On a serious point surely one of our own attack submarines would be out sniffing for other submarines looking to identify, track and ultimately kill our deterrent submarine. So we are saying that the USN boat has to identify and "defeat" one of it's own + any other anti submarine vehicles we can operate in the area BEFORE it can then identify and then track the missile sub. Sounds hard work to me.
There is a new TV documentary series showing in the UK on channel 5 ( not great quality programmes but harmless) shot on board HMS Trenchant which is a Trafalgar-class nuclear-powered hunter killer. It might be of interest.
Trenchant must be the oldest submarine in the RN fleet.
HMS
Trenchant was doing that
exact mission in that series. She had to leave it, but another platform took over. By her mere presence in the area,
Trenchant would drown out the
Vanguard class.
It is worth watching to see how a real sub operates, rather than the fantasy of
Vigil. Naval Twitter, btw, has been wetting itself with laughter at the series. There has been a suggestion that it might have been written by the
Lazy Writers from
That Mitchell and Well Look. 🤣
And i'd not be surprised if the USN didn't send its subs out to try and find other NATO subs, we know there was an incident a few years back when a RN sub collided with a French SSBN that it was shadowing, and getting training in on. The USN would probably do the same and the RN also probably goes out to try and find an Ohio or something to give their crews and equipment a real challenge.
That wasn't the case. What happened, from what I have read, is that neither the MN, or RN missile boat heard the other. Which is why they collided. American, British and French missile boats are so quiet that they are, for practical purposes, undetectable. They are
quieter than the ocean itself.
Unless spending cuts and/or accidents meant neither were available when Vigil had to sail?
The nuclear detterent is the
Number One defence priority in the UK. There is full back-up in terms of assets to protect the
Vanguard boats when they sail and when they are at sea. As, observed above, when
Trenchant experienced an engineering casualty that forced her off the task of providing distant escort for a V-bomber,
another platform took over. The MoD will gap capabilities elsewhere, but never,
never on the detterent. If an escort sub, or Type 23 is unavailable to escort a
Vanguard class to sea, the sailing would be delayed. The change over between boats is staggered to take into account that there may be delayed.
The RN always has at least
one bomber at sea. However, it is common to have two at sea, because it's not a case of one in, one out.