Name HMS Talent Laid down 13 May 1986 Commissioned 12 May 1990 Construction started 13 May 1986 Draft 9.5 m | Ordered 10 September 1984 Sponsored by The Princess Royal Length 85 m Launched 15 April 1988 Beam 9.78 m | |
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Homeport HMNB Devonport, Plymouth Builder Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering | ||
HMS Talent is the sixth of seven Trafalgar-class nuclear submarines of the Royal Navy, and was built at Barrow-in-Furness. Talent was launched by The Princess Royal in April 1988 and commissioned in May 1990. She was the last submarine to be launched down a slipway.. The boat is affiliated with Shrewsbury in Shropshire. Talent is the third submarine of the Royal Navy to bear the name. The first was the World War II Talent, a T-class submarine transferred to the Royal Netherlands Navy as RNLMS Zwaardvisch in 1943.
Talent is due to move to Her Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde by 2020.
Talent is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2021 and will be replaced by one of the new Astute-class submarines.
Operational history
Talent undertook a refit at her base port in HMNB Devonport and in March 2007 rejoined the active fleet, following a £386 million upgrade. She has been given a new reactor core and has been equipped with a new sonar suite, Sonar 2076. Sonar 2076 has the power equivalent to approximately 400 PCs and can precisely track the movement of small objects from hundreds of miles away. The Royal Navy describe Sonar 2076 as the most advanced sonar in service with any navy in the world. She has also been given the ability to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles.
On 6 August 2013, she returned to Plymouth after a 3-month deployment. In October 2013, she conducted an anti-submarine exercise with HMS Dragon (D35), USS Gravely (DDG-107), USS Stout (DDG-55) and USS Barry (DDG-52).
In 2009, she suffered loss of primary and alternative power supplies to her nuclear reactors.
She was reported in April 2015 to have struck ice some time in 2014 while tracking Russian vessels. This resulted in an estimated £500,000 worth of damages including a 6 ft dent at the top of her conning tower and damage to her outer layer of acoustic tiles.
