Built as nuclear attack submarine under yard No 1108 by Vickers Shipbuilding & Engineering Ltd., Barrow for the Royal Navy.
03 July 1986 ordered.
02 February 1987 launched as HMS TRIUMPH, the launching ceremony was performed by Mrs. Ann Hamilton, wife of the then Armed Forces Minister Archie Hamilton.
She is one of the Trafalgar Class, of which seven were built; she was the last boat of her class.
Displacement 4.740 ton surfaced, 5.300 tons submerged. Dim. 85.4 x 9.8 x 8.2m. (draught).
Powered by one Rolls-Royce pressurized water cooled reactor powering two GEC steam turbines, 15.000 hp, one pump-jet propulsion system, to reduce noise, speed surfaced 20 knots, dived 32 knots.
Diving depth 600 meter maximal.
Armament: 5 – 21 inch torpedo tubes, in bow. Spearfish torpedoes original, later replaced by Tigerfish torpedoes, with 20 reloads. 5 UGM-84 B sup-Harpoon anti-ship missiles, or 50 Stonefish and Sea Urchin mines.
From 1999 she carried Tomahawk missiles.
Crew 14 officers and 121 ratings.
02 October 1991 commissioned, homeport Devonport.
After commission a unit of Devonport Flotilla, based at Devonport.
1993 She made a voyage to Australia, a 41.000 miles submerged trip without support, the longest solo deployment so far by a nuclear submarine.
The same year the writer Tom Clancy published a book “Submarine”: a Guided Tour Inside a Nuclear Warship which was centred on HMS TRIUMPH and USS MIAMI.
After the 9/11 attacks in the USA the TRIUMPH sailed via the Suez Canal as part of a task group formed after the attack for an American-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
Britain’s contribution being known as “Operation Veritas”.
During this operation the TRIUMPH launched Tomahawk missiles on targets inland Afghanistan.
When she returned in the U.K. after the operations had ended, she flew the Jolly Roger, the traditional way showing a successful patrol.
On a training mission with on board trainee officers she grounded off the Scottish coast in December 2001, the boat suffered only superficial damage.
Currently undergoing a major refit in Devonport, and it is expected that this refit is completed in 2009, and after Flag Officer Sea Training and Sea Trials, she will be operational in 2010.
Zambia 2001 2000K sg?, Scott?
Source: The Encyclopedia of Warships. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Triumph_(S93)