Trafalgar class submarine
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Trafalgar_class_submarine.JPG
The Trafalgar class submarines are, until the introduction of the Astute class, the Royal Navy's most advanced nuclear fleet submarines (SSNs).
The Trafalgar class includes seven boats: Trafalgar (S107), Turbulent (S87), Tireless (S88), Torbay (S90), Trenchant (S91), Talent (S92), and Triumph (S93). It is an attack submarine and is essentially a refinement of the Swiftsure class, designed six years later than its predecessor. The first Trafalgar class submarine was completed in 1983.
The major improvements include a new reactor core and the Type 2020 sonar. Internal layout is near identical to the Swiftsure and it is only 2½ metres longer.
Rather than the seven-bladed propeller used by the Swiftsures, Trafalgar class submarines use pump-jet propulsion - a high pitch, low-revolution propellor which is much quieter but much heavier than conventional propeller designs. Development of this system was not complete in time for installation in the class's name-ship vessel, HMS Trafalgar, and so the pump-jet was first used in the second in the class, HMS Turbulent.
General Characteristics
- Builder: Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd
- Displacement: 4,750 tons surfaced, 5,208 tons submerged
- Length: 85.4 meters
- Beam: 9.8 meters
- Draught: 9.5 meters
- Complement: 18 officers, 112 ratings
- Propulsion: 1 x pressurized water cooled nuclear reactor delivering 15,000 shp for 30 kt max
- Armament: five tubes capable of firing:
- Spearfish torpedoes
- Tigerfish torpedoes
- Harpoon missiles
- Tomahawk missiles (Trafalgar and Triumph only)
- Sensors:
- sonar (bow, flank, active intercept, and towed arrays)
- periscopes (attack and search)
- collision avoidance radar
| Trafalgar-class submarine |
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Trafalgar | Turbulent | Tireless | Torbay | Trenchant | Talent | Triumph |
| List of submarines of the Royal Navy List of submarine classes of the Royal Navy |