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The most important operations carried out by Royal Navy submarines
since the Second World War are the nuclear deterrent patrols which
have maintained a constant strategic defence for the United Kingdom
since 1969. The objectives of each patrol are to remain undetected
and to be at constant readiness to receive orders and to fire
missiles at short notice. The highest standards of teamwork and
professionalism are therefore required and, as the submarines
are totally alone and self-supporting, the crews are virtually
in a state of war when at sea. From their base at Faslane on the
west coast of Scotland, Polaris boats executed an unbroken sequence
of 229 patrols between 1969 and 1996. The new Vanguard class submarines
now maintain the constant vigil. This role made a highly significant
contribution towards the continuation of peace during the political
and military hostility of the Cold War. As a result of the calmer
international climate of the 1990s, the 1998 Strategic Defence
Review decided that "readiness to fire" would
be relaxed to days rather than minutes. This has enabled crews
on patrol to undertake secondary tasks, such as equipment trials,
exercises with other vessels and oceanographic surveys, without
compromising security.
The Service's hunter/killer submarines, both conventionally and
nuclear powered, also played an important, and distinctly more
dangerous, role during the Cold War. The highly-secret tracking
and surveillance of the growing Soviet submarine fleet was usually
carried out under conditions of high tension and extreme risk,
given the possibilities of detection (with its inevitable damaging
diplomatic consequences), collision, breakdown or running aground
in hostile waters without any chance of rescue. However, British
submarines have proved to be remarkably successful in gathering
intelligence. In 2001, the five Swiftsure class boats were part
of the First Submarine Squadron based at Faslane and the seven
Trafalgar class boats were with the Second Submarine Squadron
at Devonport.
Submarines have continued to be in action since 1945. For clandestine
operations, Porpoise and Oberon class boats have been frequent
carriers of the Special Boat Service. Conqueror carried
out a special forces raid in the South Atlantic in 1982 and Special
Air Service units are rumoured to have been landed in the shallow
waters round Iraq and Kuwait during the Gulf War in 1991. More
conventionally, Splendid fired Tomahawk Cruise missiles
against land targets during the NATO bombardment of Kosovo in
1999.
But the most important engagement since the Second World War
was the Falklands Conflict of 1982. Four nuclear-powered boats,
Conqueror, Valiant, Spartan and Splendid
and one diesel-electric boat, Onyx took part in the British
campaign to restore sovereignty after the Argentinian invasion.
They had two main roles: to protect the surface fleet and to conduct
clandestine operations by landing special forces on the various
islands. The high underwater speed and powerful sonar facilities
enabled these "Fleet" submarines to patrol well ahead
of the task force as a shield when in transit to the south Atlantic
and then to adopt defensive positions around it on arrival. Such
a deployment was opportune as Spartan, first on station,
arrived in time to observe the Argentinians mining Port Stanley
harbour. The task force arrived in the British 200 mile radius
Total Exclusion Zone (TEZ) around the Falklands at the beginning
of May. It was threatened by three Argentinian naval groups north
west, west and south west of the islands, which included a light
aircraft carrier armed with Skyhawk strike aircraft and ships
armed with the formidable Exocet anti-ship missile. Two groups
were being shadowed by British submarines. Fearing a pincer attack,
Rear Admiral J.F. "Sandy" Woodward, the Task Force commander,
requested and received permission for a change in his rules of
engagement from the War Cabinet to enable him to attack the southern
Argentinian group of the cruiser General Belgrano and two
destroyers. As a result, at 6.57pm on 2 May, Conqueror
launched an attack on the Belgrano. Commander C.L. Wreford-Brown
fired a salvo of three Mk VIII 21-inch torpedoes, causing two
explosions. The ship sank within 45 minutes and 321 of the total
of 1,200 men on board were lost.
Conqueror's action was a brilliant strategic success because
it resulted in the withdrawal of the rest of the Argentinian fleet
which played no further effective part in the war. However, there
was also a wider historical relevance. Wreford-Brown had used
a modernised version of a torpedo which had been in service since
1927 and was almost identical to those used in the last British
submarine attack on a cruiser, the Japanese Ashigara, in
June 1945. It was not only the first time a nuclear powered submarine
had fired a shot in anger but also made the Conqueror unique
in being the only one to sink a warship in conflict.
See Images 21, 22 and 23 in the
Image Gallery.
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