For the first time in a decade, a Royal Navy submarine has operated under the Arctic ice. HMS Trenchant surfaced in the Beaufort Sea this week, joining two US Navy boats exercising submarine warfare skills under the polar ice cap.
Ice Exercise (ICEX) is held on a biennial basis and is run by the US Navy with participation from the RN and Canadian Navy. This year USS Connecticut and USS Hartford were joined by HMS Trenchant. The last RN submarine to participate in ICEX was HMS Tireless in 2007, although RN personnel have participated in recent such exercises. The Arctic region is increasingly becoming a focus of competition between the Russians and NATO nations. Since the Cold War, the Russians have used the Arctic as a bastion to hide their Ballistic missile submarines, while NATO has tried to develop skills to hunt and neutralise them. The mineral and hydrocarbons in the region have also attracted the Russians who have built a series of bases in the Arctic, expanded their fleet of icebreakers and claimed rights to large parts of the seabed.
In the wake of the attempted murder by agents of the Russian government of Sergei Skripal, relations between the UK and Russians are now at their worst since the early 1980s. Every possible demonstration of British and NATO resolve to contain Russia should be welcomed and ICEX is a timely reminder that the RN submarine force still has under-ice capability. Participation by a T-class submarine in a future ICEX was announced back in 2016 but at times last year, Trenchant’s participation must have seemed doubtful. The 6 active SSNs of the RN’s submarine force is holding on by a small margin but the institutional operating knowledge and experience do remain, should it be called upon. Despite being designed with the ability to do so, as yet no Astute class submarine has participated in an ICEX, although it must be assumed it is only a matter of time before they are deployed to the high North. There had been mounting concern that budget pressures meant that the 7th Astute class submarine might not be built. Fortunately, this disastrous possibility seems to have been averted and Defence Procurement Minister Guto Bebb has now promised the boat will be formally ordered before the end of March 2018. Against a backdrop of tensions with Russia, a major submarine power, 7 Astute class submarines is the bare minimum requirement.
A temporary ice camp (Camp Skate), home to over 100 personnel has been constructed on the ice shelf in the Beaufort Sea to support the exercise. Each ICEX has a significant scientific dimension, with the aim to gather environmental data about the ice itself and the waters below. Operating submarines under the ice create additional hazards. Not only are options for surfacing in an emergency greatly reduced, but acoustic and sonar conditions are very different to the open sea. The underside of the ice shelf is not flat with ice ‘fingers’ that extend downward, presenting an obstacle for submarines that must rely on specially developed echo-sounders for navigation and to locate thinner ice under which it is safe to surface.
Related articles
- The nuclear sub challenging Russia in the Arctic (CNN Video)
- Arctic Submarine Laboratory (Facebook Page)
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Glad to hear about boat 7.
With rising tensions, would a batch 2 be within the realms of possibility?
How about ordering boat 8 and another 8 diesel powered patrol subs to
round things out. Once again fantasy Navy I guess.
BAE & Barrow does not have the capacity to build any more Astute boats at the same time as working on the new Dreadnought SSBNs
How much would it cost to double up production rate at Barrow or elsewhere? Why not pre-assemble elsewhere and ship in the sections? U boats constructed that way.
You can’t just double up production rate, every person who works there is a highly skilled specialist that take years to learn their trade and there are only so many of them
Britain has no claims to the undersea resources in the Arctic. We handed over our claim to the Canadians, who are situated on the continental shelf. So, while we should train crew to combat Russian subs, I’m less keen on opening another front with Russia.
I hope the police, security services and Whitehall departments get more resources as a result of the Salisbury attack. We need to secure our borders and airports. However, I can’t really see the Russian threat leading to justification for more money for the navy.
As the Lithuanian Fireign Minister stated, Russia views the UK as weak due to Brexit and consequentbisokation. Luton is testing us and our allies. So we need to put more emphasis on diplomacy and stopping Oligarchs using the UK as a playground and financial centre fir their ill gotten gains. Corbin, despite his Russophilia, is not completely wrong to hold the Tories to account for their acceptance of Russian donations.
Of course “you’re not keen on opening another front with Russia” you’re paid by them!
Here we go again! Bore off……………
In years gone by people who committed treason had their heads cut off and stuck on stakes on London Bridge. Fortunately today we live in more civilised times but that doesn’t make it any less acceptable.
Just because he’s wrong doesn’t make his opinion any less valid, nor does it make it treasonous. Unless we’ve somehow become some sort of authoritarian stratocracy without me noticing.
He is wrong though.
It is that sort of moral relativism which has got this nation in the state we’re in now. If you want further guidance as to what is or isn’t treasonous I suggest you read some of the other comments on this website. As for authoritariansim, we do not live in a free speech society, no.
What I wrote above is hard nosed realism rather than relativism or treason.
Is it a conicidence that we are undergoing difficult Brexit negotiations and the Russians try this blatant attack to test us and our allies reactions?
Resources should be allocated to the most appropriate departments. This means the Home Office, Police and the security services in order to detect and thwart future Russian troublemaking. The navy would not have prevented Salisbury.
The RN works as part of NATO. It is not expected to do single combat with Russia. Therefore, the current fleet is adequate. My God man, the country can’t afford elderly care, NHS funding or maintain a functioning transport train network. We can I’ll afford a fleet which allows us to ‘project power’ for another Iraq 2.0. Joe public just won’t stomach any substantial increases in the defence budget.
Did I hear you say – “the current fleet is adequate”????????????????
What type of hard nosed realism is this???
Battlecruiser mania. You guys designed this unbalanced fleet.Spend way beyond our means on 2 useless fleet carriers and ludicrously expensive F35b .Commit the future defence budget to this,loads of PFIs and then moan.Thats why there aren’t enough submarines ,no helicopter landing ship and no missiles on the carriers .
nope, need to get your priorities straight.
“7 Astute class submarines is the bare minimum requirement”
I think 10 SSN would be a bare minimum requirement and that ideally there should be 12.
I appreciate the personnel and financial pressures need to be addressed first.
Was an eighth Astute offered at a knock down price at one stage?
Assuming that we want to avoid the NEXT generation of subs being halved in number by 50% due to greater technical complexity, I presume that the equivalent of 12 Astutes (7 next gen subs) may be necessary. Quite how we’d find the money is anyone’s guess, but hey ho.
As always with the Navy recruitment and retention are the number one priority. If this problem isn’t solved the Navy will have to be much smaller in 10 years.