Story and image from BAE Systems
Named after the ancient Greek king, Agamemnon is the sixth of seven Astute Class submarines, all of which have been designed and built at the Company’s historic Barrow shipyard – home of UK submarine building. The nuclear-powered boat, which weighs in at 7,400 tonnes and is 97 metres long, rolled out of the Devonshire Dock Hall and entered the water for the first time today. Agamemnon will now begin the next phase of its test and commissioning programme, before leaving Barrow for sea trials with the Royal Navy.
The Astute Class boats are the largest and most advanced attack submarines ever built for the Royal Navy. Their state-of-the-art nuclear technology means they never need to be refuelled and, as they manufacture their own oxygen and drinking water for their 98 crew members, they are able to circumnavigate the globe without surfacing.
The first five submarines in the class, HMS Astute, HMS Ambush, HMS Artful, HMS Audacious and HMS Anson, have been handed over to the Royal Navy, with work well underway for the final Astute boat, Agincourt.