Video Shows ‘Stealth’ Nuclear Submarine Stuck in Scottish Mud

For all the talk about which high-tech weapons systems the British military might have to do without as the country slashes budgets to reduce its debt, officers in the Royal Navy must be glad they still have tugboats and ropes at their disposal, since those were what they were using Friday to try to dislodge a nuclear submarine that ran aground just yards off the coast of Scotland.

Video of H.M.S. Astute, and the tugboat that was trying to pull it to deeper water, was shot and posted on YouTube by Paul Yoxon, a wildlife biologist on the Isle of Skye, who normally uploads images of rescued and rehabilitated otters being released into the wild.

The BBC reports that the new nuclear submarine has been described as Britain’s “stealthiest” because of “39,000 acoustic panels which cover its surface mask its sonar signature, meaning it can sneak up on enemy warships and submarines alike, or lurk unseen and unheard at depth.”

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