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Sunday, October 05, 2008

The Wider View: The biggest submarines ever built in Britain

They are the biggest submarines ever built in Britain - and the most technologically advanced in the world. HMS Astute and HMS Ambush are the Royal Navy's first two Astute Class nuclear-powered subs. Each is 318ft long and will displace 7,400 tons of water... as much as 62 blue whales.

With a unique life-support system that converts sea water into oxygen and drinking water for the 98 crew members, these leviathans will be capable of travelling under the sea, without surfacing, for 25 years, the lifespan of the nuclear fuel stored in their Rolls-Royce PWR2 reactors.

However, they will need to return to the surface to replenish food supplies every three months - enough time for their multi-bladed silent propellers, undetectable to sonar, to power them right around the globe.

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