Wes Streeting greeted HMS Vengeance at Faslane naval base in Scotland on Sunday after the submarine completed 217 days submerged. The return ended a seven-month patrol that set a new endurance mark for a Trident boat.
Streeting said the time the crew had spent underwater did not "sit lightly" with him. He added: "It makes me feel even more indebted to the crew for the service they’ve given to the country, for the commitment they show, the dedication, the professionalism, the expertise."
Trident patrols and the 205-day record
HMS Vengeance began its patrol on 12 April and surpassed the previous 205-day underwater record set by HMS Vanguard. The Royal Navy uses four submarines that carry Britain’s Trident nuclear missiles, and the class was designed to carry three to four months of food for a crew of about 140.
That design made deployments of more than 100 days highly exceptional when the Vanguard class entered service in the 1990s. Long patrols still depend on secrecy: the crew cannot be resupplied at sea, and the boats maintain radio silence during deployment.
Royal Navy maintenance pressure
David Cullen, a nuclear expert with the Basic thinktank, said: "Patrols are getting longer and longer," as longer underwater deployments have become more common. Gen Sir Gwyn Jenkins has said the UK needs to "improve our submarine maintenance" to allow faster turnaround, while the Royal Navy is also struggling to recruit new personnel.
That leaves the next question on land rather than at sea: how quickly the Royal Navy can move boats through maintenance and back into service. Until that improves, the crew’s return to Faslane is likely to look less like an endpoint than a pause between longer patrols.
