Delivery of the Royal Navy’s second Astute Class submarine is on course as Ambush takes shape at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. The most recent stage of the build at the BAE Systems shipyard was to lift the 76-tonne bridge fin onto the hull of the submarine.

Due to be launched in June 2009, Ambush, whose very apt motto is ‘Hide and seek’, will join its sister-ship and first in class, Astute, at Her Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde which the submarine and its company will make their home.

The Astute Class submarines are built using a modular process, by which key elements of the submarine are built and tested outside the hull and then shipped into the hull on a ‘plug and play’ basis. The bridge fin shipping worked on the same principle with much of the internal fit out of pipes and cables carried out in a special manufacturing area of the Devonshire Dock Hall before being shipped onto the submarine hull.

Nuclear-powered attack submarines are the heart of the Royal Navy force structure. They have a wide variety of roles and are capable of deployment either as an integrated layer of defence within a Task Force or independently in advance of such a force.

The Astute Class will provide the Royal Navy with the means to support this policy well into the 21st century. They are planned to have improved communications facilities to support joint operations and enhanced capability to operate in the littoral compared with previous classes.