The crew of Plymouth-based Royal Navy submarine HMS Trenchant is preparing for life at sea after a refit – by training on land!
HMS Trenchant may still be alongside in Devonport Naval Base with her engineers busy finishing the final stages of her maintenance period – but that has not stopped the command team moving onto planning for going to sea and rejoining the operational fleet.
For three weeks the team have been hard at work in the ‘Talisman’ submarine control room simulator in Devonport. They passed this aspect of tactical simulation training, allowing the team to fire training torpedoes at the British Underwater Test and Evaluation Centre (BUTEC) during their forthcoming work-up later this year.
Highlighting this milestone Commander Rob Watts, Commanding Officer HMS Trenchant said: “This is an important step in achieving full operational capability. The team have performed well and look forward to demonstrating their skills with live weapons at BUTEC later this year.”
The realistic training ensures the crew are safe to operate the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile weapon system and can effectively use the Spearfish torpedo against surface and sub-surface targets.
Tough training in the simulator tested the crew’s ability to operate in busy inshore shipping areas with large merchant vessels, to small fishing vessels, high speed ferries to warships, submarines and military aircraft. The team ultimately successfully pulled together to remain safe, minimise risk of counter-detection and achieved their operational aim.
The reward of all this hard work led to the Flag Officer Sea Training organisation designating the submariners safe in all respects in the final assessment.
The next stage in training is embarking the torpedoes and missiles to demonstrate this valuable capability at sea before HMS Trenchant is welcomed back to the Fleet as a fully operational submarine.
