The Royal Navy is set to deploy its £1.3billion ‘hunter-killer’ submarine following weapons tests in the Atlantic and a visit to the US’s seafaring ‘Area 51’.
The HMS Anson is the fifth addition to the Navy’s Astute-class of nuclear-powered vessels, which can circumnavigate the globe completely submerged beneath the waves, and is the most advanced yet.
Capable of launching long-range Tomahawk missiles to hit land targets as well as Spearfish torpedoes to beat enemy subs. the Astute-class is also the the largest in the underwater fleet.
HMS Anson conducted trials off the east coast of the United States and in the Caribbean Sea, putting these capabilities to the test alongside her state-of-the-art systems.
Anson joins her operational sisters: Astute, Ambush, Artful and Audacious in the impressive class.
The sub will undergo further vigorous tests before being officially deployed on military operations. Since leaving its shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness in February 2024, Anson has patrolled the UK coastline before sailing further north of Scotland to test her weapons systems.
The Royal Navy describes these drills as consisting of “successful firings of both Spearfish and Tomahawk test missiles” before matters “intensified into the Atlantic as Anson headed to the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC) in the waters around the Bahamas.”
AUTEC, located next to the natural wonder, the Tongue of the Ocean, a huge deep-water bowl carved out of coral reef, sees world-leading military tech experts congregate.
The base has been described as the US Navy’s ‘Area 51’, owing to the secrecy of operations conducted there – the base was also featured on a History Channel’s TV show UFO Hunters, billed as being a secret alien underwater lair of sorts.
In reality, the base is 20 miles wide, 150 miles long, some 6,000ft deep in places and crammed with recording equipment to gather performance data on submarines, torpedoes or sonar.
The exact results of Anson’s tests aren’t public, but the submarine will need to score highly to ensure she can hunt adversary submarines without detection. But, it wasn’t all work for her crew.
“The opportunity for the majority of the Ship’s Company to get to spend a few days on Andros was fantastic,” a submariner explained, describing the trip.
“This afforded us a few days of rest from the sea trials we were conducting and allowed us to spend time on the beach in the sun, relaxing and playing volleyball with base personnel.”
