HMS Churchill (S46)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Churchill.

HMS Churchill was the first of three Churchill-class^[a] nuclear fleet submarines that served with the Royal Navy.

HMS Churchill at sea
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Churchill
Namesake	Winston Churchill
Ordered	21 October 1965
Laid down	30 June 1967
Launched	20 December 1968
Commissioned	15 July 1970
Decommissioned	28 February 1991
Fate	Awaiting disposal
Badge
General characteristics
Class and type	Churchill-class submarine
Displacement	4,900 tonnes (4,823 long tons) submerged
Length	86.9 m (285 ft 1 in)
Beam	10.1 m (33 ft 2 in)
Draught	8.2 m (26 ft 11 in)
Propulsion	1 Rolls-Royce PWR nuclear reactor, 1 shaft
Speed	28 knots (32 mph; 52 km/h) submerged
Complement	103
Armament	6 × 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes Mark 8 torpedoes Tigerfish torpedoes RN Sub Harpoon missiles

Construction

In 1965, following a decision by the Labour government not to build a fifth Resolution class ballistic missile submarine, production of nuclear-powered fleet submarines, which had been postponed owing to the priority given to the Polaris programme, could be restarted.^[1] Churchill, the Royal Navy's fourth nuclear-powered fleet submarine was ordered on 21 October 1965, and was laid down at Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Limited (VSEL)'s Barrow-in-Furness shipyard on 30 June 1967.^[3] Following a collision between sister submarine Warspite and a Soviet Echo II-class submarine in the Barents Sea on 9 October 1968, the fin of Churchill, still under construction at Barrow, was used to replace Warspite's fin, which had been badly damaged in the collision.^[5][6] Churchill was launched by Mary Soames, Winston Churchill's youngest daughter, on 20 December 1968,^[7] and commissioned on 15 July 1970.^[3]

Propulsion

Churchill was chosen to trial the first full-size submarine pump jet propulsion. Trials of a high-speed unit were followed by further trials with a low-speed unit, and these were successful enough for the same propulsion to be fitted in the rest of the class.^[8] Later British submarine classes also featured the pump jet, although first-of-class vessels Swiftsure and Trafalgar were fitted with propellers at build.

Notes

1. Some sources call Churchill a "Repeat Valiant",^[1][2] while others treat Churchill as a member of the five-submarine Valiant class.^[3][4]