Defence Director

Astute Thinking

Rear Admiral Mark Anderson, Commander Operations Royal Navy, explains why an enduring sub surface capability is vital to the Royal Navy’s mission and future defence and security challenges

If we are in the business of putting global presence out into theatres at distance, then we need a nuclear submarine,” argues Rear Admiral Mark Anderson, Commander Operations Royal Navy (RN), a role he describes as his “day job” and which gives him, on behalf of the Commander in Chief, command of all fleet units: submarines, Royal Marines, ships and aircraft. He is also Rear Admiral Submarines, tribal chief of the fighting arm of the RN’s submarine service and as Commander Allied Submarines North Atlantic, operational commander for NATO submarines on Alliance duties.

The real benefit of submarines remains to the Rear Admiral’s mind, sea denial: “The ability to put a submarine in a piece of water is just so scary that it stops somebody doing what they might in that piece of water. Submarines look sinister; Astute looks very sinister and rightly so. If we can deny an aggressor’s ability to operate in a piece of water because they are concerned about the threat that lies underneath that water then we have already won.”

Ensuring that a nuclear subsurface capability remains in place requires the maintenance of a “drum beat” of production in the UK: “We need to sustain that industrial base to service that capability and it does cost a lot of money.”

Trials but not many tribulations

The RN’s latest submarine is Astute, with the first of class being delivered to the Navy for first of class trials shortly before Christmas, and the Navy now working their way through the wrapping paper, unpacking that box.

“These are the first submarine trials that we have done for around 17 years. We have a hugely impressive platform that is performing as well as we had expected and in some cases even better. However, if it was going absolutely swimmingly from the outset I would be suspicious. After that period of time, we have forgotten some of the skill sets about how you bring a brand new submarine – a very complicated platform in a complicated environment – into service, so we need to take it cautiously; these things will take time.”

Equally, RAdm Anderson states that the Astute and others in the class need to take their place in the active fleet to help maintain four submarines in a state of high readiness. When Astute does join the fleet, it will operate side by side with the Navy’s Trafalgar class fleet, offering the same global reach as its predecessor although in certain areas capabilities will be significantly enhanced.

“The Astutes will be much quieter,” explained RAdm Anderson. “Their ability to operate in waters where others are trying to find her will be much better. Astute will not require a midlife refuel so we can get more operating time out of each hull. Astute has a much bigger weapon outlay; about 50% bigger than the [legacy] Swiftsure and Trafalgar (S&T) class boats. She also has six torpedo tubes against their five, so her ability to contribute to Tomahawk land attack and to fight a campaign over a long period of time without needing to come back to rearm is significantly enhanced.”

Asymmetry

Astute brings with it key capabilities for the asymmetric fight too. Its design brings the RN’s submarine force back into the covert insertion game, a capability which has been built into the Astute design from the start. Each boat will have a lock in lock out capability, enabling swimmers to leave Astute while dived, a capability that has been unavailable in the recent past. This capability is in addition to the Chalfont dry deck hanger which can be fitted to the aft casing and designed to hold swimmer delivery vehicle for stand off insertion.

“What we had in the S&Ts was the ability to go in close and to surface to put people on the coast. Now we can bring the submarine in and keep it underwater continually while getting people in and out of the submarine, a capability we haven’t seen since we lost conventional submarines.”

Whatever the undoubted qualities of conventional submarines – they are very quiet and often carry the same sensor fleet as an attack submarine – unlike a nuclear submarine, they lack the ability to move at roughly 500 nautical miles a day. Conventional submarines’ element or certainly one of their greatest capabilities is their ability to operate quietly in the littoral, an environment very different from the oceangoing sea denial mission envisaged for the cold war era S&T boats, but one that has been in the forefront of Astute’s design.

RAdm Anderson outlined the Astute’s littoral mission: “In the littoral, our aim is to suppress and deny the ability for enemy submarines to operate in that water. That will always be an all arms business. It will be about helicopters, maritime patrol aircraft and 2087 sonar fitted frigates; but the submarine’s ability to go in there covertly, early to monitor activity, to do the indications of warning, to watch, listen and learn and to be ready to act when tensions rise, remains absolute. The fact that Astute is a big submarine doesn’t mean she can’t operate here in shallow water because she has all the sensors that would allow her to operate safely within that environment.”

The UK has considerable opportunity to test its abilities against the latest conventional submarines through NATO. One of RAdm Anderson’s three hats is that of Commander of Submarine’s North in NATO, responsible for submarines operating on the Alliance’s northern flank from Spain, round through to Norway. There is a small submarine headquarters, within the wider NATO maritime HQ at Northwood, which would take them under operational command in the case of a NATO-led submarine response.

Conventional co-operation

RAdm Anderson said: “We like this continual access to conventional submarines, which are one of the most difficult targets that we might have to counter. We work very closely with our Dutch, German and Norwegian colleagues to exercise in northern waters to practise our mutual skills.”

France is the only other nuclear submarine operator in Europe. RAdm Anderson said: “We work very closely together, exercising together with our French colleagues very regularly. In the AURIGA Exercise later this year, a major task group deployment off the east coast of the United States, we will take a French submarine within the UK Task Group.”

The RN also continues to explore an underwater, unmanned capability through a number of research and development strands, but RAdm Anderson explained that the technologies necessary to achieve this are only likely to mature in the same timescale as the future SSN, beyond Astute.

“What that means for the future SSN is that while it might be conducting its own tasks, it may be conducting a number of others simultaneously such as monitoring deployed underwater sensors that the submarine had previously laid, monitoring and controlling underwater, unmanned vehicles. Unmanned vehicles underwater are at a level of technology that make them interesting but not quite at a level of technology maturity that you can do really meaningful military tasks with them today. So tantalisingly close but we are not there yet.”

The Astute has experienced a number of well-publicised delays and cost overruns, receiving a fair amount of attention from the National Audit Office. This has demanded longer service lives for the legacy platforms it will replace. RAdm Anderson said: “With an ageing fleet that becomes more difficult. The average age of the SSN force is about 23 years. You get more arising defects in an older fleet which means that you get more shocks in the programme. We are having to work very hard to maintain the very high demand that there is for submarine activity from customers like PJHQ and some of the theatre commanders. We are able to do that with an ageing fleet because DE&S are very good at maintaining and supporting those submarines, and industry is working very hard to achieve the same aim.”

“If we are in areas of rising tension, the presence or threat of the presence of a submarine will stop or suppress enemy maritime activity as the task group approaches,” explained RAdm Anderson. “There are also roles in direct support of a maritime task group which allow the submarine to be an integral part of that task group’s protection, in the long field rather than underfoot, and to allow that task group to use it to deliver whatever the task group’s mission is. At that point we embark a specialist submarine command unit in the task groups which provides expert advice on submarine operations.”

What is only too clear is that RAdm Anderson is very happy to have his ASTUTE “Christmas present” at sea and he has plenty of important work for her when she joins the fleet. <<

Rear Admiral Mark Anderson, Commander Operations Royal Navy spoke to Adam Baddeley