The three Churchill class,[1] sometimes known as the Repeat Valiant-class submarines were nuclear-poweredfleet submarines which served with the Royal Navy from the 1970s until the early 1990s. The Churchill class was based on the older Valiant class, but featured many internal improvements.
The Churchills carried a crew of 103 and had a full load displacement of 4,900 tons whilst dived. They were 86.9 metres (285 ft 1 in) long, had a beam of 10.1 metres (33 ft 2 in) and a draught of 8.2 metres (26 ft 11 in). Their single pressurized water-cooled reactor supplied steam to two English Electric geared turbines, producing a total of 20,000 shaft horsepower (15,000 kW) for the single shaft and resulting in a maximum of 28 knots (52 km/h) submerged. Like all nuclear-powered submarines the Churchill class could remain submerged almost indefinitely, with supplies of food being the only limiting factor. One Kelvin Type 1006 surface-search radar was fitted. The ships were built with a Type 2001 sonar array, but this was replaced in the late 1970s with a Type 2020 array and a Type 2026 towed array. Weapons included Mk VIII torpedoes, Mk 24 Tigerfish torpedoes, and Sub-Harpoonanti-ship missiles. Six 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes fired from the bow.
HMS Churchill evaluated both the American Mark 48 torpedo and the UGM-84 Harpoon missile, though only the latter was adopted by the Royal Navy. She was decommissioned in 1990 and is laid up at Rosyth awaiting disposal.
In 1981 HMS Courageous became the first British submarine to carry the Sub-Harpoon missile. She was decommissioned in 1992 and is at Devonport Dockyard serving as a museum ship.
(a) Cammell Laird & Co (Shipbuilders and Engineers) Ltd, Birkenhead (b) Vickers Ltd, Engineering Group, Barrow-in-Furness (b) English Electric Co Ltd (turbines).[6]
HMS Conqueror was the most famous of the class, sinking the Argentinian cruiserARA General Belgrano during the 1982 Falklands War. She did not fire again during the war, but provided valuable help to the British task force by using her monitoring equipment to track Argentine aircraft departing the mainland. After the war Conqueror returned to Faslane; the sinking of General Belgrano had provoked controversy in Britain and Conqueror was criticised[by whom?] for flying the Jolly Roger on returning to port, as Royal Navy submarines customarily did on returning after scoring a kill.[citation needed] She is[update] the only nuclear-powered submarine of any nationality to have engaged an enemy ship with torpedoes. She was decommissioned in 1990 and as of 2010[update] is laid up at Devonport awaiting disposal. Conqueror's periscopes can be viewed at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport.[7]
^Hool, Jack, and Nutter, Keith, Damned Un-English Machines, a history of Barrow-built submarines, pub Tempus, 2003, ISBN0-7524-2781-4 page 177.
^"Unit cost, i.e. excluding cost of certain items (e.g. aircraft, First Outfits)." Text from Defences Estimates
^ abcDefence Estimates, 1971–72, page XII-81, Table V: List and particulars of new ships which have been accepted or are expected to be accepted into HM service during the Financial Year ended 31st March 1971
^ abcdefghijGardiner, Robert Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1947–1995, pub Conway Maritime Press, 1995, ISBN0-85177-605-1 page 530.
^ abcdefDefence Estimates, 1972–73, page XII-92, Table V: List and particulars of new ships which have been accepted or are expected to be accepted into HM service during the Financial Year ended 31st March 1971
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