THERE are lucky ships and those which appear to be slightly unlucky. Case in point is the Royal Navy submarine Astute. Yesterday, Ministry of Defence police were investigating a shooting aboard the submarine which killed one sailor and injured another. A third Royal Navy sailor has been taken into custody. Now, Astute, is the Royal Navy´s latest nuclear submarine but although it has been in service barely a few years it has been hit by a whole string of incidents, the shooting being just the latest.
The Royal Navy is still investigating how this state of the art submarine run aground close to its base at Faslane in Scotland last year. The submarine´s captain was duly replaced. The vessel was damaged when it was being towed into dock. Astute was also hit by a whole series of problems when it was being built and joined Royal Navy service much later than expected. The grounding incident also meant that trials had been postponed. This latest incident is the most serious and will be causing much concern to the Ministry of Defence. While Astute is not nuclear armed it does have a nuclear reactor. The submarine´s crew is hand-picked and it is a great honour to serve on a new ship, especially if its a new class of nuclear submarines, billed as the best in the world.