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Of the 5 Astute-class SSNs currently in Royal Navy service, not a single one is currently available for tasking:
HMS Audacious - arrived in Devonport in April 2023 in need of docking. Unconfirmed reports suggest she suffered damage of some sort during her patrol in the Mediterranean in late 2022. After 22 months of waiting for the refurbishment of the facility to be completed, she entered number 15 dry dock in February 2025. Departure from dry dock is a positive step, but it’s unclear how long before she will be ready to return to sea.
HMS Anson - is the only boat to have sailed recently and arrived in Devonport on 27 May. She returned early from an AUKUS deployment to Australia, sailing home at short notice as the US-Iran conflict flared, and is thought to have spent time positioned in the Arabian Sea before arriving back. Simpler maintenance is usually undertaken at the operating base in Faslane, while boats come to Devonport only for more major docking. It is unknown how long her maintenance may take and if she is in the queue for the dry dock.
HMS Astute - the oldest boat in the class, arrived in Devonport for Mid Life Re-Validation Period (MLRP) on 30 June 2025 which is expected to take several years. Although some preliminary work has been started while afloat, she has been awaiting number 15 dry dock to become available.
HMS Ambush - has been out of action the longest. She last put to sea in August 2022, almost four years ago, and remains in very low readiness at Faslane, having been partially storerobbed to provide spares for other boats.
HMS Artful - last sailed around May 2023, just over three years ago. It was thought she was the boat closest to returning to service, but this is unconfirmed and she remains at Faslane.
HMS Agamemnon - the sixth boat, was formally commissioned in the shipyard in September 2025. A parliamentary answer this week confirmed she is due to be handed over to the RN by the end of 2026, at which point she is expected to depart Barrow and commence sea trials (**first commissioning, then sea trials??**)
HMS Achilles - the seventh & final boat of the class, is officially described as being in “an advanced stage of build” but her in-service date has been continually pushed back, and the MoD refuses to give even an estimate, now claiming “disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability, effectiveness, or security of the Armed Forces”. No official information is available, but it is believed she was damaged in the fire at Barrow in October 2024, which blazed for 15 hours, although how seriously is unknown.
www.navylookout.com
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My comment: It is NOT normal for all boats in a 5-hull fleet to be in dock at the same time. Especially a fleet that carries strategic importance like the SSNs, in a Navy that's been operating nuclear-powered boats for several decades at this point.
I'm left to wonder if this is down to the reactor problems they've been having. PWR2 is the first naval reactor that's supposedly UK-designed (earlier PWR1 was directly derived from US designs). If I was a betting man, I'd say that while they may have absorbed plenty of 'know-how' from the Americans, the level of their 'know-why' knowledge might still be nascent. And I think that's what is showing.
Just as well, considering they're going back to seeking direct US assistance for the upcoming PWR3 (publicly known to be derived from the Virginia-class's S9G), meant for Dreadnought-class & SSN-AUKUS. So it seems they've abandoned trying to acquire that know-why through iterative R&D, probably due to cost reasons. Otherwise they wouldn't be taking that step back after already designing their own reactor once.
HMS Audacious - arrived in Devonport in April 2023 in need of docking. Unconfirmed reports suggest she suffered damage of some sort during her patrol in the Mediterranean in late 2022. After 22 months of waiting for the refurbishment of the facility to be completed, she entered number 15 dry dock in February 2025. Departure from dry dock is a positive step, but it’s unclear how long before she will be ready to return to sea.
HMS Anson - is the only boat to have sailed recently and arrived in Devonport on 27 May. She returned early from an AUKUS deployment to Australia, sailing home at short notice as the US-Iran conflict flared, and is thought to have spent time positioned in the Arabian Sea before arriving back. Simpler maintenance is usually undertaken at the operating base in Faslane, while boats come to Devonport only for more major docking. It is unknown how long her maintenance may take and if she is in the queue for the dry dock.
HMS Astute - the oldest boat in the class, arrived in Devonport for Mid Life Re-Validation Period (MLRP) on 30 June 2025 which is expected to take several years. Although some preliminary work has been started while afloat, she has been awaiting number 15 dry dock to become available.
HMS Ambush - has been out of action the longest. She last put to sea in August 2022, almost four years ago, and remains in very low readiness at Faslane, having been partially storerobbed to provide spares for other boats.
HMS Artful - last sailed around May 2023, just over three years ago. It was thought she was the boat closest to returning to service, but this is unconfirmed and she remains at Faslane.
HMS Agamemnon - the sixth boat, was formally commissioned in the shipyard in September 2025. A parliamentary answer this week confirmed she is due to be handed over to the RN by the end of 2026, at which point she is expected to depart Barrow and commence sea trials (**first commissioning, then sea trials??**)
HMS Achilles - the seventh & final boat of the class, is officially described as being in “an advanced stage of build” but her in-service date has been continually pushed back, and the MoD refuses to give even an estimate, now claiming “disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability, effectiveness, or security of the Armed Forces”. No official information is available, but it is believed she was damaged in the fire at Barrow in October 2024, which blazed for 15 hours, although how seriously is unknown.
Royal Navy attack submarine fleet update – all boats alongside - Navy Lookout
HMS Audacious is scheduled to come out of dry dock in Devonport today. This should be an unremarkable routine activity but its significance shows how much dock infrastructure has impacted the readiness of the submarine force. At the time of writing, none of the Royal Navy's Astute-class SSNs are...
www.navylookout.com
====
My comment: It is NOT normal for all boats in a 5-hull fleet to be in dock at the same time. Especially a fleet that carries strategic importance like the SSNs, in a Navy that's been operating nuclear-powered boats for several decades at this point.
I'm left to wonder if this is down to the reactor problems they've been having. PWR2 is the first naval reactor that's supposedly UK-designed (earlier PWR1 was directly derived from US designs). If I was a betting man, I'd say that while they may have absorbed plenty of 'know-how' from the Americans, the level of their 'know-why' knowledge might still be nascent. And I think that's what is showing.
Just as well, considering they're going back to seeking direct US assistance for the upcoming PWR3 (publicly known to be derived from the Virginia-class's S9G), meant for Dreadnought-class & SSN-AUKUS. So it seems they've abandoned trying to acquire that know-why through iterative R&D, probably due to cost reasons. Otherwise they wouldn't be taking that step back after already designing their own reactor once.
