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 HMS Tireless (S88) at the North Pole |
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| Career (UK) |  |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | 5 July 1979 |
| Laid down: | 6 June 1981 |
| Launched: | 17 March 1984 |
| Commissioned: | 5 October 1985 |
| Fate: | Active |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | Surfaced: 4,740 tons Dived: 5,208 tons |
| Length: | 280.1 ft (85.4 m) |
| Beam: | 32.1 ft (9.8 m) |
| Draught: | 31.2 ft (9.5 m) |
| Propulsion: | Rolls-Royce PWR1 nuclear reactor 2 × GEC turbines 1 × shaft pump jet 15,000 hp (11 MW) motor for emergency drive emergency retractable propellor 2 × W H Allen turbo generators 2 MW 2 × Paxman diesel alternators 2,800 hp (2.1 MW) |
| Speed: | Dived: 32 knots (59 km/h) |
| Complement: | 18 officers 112 enlisted |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
Ferranti/Gresham Dowty DCB/DCG Type 2072 hull-mounted flank array passive sonar Plessey Type 2020 or Marconi/Plessey Type 2074 hull-mounted active and passive search and attack sonar Ferranti Type 2046 towed array passive search sonar Thomson Sintra Type 2019 PARIS or Thorn EMI 2082 passive intercept and ranging sonar Marconi Type 2077 short range active classification sonar Kelvin Hughes Type 1007 I band navigation radar Pilkington Optronics CK34 search periscope Pilkington Optronics CH84/CM010 attack periscope BAE Systems SMCS from January 1999 Type 2074 sonar from January 1999 |
| Electronic warfare and decoys: |
2 × SSE Mk8 launchers for Type 2066 and Type 2071 torpedo decoys RESM Racal UAP passive intercept CESM Outfit CXA SAWCS decoys from 2002 |
| Armament: | 5 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes Spearfish torpedoes (originally Tigerfish torpedoes) with 20 reloads UGM-84 Harpoon submarine-launched cruise missile Mines Spearfish from January 1999 UGM-109 Tomahawk scheduled for 2006 |
HMS Tireless (S88), a Trafalgar class submarine, is the second submarine of the Royal Navy to bear this name. She was launched in March 1984, sponsored by Mrs Sue Squires, wife of Admiral 'Tubby' Squires, and commissioned in October 1985.
Over the next six years, Tireless completed numerous exercises and visits around the world, including a trip to the Arctic in 1991. In early 1996, she entered refit and returned to sea in 1999.
On 12 May 2000, Tireless detected a slow loss of reactor coolant, and put into the port of Gibraltar for what was hoped would be quick repairs to a minor crack in a coolant pipe. However, the damage was found to be more extensive than was first hoped, and the boat remained at Gibraltar, creating diplomatic tensions between Spain and Britain, until she left on 2 May 2001, nearly a year later following extensive repairs.1 During that year, all Trafalgar-class submarines were inspected for similar problems.
On 19 April 2004, Tireless and USS Hampton (SSN-767) rendezvoused under the Arctic ice and surfaced together at the North Pole.
Tireless again angered Spain in 2004 when the boat put into Gibraltar from 9 July to 15 July for what were explained as "technical reasons." Britain assured Spain that the port call was unrelated to the British celebrations, on 21 July, of the 300th anniversary of the capture of Gibraltar from Spain.
March 2007 explosion
On 21 March 2007, two Tireless crew members, Leading Operator Mechanic Paul McCann and Operator Maintainer (Weapons Submariner) 2 Anthony Huntrod, were killed in an explosion onboard, apparently caused by an oxygen generator candle in the forward section of the submarine. The submarine was in service near the North Pole under ICEX07 along with the USS Alexandria (SSN-757) and had to make an emergency surface through the ice cap. A third crewmember who suffered "non life-threatening" injuries was airlifted to a military hospital at Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage, Alaska and was expected to make a full recovery. According to the Royal Navy, the accident did not affect the ship's nuclear reactor, and the ship sustained only superficial damage. Part of the exercise was being used to measure ice thickness by using sonar. 23 The film Stargate: Continuum—which was filming on the ice and in the Alexandria during the exercise—was dedicated to McCann and Huntrod.
References
- ^ "Forensic Assessments of the Nuclear Propulsion Plants of the Submarines HMS Tireless and RF Northern Fleet Kursk" (PDF) (March 2005).
- ^ "Oxygen device sparked sub blast", BBC News. Retrieved on 22 March 2007.
- ^ "2 sailors killed in UK nuclear submarine accident". CNN. Retrieved on 2007-03-22.
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