HMS Warspite (S103)
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | |
| Laid down: | |
| Launched: | 25 September 1965 |
| Commissioned: | 18 April 1967 |
| Decommissioned: | 1991 |
| Fate: | |
| Struck: | |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 4,200 tons surfaced, 4,900 tons dived |
| Length: | 285.7 ft (87 m) |
| Beam: | 33.3 ft (10.1 m) |
| Draught: | 27 ft (8.2 m) |
| Propulsion: | One Rolls-Royce Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR1), two English Electric steam turbines, one shaft, 15000 hp (11 MW), one Paxman diesel-electric generator |
| Speed: | 20 knots (37 km/h) surfaced, 28 knots (52 km/h) dived. |
| Range: | Limited by food for crew. |
| Complement: | 116 |
| Armament: | 6 x 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes (All located at the bow. 24 torpedoes in total)
Was later equipped with RNSH Harpoon (RN version of underwater launched cruise missile). Tigerfish and Spearfish. Main Sonar system 2001. |
The latest HMS Warspite was the third of Britain's nuclear-powered submarines, and the second (and final) of the Valiant class. She was launched on 25 September 1965 by the wife of the then British Prime Minister Harold Wilson, and entered service 18 April 1967.
In October 1968, Warspite rather embarrassingly collided with a Russian Echo 2 submarine it had been shadowing in the Barents Sea, causing serious damage to its large central fin. The cover story, put out in The Times of Sunday October 19, claimed that she had in fact hit an iceberg. She made her way first to Lerwick, where a carpentry team overnight hastily erected a scaffold over the central fin and covered it with a black tarpaulin, so that on the following day, any spotter planes flying overhead would not see any apparent damage to the vessel. She was then towed to Faslane and subsequently to Barrow, to have her fin replaced with that from her sister ship, Churchill.
Warspite also suffered a serious fire whilst in Liverpool, England, 2 May 1976 caused by a broken coupling spraying oil. Repairs and refitting took two years. She subsequently took part in the Falklands War, and was decommissioned in 1991 following the discovery of hairline cracks in the primary coolant circuit during a refit. Mainly operated out of HMNB Faslane, Clyde Submarine base with SM2. Her hull and reactor are currently laid up afloat at Devonport Dockyard, Plymouth, Devon until facilities are available for the long term storage of her radioactive components.
See HMS Warspite for other ships of this name.
| Valiant-class submarine |
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Valiant | Warspite |
| List of submarines of the Royal Navy List of submarine classes of the Royal Navy |
