Shortly after King Charles III officially commissioned the Astute class submarine Agamemnon into the Royal Navy, the vessel’s crew achieved a major milestone. The ‘trim dive’, a three-day period of testing in the Barrow-in-Furness’s Devonshire Dock, was to prove the 7,400-tonne, 97m-long attack vessel’s stability and safety in the lead up to its departure from Barrow to join her sister boats in the fleet at His Majesty’s Naval Base, Clyde.
Pete Tumelty, the Astute programme director at BAE Systems’ submarines business, said: “This trim dive is the culmination of months of hard work, and I would like to thank all teams involved for their commitment and professionalism. The trim and basin dive is a key step in the commissioning of HMS Agamemnon, as this enables us to set the boat’s internal weight, prove her water-tight integrity, test sensors, and put some of our systems through their paces ahead of sailing for the first time. It takes a great deal of planning and preparation to achieve this key step, and all involved should be very proud of the part they have played.”
Alongside the build of seven Astute class submarines — of which HMS Agamemnon is the sixth — BAE Systems is also constructing four Dreadnought class boats in partnership with the wider Defence Nuclear Enterprise. The Dreadnought vessels, which are due to enter service from the early 2030s, are the replacement for the Vanguard-class submarines, which currently deliver the ‘Continuous At Sea Deterrent’ (CASD) for the Royal Navy.
BAE Systems has grown its submarines workforce from 10,700 in 2023 to 15,000 today; and to support the healthy order book it is expected to reach 17,000 in the coming years.