HMS ''Talent'' was the sixth of seven

nuclear submarine A nuclear submarine is a submarine powered by a nuclear reactor, but not necessarily nuclear-armed. Nuclear submarines have considerable performance advantages over "conventional" (typically diesel-electric) submarines. Nuclear propulsion, ...

s of the

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, and was built at

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. ''Talent'' was launched by The Princess Royal in April 1988 and commissioned in May 1990. The boat is affiliated with Shrewsbury in Shropshire. ''Talent'' is the third submarine of the Royal Navy to bear the name. The first was the World War II ''Talent'', a T-class submarine transferred to the Royal Netherlands Navy as in 1943. ''Talent'' moved her base from Devonport to Her Majesty's Naval Base Clyde in July 2019. Following the Integrated Review of 2020, ''Talent'' was scheduled to be decommissioned by the end of 2022 and will be replaced by , one of the news currently being fitted out. In April 2022, it was reported that ''Talent'' was being prepared for disposal with formal decommissioning scheduled for May. She decommissioned in May 2022.

Operational history

''Talent'' undertook a refit at her base port in HMNB Devonport and in March 2007 rejoined the active fleet, following a £386 million upgrade. She has been given a new reactor core and has been equipped with a new sonar suite, Sonar 2076. Sonar 2076 has the power equivalent to approximately 400 PCs and can precisely track the movement of small objects from hundreds of miles away. The Royal Navy describe Sonar 2076 as the most advanced sonar in service with any navy in the world. She has also been given the ability to fire

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cruise missiles. On 6 August 2013, she returned to Plymouth after a 3-month deployment. In October 2013, she conducted an anti-submarine exercise with , , and . In 2009, she suffered loss of primary and alternative power supplies to her nuclear reactors. She was reported in April 2015 to have struck ice some time in 2014 while tracking Russian vessels. Although originally scheduled for decommissioning in 2021, the slow delivery of the ''Astute''-class boats was to have seen ''Talent'' retained in service for at least an additional 12 months, with her planned out of service date extended to the end of 2022. She was decommissioned in a joint ceremony with on 20 May 2022 in the presence of the Princess Royal.Farewell to fleet members ''

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'' July 2022 page 15

References

External links

Royal Navy HMS ''Talent''
(royalnavy.mod.uk) Trafalgar-class submarines Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness 1988 ships Cold War submarines of the United Kingdom Submarines of the United Kingdom {{UK-mil-submarine-stub