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http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/16/nsbs16.xml&site=5
Undercover troops face added danger as special sub is scrapped
By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent
(Filed: 16/01/2006)
Special Boat Service chiefs said yesterday that operations would become even more dangerous when a submarine designed for secret missions was withdrawn from service.
The vessel, fitted with a dry dock hangar from which mini-subs are launched underwater, will be decommissioned next month.
SBS troops are angry that they will have to wait for three years before a new class of submarine replaces it. For the past year, the SBS - the Royal Navy equivalent of the SAS and drawn mainly from the Royal Marines - has been able to use the swimmer delivery vehicles (SDV) for secret operations around the world.
Now it will have to rely on less covert methods to insert teams on missions against terrorists linked to al-Qa'eda until the new Astute class of submarines that incorporates a dry dock enters service in 2009. Frogmen will have to launch their mini-subs from surface vessels or rely on the US navy in emergencies.
"The SBS are very keen to retain this capability and it is regrettable that we are losing it," a source linked to the unit said.
The mini-subs can carry six divers and are capable of travelling dozens of miles underwater.
They are ideal for coastal reconnaissance, snatching suspects close to the coastline and recovering oil rigs or tankers that have been hijacked by terrorists.
The dry dock was adapted from an American design called the Alamanda project. It cost millions to attach it to the back of the submarine Spartan but there are no plans to fit it to another boat. Spartan, one of four remaining Swiftsure class nuclear attack submarines, has returned to the Faslane base, near Glasgow, after operations in the Indian Ocean, the Gulf and the South Atlantic to be decommissioned after 36 years of service.
Because the mini-subs cannot be used from submarines without dry docks, the SBS frogmen will have to revert either to swimming ashore or using collapsible kayaks and fast rigid raider boats pulled through submarine hatches. The SDVs will be launched only from surface vessels.
"There is much less chance of being detected if you do not have to surface," a Royal Navy source said. "The men can also store much larger equipment on the deck instead of having to squeeze it through a hatchway in the submarine's hull."
Richard Scott, the naval consultant for Jane's Defence Weekly, said: "The Navy has looked at fitting the dry dock to another boat but, given the amount of upkeep, it could not justify the cost."
The Ministry of Defence stuck to its policy of not commenting on special forces capabilities or operations but a Whitehall source said there were "other ways of achieving SBS aims without dry docks".
He added: "Yes, we are going to have to do things differently. But part of the risk in deciding to go ahead with this programme was that it would come to an end with the decommissioning of Spartan.
"If we thought it was going to destroy a capability, then we would have found the money to keep Spartan on until Astute came in.
"To say it is not safe to do without it is not right, but it can make life more difficult."
Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright
Undercover troops face added danger as special sub is scrapped
By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent
(Filed: 16/01/2006)
Special Boat Service chiefs said yesterday that operations would become even more dangerous when a submarine designed for secret missions was withdrawn from service.
The vessel, fitted with a dry dock hangar from which mini-subs are launched underwater, will be decommissioned next month.
SBS troops are angry that they will have to wait for three years before a new class of submarine replaces it. For the past year, the SBS - the Royal Navy equivalent of the SAS and drawn mainly from the Royal Marines - has been able to use the swimmer delivery vehicles (SDV) for secret operations around the world.
Now it will have to rely on less covert methods to insert teams on missions against terrorists linked to al-Qa'eda until the new Astute class of submarines that incorporates a dry dock enters service in 2009. Frogmen will have to launch their mini-subs from surface vessels or rely on the US navy in emergencies.
"The SBS are very keen to retain this capability and it is regrettable that we are losing it," a source linked to the unit said.
The mini-subs can carry six divers and are capable of travelling dozens of miles underwater.
They are ideal for coastal reconnaissance, snatching suspects close to the coastline and recovering oil rigs or tankers that have been hijacked by terrorists.
The dry dock was adapted from an American design called the Alamanda project. It cost millions to attach it to the back of the submarine Spartan but there are no plans to fit it to another boat. Spartan, one of four remaining Swiftsure class nuclear attack submarines, has returned to the Faslane base, near Glasgow, after operations in the Indian Ocean, the Gulf and the South Atlantic to be decommissioned after 36 years of service.
Because the mini-subs cannot be used from submarines without dry docks, the SBS frogmen will have to revert either to swimming ashore or using collapsible kayaks and fast rigid raider boats pulled through submarine hatches. The SDVs will be launched only from surface vessels.
"There is much less chance of being detected if you do not have to surface," a Royal Navy source said. "The men can also store much larger equipment on the deck instead of having to squeeze it through a hatchway in the submarine's hull."
Richard Scott, the naval consultant for Jane's Defence Weekly, said: "The Navy has looked at fitting the dry dock to another boat but, given the amount of upkeep, it could not justify the cost."
The Ministry of Defence stuck to its policy of not commenting on special forces capabilities or operations but a Whitehall source said there were "other ways of achieving SBS aims without dry docks".
He added: "Yes, we are going to have to do things differently. But part of the risk in deciding to go ahead with this programme was that it would come to an end with the decommissioning of Spartan.
"If we thought it was going to destroy a capability, then we would have found the money to keep Spartan on until Astute came in.
"To say it is not safe to do without it is not right, but it can make life more difficult."
Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright
