Navy nuclear-powered submarine HMS Tireless is due to be officially retired from active service at a ceremony in Plymouth on Thursday (June 19).

The nuclear-powered Trafalgar Class submarine returned to her base-port of Devonport, in Plymouth, for the last time on June 1 before decommissioning after nearly 30 years of service.

The submarine is the longest serving nuclear-powered hunter killer submarine in the Royal Navy and spent her final 11-month operation in the Indian Ocean and east of Suez. The patrol included a search for the missing Malaysian airliner using her sonar. She gives way now to the new world-beating Astute Class and replaced by HMS Artful.

HMS Tireless originally operated as one of the Cold War warriors, out of sight and mind as she deployed for long, secret and often dangerous missions out into the Atlantic patrolling for months at a time searching for and stalking her enemies.

Renowned for her stealth and many successes she enjoys a strong reputation to this day, as demonstrated by recently completing the first deployment by a Royal Navy nuclear powered submarine to Australia in seven years after assisting in the search for the Malaysian airliner.

The submarine has been deployed under the ice to the North Pole, East of Suez, Atlantic, Mediterranean and taken part in supporting submarine command courses and taken part in a number of varied operations. Places visited include India and Australia.

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Press Release, June 18, 2014; Image: UK Navy