Final Trafalgar Class Submarine HMS Triumph Returns Home for Decommissioning

HMS Triumph (S93) sailed into HMNB Devonport flying a decommissioning pennant on the afternoon of Dec. 12, 2024, marking an end to its 33 years of service in the Royal Navy.

As the Royal Navy moves to a single class of nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSN), the Astute class, the service life of the Trafalgar class is drawing to a close 41 years after HMS Trafalgar was first commissioned. Over thirty years of service mean that Triumph’s pressure hull is at the upper limits of its lifespan, and further refueling of the on-board nuclear reactor would be uneconomical.

Sporting a long decommissioning, or ‘paying off’, pennant that spanned across almost the whole length between the sail and the submarine’s tail, HMS Triumph’s long and distinguished career well surpassed its initial projected lifespan. For every year in commission, tradition holds that an extra section is added to the pennant. The Royal Navy flies these pennants from vessels as they make their final voyages. Triumph’s final voyage was from HMNB Faslane, where it departed on Dec. 10, making the trip south to Devonport in two days.

HMS Triumph will officially remain in service with the Royal Navy until the official decommissioning ceremony, due to be held in January 2025, but now will almost certainly never again leave the dockyard at HMNB Devonport where it has been based for its entire career.

After the ceremony, the vessel will be staffed by a skeleton crew for several more years as on-board systems are shut down and removed. Name plates will be removed from the submarine, and it will lose its HMS prefix from this point onward. Eventually it will be moved to 3 Basin, joining the rest of the Trafalgar class as well as other retired SSNs as they wait decades for their reactors to fully cool and be dismantled.

The submarine’s deck was lined with members of the ship’s company, who waved to the assemblage of families and friends who came to welcome home their loved ones and say goodbye to the submarine from the shore. Tug boats of Serco Marine Services, contracted to provide port and logistics services at Royal Navy dockyards, assisted Triumph through the narrow dredged channels leading into the base. Water jets were fired from the tugs SD Powerful and SD Hercules as a traditional salute to a retiring vessel while military officials spectated from logistical support boats.

Nuclear submarines are the subject of a significant amount of security both on the water and ashore, owing to their high value nature, vulnerability while surfaced, and potential, however remote, for a nuclear incident should the reactor be compromised. Royal Navy submarines are outfitted with 7.62mm general purpose machine guns (GPMG) on either side of the sail when operating on the surface.

Police boats of various types, operated by the Ministry of Defence Police, provide a protective perimeter on the water, even when the submarines are alongside in port. Additional police units are deployed to ensure areas along the shore near where the submarine will sail are secure. At Devonport, a one hour block is placed on ferry and tour boat movements both for security and to ensure the waterways are clear.

HMS Triumph’s arrival also marks an end, at least for now, to submarines being based at HMNB Devonport. The Astute class, which has replaced the Trafalgar class, is exclusively homeported at HMNB Faslane in Scotland alongside the Vanguard class ballistic missile submarines.

However, as Devonport houses the Royal Navy’s only facility for the refuelling and overhaul of nuclear submarines, as well as one of only two UK sites where nuclear submarines will be able to be decommissioned, it will continue to see a submarine presence for many years to come. HMS Victorious, of the Vanguard class, is presently at Devonport awaiting refueling, and Astute class HMS Ambush is alongside undergoing a refit.

.@mod_dio has awarded £3M contract for repairs to 3 Basin in Devonport – used to store decommissioned nuclear submarines awating (in some case more than 2 decades) for disposal.https://t.co/D1HI0yBe5y pic.twitter.com/2jyPqKzolE

— Navy Lookout (@NavyLookout) June 8, 2023

Triumph’s Life at Sea

HMS Triumph was commissioned into the Royal Navy on Oct. 2, 1991, just 85 days before the official dissolution of the Soviet Union, whose submarines it was expected to encounter during its service life. As the last of the last British submarines constructed for and during the Cold War, the life that Triumph was envisaged for ended up being very different to the life it lived.

During the 1990s, Triumph embarked on a number of operations, the details of which, other than their names, still remain classified. Most likely, these were intelligence gathering missions watching the activities of the Russian Navy. In 1993, the submarine completed a mammoth 41,000 mile deployment continuously submerged, ending up in Australia. This was in fact the first ever visit of a Royal Navy nuclear-powered submarine to the country.

When the world changed overnight after the 9/11 attacks, HMS Triumph was to play a frontline role in the UK’s response. Joining Operation Veritas alongside sister boat HMS Trafalgar, the two submarines launched BGM-109 Tomahawk missiles at targets within Afghanistan on Oct. 7 and Oct. 13, 2001 as part of a joint UK-US strike package.

A British submarine presence in the Middle East region was common from this point onwards, with the Royal Navy’s SSNs being the only asset in the inventory capable of launching cruise missiles from the sea.

Triumph became the last Royal Navy submarine to carry the Tigerfish torpedo when it was withdrawn in 2004. The Tigerfish was not well regarded, with early models suffering from extensive unreliability. While later models were able to improve this, it remained below par and was replaced by the much more capable and successful Spearfish torpedo.

Famously, though carrying the then brand new Tigerfish torpedo during the 1982 Falklands War, the commander of submarine HMS Conqueror instead chose the more reliable, unguided Mark 8 torpedo to sink the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano. The Mark 8 torpedo, updated during the Second World War, was at its heart a design from the 1920s. It remains not just the only torpedo ever used by a nuclear submarine to sink a ship in combat, but also the only type of torpedo ever used by a submarine to sink another submarine.

In 2005, at 14 years of age, Triumph entered a mid-life refit and refuelling period. Alongside the overhaul of the reactor and all major systems, and replenishment of the Rolls Royce PWR1 reactor’s  supply of highly enriched uranium, a complete new sonar suite – designated Sonar 2076 – was installed.

Having re-entered full service by 2011, Triumph was again called on to undertake urgent combat operations. After the passing of UN Security Council resolution 1973, the UK enacted Operation Ellamy – the enforcement of a no-fly zone (NFZ) and the protection of civilians across Libya. The Aviationist was considered one of the best open sources tracking the operations of NATO forces during the Libyan Civil War, with a daily log archive available here and a full summary here.

HMS Triumph took part in the opening salvo of the operation on Mar. 19, 2011, firing a reported six Tomahawk missiles in a suppression of enemy air defences (SEAD) operation targeting the Libyan military’s ability to fight against the NFZ. Targets struck included air defences at Sabha Airbase, which cleared the way for Royal Air Force Tornado GR4s to launch a long-range Storm Shadow cruise missile strike against hardened ammunition storage bunkers.

Further Tomahawks, official number unknown, were launched from the submarine over the following days and weeks, including a strike against Muammar Gaddafi’s personal military command centre in Tripoli. Unlike U.S. Navy submarine designs since 1982, HMS Triumph had no vertical launch system for its Tomahawk missiles, instead launching them from the torpedo tubes, so the exact capacity is dependent on the mixture of weapons loaded onto the submarine.

When Triumph eventually returned home, it arrived to fanfare at HMNB Devonport proudly flying a Jolly Roger flag adorned with tomahawk axes to represent the missiles fired. The Jolly Roger has become a symbol used by the submarine community to symbolise a successful live operation.

In late 2011, Triumph departed on another patrol which would see the boat away from home for seven months, travelling as far as the Indian Ocean. Following its return, Triumph entered refit once again, emerging in 2013.

 As the Trafalgar class fleet was drawn down, delays to the Astute class meant that the RN submarine fleet dropped below the intended minimum of seven boats. The remaining subs of the class, including Triumph, saw extensive use responding to a resurgent Russian Navy presence in the North Atlantic and beyond. Another refit became due in 2018 to ensure Triumph’s ability to continue in service until a new decommissioning date of 2025. This refit, complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic, took four years. Now at over 30 years old, the maintenance of the submarine was becoming more and more complex and difficult to keep up with.

HMS Triumph has returned to sea after more than 4 years in refit at Devonport. The last of the Trafalgar class submarines, she will probably serve until at least 2025.

Attended by tugs in Plymouth Sound this afternoon.

Via @Rockhoppas pic.twitter.com/cI3xLi60JO

— Navy Lookout (@NavyLookout) December 11, 2022

At the tail end of 2024, a year which has seen HMS Triumph as the Royal Navy’s most active submarine, the vessel was finally granted reprieve after a long and, at times, tough career. The Royal Navy’s active submarine fleet now drops to five, awaiting the commissioning of HMS Agamemnon later in 2025. The service will eventually return to seven active submarines upon the completion of HMS Agincourt, the seventh and final Astute class submarine.

The focus will then turn to completing the four Dreadnought class ballistic missile submarines desperately needed to replace the struggling Vanguard class. At the same time, production of the next generation of SSN, to be operated by both the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy, will ramp up. The first of class, currently codenamed SSN-AUKUS, is expected to enter service with the RN and begin replacing the Astute class in the late 2030s.