HMS ''Triumph'' is a
nuclear submarine of the
Royal Navy and was the seventh and final boat of her class. She is the nineteenth nuclear-powered
hunter-killer submarine built for the Royal Navy. ''Triumph'' is the tenth vessel, and the second submarine, to bear the name. The first HMS ''Triumph'' was a 68-gun galleon built in 1561. As of 2022, she is the last boat of her class remaining in service.
''Triumph'' was
laid down in 1987 by
Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Limited
Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering, Ltd (VSEL) was a shipbuilding company based at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria in northwest England that built warships, civilian ships, submarines and armaments. The company was historically the Naval Constructi ...
.
The boat was
launched in February 1991 by Mrs. Ann Hamilton, wife of the then Armed Forces Minister
Archie Hamilton.
She was
commissioned in October that same year.
''Triumph'' is expected to remain in service until 2024.
Operational history
''Triumph'' sailed to Australia in 1993, travelling submerged without support—the longest solo deployment so far by a Royal Navy nuclear submarine.
In that same year, author
Tom Clancy published a book called ''
Submarine: a Guided Tour Inside a Nuclear Warship'' which was centred around ''Triumph'' and .
War in Afghanistan
After the
9/11 attacks in the United States, ''Triumph'', along with her sister ship , formed part of a task group in 2001 as part of the American-led
invasion of Afghanistan
In late 2001, the United States and its close allies invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban government. The invasion's aims were to dismantle al-Qaeda, which had executed the September 11 attacks, and to deny it a safe base of operations ...
, Britain's contribution being known as
Operation Veritas.
During Operation Veritas, ''Triumph'' launched
Tomahawk missiles at targets inside
Afghanistan. When ''Triumph'' returned home after operations had ended, the boat flew the
Jolly Roger
Jolly Roger is the traditional English name for the flags flown to identify a pirate ship preceding or during an attack, during the early 18th century (the later part of the Golden Age of Piracy).
The flag most commonly identified as the Jolly ...
, the traditional way of denoting live weapons had been fired.
On 19 November 2000, ''Triumph'' ran aground travelling at and at a depth of while off the western Scottish coast. The boat surfaced in a safe and controlled fashion. She was under the command of trainee officers and an investigation attributed the grounding to poor navigation. ''Triumph'' suffered only superficial damage.
In 2005, ''Triumph'' began a £300 million nuclear refuel and refitting period which also saw the installation of an updated 2076 bow, flank and towed array sonar and a new
command and control system. The boat rejoined the fleet in June 2010 and will be the last of the ''Trafalgar''-class submarines to be decommissioned.
''Triumph'' was also featured in the TV programme ''How to Command a Nuclear Submarine'' in 2011 in which trainee commanding officers are shown on the Navy's "
Perisher Course".
Libya operations
In March 2011, she participated in
Operation Ellamy
Operation Ellamy was the codename for the United Kingdom participation in the 2011 military intervention in Libya. The operation was part of an international coalition aimed at enforcing a Libyan no-fly zone in accordance with the United Nation ...
, firing Tomahawk cruise missiles on 19 March 20 March and again on 24 March at Libyan air defence targets from the
Mediterranean Sea. One of these strikes hit a command and control centre in
Colonel Gaddafi's presidential compound.
''Triumph'' returned to
Devonport on 3 April 2011 flying a Jolly Roger adorned with six small tomahawk axes to indicate the missiles fired by the submarine in the operation.
Eleven weeks later on 20 June upon her return to Devonport, in the interim having deployed for a second deployment in the Mediterranean and relieving , she once again flew the Jolly Roger adorned with tomahawks, indicating that further cruise missile strikes had taken place in Libya as part of the ongoing operations there. Analysts believe that in total more than 15 cruise missiles were fired by the submarine during the operations.
2011/2012 deployment
In November 2011, ''Triumph'' sailed from her home port in Devonport for a seven-month deployment that saw her away from the UK until summer 2012. The deployment saw her operate in a wide range of locations including the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the
Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.
2013
In May 2013, her refit was reported complete and she returned to operational duties which continued to 2018.
2022
Following the Integrated Review of 2020, her service was extended by 18 months, now to continue until the end of 2024.
[
In December 2022, the submarine was reported to have returned to sea for post-refit trials, following a four-year refit to extend her service life to about 2024/25.]
Home port and affiliations
''Triumph'' is part of the Devonport Flotilla based at Devonport.
She is currently affiliated with:
*Blackpool Borough Council[
*The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment][
*Sussex University Royal Naval Unit][
*Worshipful Company of Upholders][
*TS ''Exmouth'' Sea Cadet Unit][
*TS ''Amazon'' Sea Cadet Unit][
*1322 (Newton Abbot) Squadron Air Training Corps][
*The Royal Naval Association (Newton Abbot Branch)][
*The Royal British Legion (Newton Abbot Branch)][
]
References
External links
Royal Navy HMS ''Triumph''
(royalnavy.mod.uk)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Triumph (S93)
Trafalgar-class submarines
Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness
1991 ships
Submarines of the United Kingdom