by James Jinks
9 THE SILENT VICTORY
1. Admiral Sir William Staveley, RN, Transcript of ‘Overview of British Defence Policy and the Relevance of the Northern Flank’, at the Conference on Britain and the Security of NATO’s Northern Flank, 7–8 May 1986. 2. Interview with Roger Lane-Nott, 25 March 2014. 3. Interview with James Taylor, 10 April 2014.
The Cold War Heats Up
4. TNA/DEFE/24/1387, Naval Staff Target 7029 (New Patrol Class Submarine) Supporting Paper, June 1978. 5. TNA/DEFE/13/1357, Sea/Air Warfare Committee – Operational Concept for Anti-Submarine Warfare, 25 May 1978. 6. Ibid. 7. Ibid. 8. Ibid. 9. MOD Archive. 10. Ibid. 11. A Type II Soviet nuclear submarine was either a ‘Charlie’ or a ‘Victor’ class. 12. MOD Archive. 13. Ibid. 14. Dan Conley and Richard Woodman, Cold War Command: The Dramatic Story of a Nuclear Submariner (Seaforth Press, 2014), pp. 157–8. 15. Ibid., pp. 157–9. 16. Ibid. 17. Ibid. 18. Ibid. 19. Ibid. 20. MOD Archive. 21. Ibid. 22. Ibid. 23. Michael Pitkeathly and David Wixon, Submarine Courageous, Cold War Warrior: The Life and Times of a Nuclear Submarine (The HMS Courageous Society, 2010), p. 129; Independent on Sunday, ‘Report on HMS Sceptre’s Collision with an Iceberg’, 14 June 1981. 24. Quoted in Michael Smith, The Spying Game (Politico’s, 2003), p. 307. 25. Yorkshire Post, ‘Day we rammed a Cold War Russian sub’, 6 April 2013. 26. Ibid. 27. Interview with Doug Littlejohns, 20 November 2013. 28. Iain Ballantyne, ‘Submarining in the Eighties: Angles & Dangles’, Warships International Fleet Review Magazine, September 2010. 29. HMS Sceptre decommissioned in December 2010. 30. MOD Archive.
The 1981 Defence Review
31. John Nott, Here Today, Gone Tomorrow: Memoirs of an Errant Politician (Politico’s, 2002), p. 215. 32. Eric Grove, Vanguard to Trident: British Naval Policy since World War II (Bodley Head, 1987), p. 350. 33. Ibid. 34. Christopher A. Ford and David A. Rosenberg, ‘The Naval Intelligence Underpinnings of Reagan’s Maritime Strategy’, Journal of Strategic Studies, 28:2 (2005), p. 385. 35. John B. Hattendorf, The Evolution of the U.S. Navy’s Maritime Strategy 1977–1986 (Department of the Navy, 2006), p. 23. 36. Ford and Rosenberg, ‘Naval Intelligence Underpinnings’, p. 381. 37. Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew, Blind Man’s Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage (Random House, 1999), see Chs. 8–12. 38. Rear Adm. Tom Brooks, USN (retd.) and Capt. Bill Manthorpe, USN (retd.), ‘Setting the Record Straight’, Naval Intelligence Professional Quarterly, XII/2 (April 1996), p. 1, quoted in Ford and Rosenberg, ‘Naval Intelligence Underpinnings’, p. 382. 39. Eric Grove, ‘The Convoy Debate’, Naval Forces, No. 3 (1985), p. 47. 40. CIA Historical Review Program, NIE/11/15/28, National Intelligence Estimate, Soviet Naval Strategy and Programs through the 1990s, March 1983, p. 22. Available at http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_conversions/89801/DOC_0000268225.pdf. 41. Ibid. 42. Nott, Here Today, Gone Tomorrow, p. 211. 43. Ibid., p. 231. 44. Ibid. 45. Ibid. 46. Ibid., p. 212. 47. Ibid., p. 228. 48. Richard Hill, Lewin of Greenwich: The Authorised Biography of Admiral of the Fleet Lord Lewin (Cassell, 2000), p. 332. 49. TNA/PREM/19/416, Appendix A. 50. TNA/PREM/19/416, Leach to Thatcher, 18 May 1981. 51. Nott, Here Today, Gone Tomorrow, p. 212. 52. Cmnd 8288, The United Kingdom Defence Programme: The Way Forward, June 1981. 53. Ibid. 54. Cmnd 8529-1, Statement on the Defence Estimates, 1982. 55. Ibid. 56. TNA/DEFE/24/1391, FRC(77)P10, The SSK – Replacement of the Oberon Class.
The ‘Upholder’ Class
57. RNSM/A2008, Roxburgh to McGeoch, 8 December 1971. 58. Ibid. 59. RNSM/A2008, Roxburgh to Blackman, 6 March 1972. 60. TNA/DEFE/24/1387, Naval Staff Target 7029 (New Patrol Class Submarine) Supporting Paper, 27 November 1977, 7 June 1978. 61. TNA/DEFE/24/1392, Brief for ACNS(OR) on NST 7029 and Supporting Paper – Submission to the NPC. 62. TNA/DEFE/24/1391, The New SSK – The Implications of Achieving Commonality of Design between the RN Preferred Option and an Export Version (Paper by the Navy Department). 63. TNA/DEFE/24/1391, Draft for ACNS(OR)’s Introduction of the SSK NST to the NPC. 64. HC 455, Defence Committee, Ninth Report. Procurement of Upholder Class Submarines, together with the proceedings of the committee relating to the report, minutes of evidence and memoranda, 1990/91. 65. Jonathan Powis, ‘UK’s Upholder Class Boats Go to Canada’, Naval Institute Proceedings (October 2002). 66. MOD Archive.
The ‘Trafalgar’ Class
67. Harry Lambert, Rolls-Royce, the Nuclear Power Connection: A History of Nuclear Engineering In One of the World’s Most Famous Companies (Rolls-Royce plc, 2009), pp. 64–5. 68. TNA/DEFE/13/1357, Green to Minister of State, Royal Navy, Sonar Type 2020 (Sonar 2001 Improvements), 8 December 1977. 69. TNA/DEFE/13/1357, Towed Arrays for Submarines – Sonar 2026, 18 July 1978. 70. TNA/DEFE/13/1357, Note of a meeting held on 24 August to discuss Sonar 2026. 71. MOD Archive 72. Interview with Martin Macpherson, 24 May 2013. 73. Lambert, Rolls-Royce, the Nuclear Power Connection, p. 77. 74. Interview with Martin Macpherson, 24 May 2013.
SSN0Z and the Follow-On SSN
75. John F. Schank, Frank W. Lacroix, Robert E Murphy, et al., Learning From Experience, Vol. III: Lessons from the United Kingdom’s Astute Submarine Program (Rand Corporation, 2011). 76. TNA/DEFE/24/1389, FRC(M)2, Fleet Requirements Committee, Minutes of a Meeting, 10 September 1982. 77. Ibid. 78. TNA/DEFE/24/1389, Whetstone to Marsh, A Follow-On SSN, 14 September 1982. 79. TNA/DEFE/24/1389, A Follow-On SSN: A Paper by the Naval Staff, June 1980. 80. TNA/DEFE/24/1389, FRC(M)2, Fleet Requirements Committee, Minutes of a Meeting, 10 September 1982. 81. Interview with Paul Branscombe, 1 April 2014.
The Walker Spy Ring
82. TNA/DEFE/13/1357, Sea/Air Warfare Committee – Operational Concept for Anti-Submarine Warfare, 25 May 1978. 83. Ibid. 84. Ibid. 85. Pitkeathly and Wixon, Submarine Courageous, p. 247. 86. Interview with Roger Lane-Nott, 25 March 2014. 87. MOD Archive. 88. Ibid. 89. A Type III Soviet nuclear submarine is a ‘Yankee’ or a ‘Delta’ class. 90. MOD archive. 91. Allegedly the USS Drum, a ‘Sturgeon’ class submarine, collided with a Victor III, K-324, in Peter the Great Bay while attempting to obtain photographs of the distinctive pod. An account of the USS Drum’s patrol can be found in W. Craig Reed, Red November: Inside The Secret U. S.–Soviet Submarine War (William Morrow, 2011), p. 316; Craig maintains that ‘As was the case with many Cold War SpecOps, the boat’s logs were altered. No record remained, save memories, to validate that the USS Drum was ever in the vicinity of a Soviet Victor III submarine in Peter the Great Bay.’ 92. Interview with James Perowne, 18 March 2014. 93. John Prados, ‘The Navy’s Biggest Betrayal’, Naval History Magazine, Vol 24, No. 3 (June 2010). 94. Ibid. 95. Ibid. 96. Ibid. 97. Thomas B. Allen and Norman Polmar, Merchants of Treason (Delacorte Press, 1988), pp. 262–3. 98. Prados, ‘The Navy’s Biggest Betrayal’. 99. Norman Polmar and Kenneth Moore, Cold War Submarines: The Design and Construction of US and Soviet Submarines (Potomac Books, 2005), p. 377; New York Times, ‘Weinberger Says The Walkers Gave Soviet Much Key Data’, 17 April 1987. 100. http://www.csmonitor.com/1986/1008/asen1.html/(page)/3 101. Interview with Martin Macpherson, 24 May 2013. 102. Polmar and Moore, Cold War Submarines, p. 295. 103. Ibid., p. 159. 104. New York Times, ‘Submarines by Japan and Norway’, 22 June 1987; Jere W. Morehead, ‘Controlling Diversion: How Can We Convert the Toshiba–Kongsberg Controversy into a Victory for the West’, New Journal of International Law and Business, 277 (1988–1989); Polmar and Moore, Cold War Submarines, p. 286. 105. John F. Lehman Jr, Command of the Seas (Naval Institute Press, 2001; 2nd edn), p. 133. 106. Soviet Intentions and Capabilities for Interdicting Sea Lines of Communication in a War with NATO, Interagency Intelligence Memorandum, CIA, http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_conversions/89801/DOC_0000261312.pdf, 1981. 107. For more information on this torpedo see John Downing, ‘How Shkval Ensured Soviet SSBN Survivability’, Jane’s Intelligence Review (1999). 108. Ford and Rosenberg, ‘Naval Intelligence Underpinnings’, pp. 408–9.
‘Bearding the Bear in its lair’ – US Maritime Strategy
109. Hansard, House of Commons Debates, 3 March 1988, Vol. 128, Col. 1187. 110. ‘Forward Maritime Strategy O
ptions’, The Adelphi Papers, Vol. 29, Issue 241, 1989, p. 1. 111. Hattendorf, Evolution of the U.S. Navy’s Maritime Strategy, p. 36. 112. Transcript of talk by Admiral Henry C. Mustin, ‘The Maritime Strategy’, 29 May 1986. 113. Daily Telegraph, ‘NATO navies allowed nuclear first strike’, 23 March 1984. 114. Admiral James D. Watkins, ‘The Maritime Strategy’, in The Maritime Strategy (US Naval Institute, 1986), pp. 2–17. 115. Quoted in Barry Posen, Inadvertent Escalation: Conventional War and Nuclear Risks (Cornell University Press, 1991), p. 138. 116. Ronald Reagan, ‘National Security Strategy of the United States’ (Jan. 1987), pp. 29–30, quoted in Hattendorf, Evolution of the U.S. Navy’s Maritime Strategy, p. 25, n.7. 117. Sir William Staveley, ‘British Defence Policy in the North’, in Geoffrey Till (ed.), The Future of British Sea Power (Macmillan, 1984), p. 70. 118. Admiral Sir William Staveley, ‘Power Factor – Submarine Operations in NATO’, NATO’s Sixteen Nations, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Feb–March 1986). 119. Vice Admiral Sir Peter Stanford, ‘The Current Position of the Royal Navy’, in Till (ed.), Future of British Sea Power, p. 36. 120. Staveley, ‘British Defence Policy in the North’, in Till (ed.), Future of British Sea Power, p. 68. 121. Ibid. 122. Geoffrey Till, ‘A British View’, in Till (ed.), Future of British Sea Power, p. 118. 123. Staveley, ‘British Defence Policy in the North’, in Till (ed.), Future of British Sea Power, p. 68. 124. Independent, ‘New Navy Plan to attack Soviet subs near bases’, 14 April 1987. 125. Secretary of State for Defence (UK), Statement on the Defence Estimates 1986 (Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1986), p. 29. 126. Cmnd 101–1, ‘Why not an Alternative?’: Statement on the Defence Estimates 1987 (HMSO, 1987). 127. Interview with Paul Branscombe, 1 April 2014. 128. Polmar and Moore, Cold War Submarines, p. 181. 129. Interview with Toby Frere, 15 January 2013. 130. Interview with Martin Macpherson, 24 May 2013. 131. Interview with Paul Branscombe, 1 April 2014. 132. Interview with Mark Stanhope, 4 April 2014. 133. Interview with Toby Frere, 15 January 2013. 134. Ibid. 135. Interview with Richard Heaslip, 18 December 2013. 136. Till, ‘A British View’, in Till (ed.), Future of British Sea Power p. 121. 137. Watkins, ‘The Maritime Strategy’. 138. Till, ‘A British View’, in Till (ed.), Future of British Sea Power p. 121. 139. House of Commons Defence Select Committee, Sixth Report of Session 1987/1988, ‘The Future Size and Role of the Royal Navy’s Surface Fleet’, HC 309, 1988, p. xi. 140. Interview with Toby Frere, 15 January 2013.
Arctic Operations
141. Lehman Jr, Command of the Seas, p. 138. 142. TNA/CAB/186/39, JIC(85)7, Soviet Naval Policy, July 1985. 143. The Soviets did not withdraw completely to the Arctic. In 1984 ‘Delta’ class nuclear-powered submarines were deployed into the mid-Atlantic as an ‘analogous response’ to NATO’s deployment of Pershing II and other ground-launched cruise missiles. 144. Tom Le Marchand, ‘Under-Ice Operations’, U.S. Naval War College Review, May–June 1985, pp. 21–2. 145. Ibid. p. 27. 146. Ibid. 147. Polmar and Moore, Cold War Submarines, pp. 194–7. 148. Ibid. 149. Ibid. 150. Robert C. Stern, The Hunter Hunted: Submarine versus Submarine Encounters from World War I to the Present (U.S. Naval Institute Press, 2007), p. 184; Jim Ring, We Come Unseen: The Untold Story of Britain’s Cold War Submariners (John Murray, 2001), p. 236; Daily Express, 24 December 1986. 151. Hansard, House of Commons Debates, 2 February 1987, Vol. 109, Cols. 701–83. 152. Hansard, House of Commons Debates, 2 February 1987, Vol. 109, Col. 710. 153. Ibid. 154. Ibid. 155. Ibid., Col. 732. 156. Ibid. 157. Ibid. 158. Ibid., Col. 733. 159. Daily Express, 30 April 1992.
The Prince of Darkness
160. Norman Polmar and Kenneth J. Moore, ‘Cold War Strategic ASW’, Undersea Warfare, Vol. 7, Spring 2005. 161. Interview with Toby Frere, 15 January 2013. 162. Interview with Martin Macpherson, 24 May 2013. 163. Private information. 164. MOD Archive. 165. Ibid. 166. Ibid. 167. Ibid. 168. Ibid. 169. Ibid. 170. Ibid. 171. Ibid. 172. Ibid. 173. Ibid. 174. Ibid.
The Final Act
175. Stuart Prebble, Secrets of the Conqueror: The Untold Story of Britain’s Most Famous Submarine (Faber & Faber, 2012). 176. Daily Telegraph, 20 August 2000. 177. The Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, took a keen interest in the Royal Navy’s submarine operations. Early on in her Premiership, when HMS Swiftsure was due to commission into the Royal Navy, the submarine’s First Lieutenant, Charles Tibbits, sent a series of Christmas cards to high-profile figures such as the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh in order to raise the profile of what was then the Royal Navy’s newest submarine. The card he sent to the Prime Minister read: ‘From one Iron Lady to another’. Splendid’s CO, Roger Lane-Nott, was initially worried – ‘I thought, I’m not going to last in this Command very long,’ he says. But shortly before Christmas a parcel from No. 10 Downing Street arrived addressed to the Captain of HMS Splendid. Inside was a card and signed photograph from the Prime Minister. Interview with Roger Lane-Nott, 25 March 2014. 178. Interview with Mark Stanhope, 4 April 2014. 179. Interview with Martin Macpherson, 24 May 2013. 180. MOD Archive. 181. TNA/ADM/341/32, Anechoic acoustic materials: background of materials; research and development leading to the HMS Churchill anechoic fit and some considerations for future work, 1980 Jan 01–1980 Dec 31 (Retained by Ministry of Defence). 182. Owen Cote, Jr, The Third Battle: Innovation in the U.S. Navy’s Silent Cold War Struggle with Soviet Submarines (Naval War College Newport Papers, 2003). 183. Conley and Woodman, Cold War Command, p. 222. 184. MOD Archive 185. Ibid. 186. Ibid. 187. Ibid.
10 AFTER THE COLD WAR: 1990–TODAY
1. Royal Navy Documentary, Show of Strength: The Modern State of the Navy (Fastforward, 1996). 2. Commander Nick Harrap, ‘The Submarine Contribution to Joint Operations: The Role of the SSN in Modern UK Defence Policy’, in Martin Edmonds (ed.), 100 Years of the Trade: Royal Navy Submarines Past, Present and Future (Centre for Defence and International Security Studies, 2001), p. 88.
Uncertainty and Decline
3. House of Commons Defence Select Committee, Sixth Report of Session 1990/1991, ‘Royal Navy Submarines’ HC 369, 12 June 1991, p. viii. 4. Alan Clark, Diaries: In Power 1983–1992 (Phoenix, 2003), 31 January 1990. 5. House of Commons Defence Select Committee, Sixth Report of Session 1990/1991, ‘Royal Navy Submarines’ HC 369, 12 June 1991; Michael Pitkeathly and David Wixon, Submarine Courageous, Cold War Warrior: The Life and Times of a Nuclear Submarine (The HMS Courageous Society, 2010), p. 319. 6. Pitkeathly and Wixon, Submarine Courageous, p. 319. 7. ‘Former submarine commander Captain Stephen Upright is running York’s Merchant Adventurers’ Hall’, The York Press, 5 October 2011. 8. MOD Archive. 9. Marine Accident Investigation Branch, Report of the Chief Inspector of Marine Accidents into the Collision between the Fishing Vessel Antares and HMS Trenchant with the Loss of Four Lives on 22 November 1990 (HMSO, 1992), pp. 32–4. 10. House of Commons Defence Select Committee, Sixth Report of Session 1990/1991, ‘Royal Navy Submarines’ HC 369, 12 June 1991, pp. xiii–xiv. 11. Ibid., p. xiii. 12. House of Commons Defence Select Committee, Third Report of Session 1990/1991, ‘Options For Change: Royal Navy’, HC 226, 27 February 1991, p. xvi. 13. House of Commons Defence Select Committee, Sixth Report of Session 1990/1991, ‘Royal Navy Submarines’, HC 369, 12 June 1991, p. xvi. 14. Jonathan Powis, ‘UK’s Upholder Class Submarines Go to Canada’, Naval Institute Proceedings (October 2002). 15. Ibid. 16. House of Commons Defence Select Committee, Third Report of Session 1990/1991, ‘Options For Change: Royal Navy’, HC 226, 27 February 1991, p. xvi. 17. Ibid. 18. Ibid. 19. House of Commons Defence Select Committee, Sixth Report of Session 1990/1991, ‘Royal Navy Submarines’, HC 369, 12 June 1991. 20. Ibid., pp. xiv–xv. 21. Pitkeathly and Wixon, Submarine Courageous, p. 318; Dan Conley and Richard Woodman, Cold War Command: The Dramatic Story of a Nuclear Submariner (Seaforth Press, 2014), pp. 188–215. 22. House of Commons Defence Select Committee, Sixth Report of Session 1990/1991, ‘Royal Navy Submarines’ HC 369, 12 June 1991, pp. xiv–xv. 23. Powis, ‘UK’s Upholder Class Submarines Go to Canada’. 24. Interview with Roger Lane-Nott, 25 March 2014. 25. David Peer, ‘Some History of the Upholder-Class Submarines’, Canadian Naval
Review (May 2012).
From Polaris to Trident
26. Interview with Toby Frere, 14 January 2014. 27. Patrick Middleton, Admiral Clanky Entertains (Matador, 2010), p. 168. 28. House of Commons Defence Select Committee, Sixth Report of Session 1990/1991, ‘Royal Navy Submarines’, HC 337 (HMSO, 1992), p. 38. 29. Hansard, House of Commons Debates, 1 February 1996, Vol. 270, Col. 1147. 30. House of Commons Defence Select Committee, Sixth Report of Session 1990/1991, ‘Royal Navy Submarines’, HC 369, 12 June 1991, pp. 60–62. 31. Interview with James Taylor, 10 April 2014. 32. Interview with Roger Lane-Nott, 25 March 2014; interview with Lord Boyce, 8 April 2014. 33. Hansard, House of Commons Debates, 20 April 1995, Vol. 258, Col. 224. 34. John Major’s speech at ceremony marking the end of Polaris, 28 August 1996. 35. BBC Radio 4, Reflections, John Major, 13 August 2014. 36. Interview with Doug Littlejohns, 20 November 2013. 37. Roger Lane-Nott, ‘Submarine Intelligence and the Cold War’, in Michael R. Fitzgerald and Allen Packwood (eds.), Out of the Cold: The Cold War and Its Legacy (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013), pp. 113–16. 38. Interview with James Perowne, 18 March 2014. 39. Interview with Mark Stanhope, 4 April 2014. 40. Interview with James Taylor, 10 April 2014. 41. Correspondence with Richard Sharpe, 22 November 2013. 42. Interview with Mark Stanhope, 4 April 2014. 43. Hansard, House of Commons Debates, 14 January 1992, Vol. 201, Col. 818. 44. Independent, ‘Sub Goes Down in Russian History: Hard-Hit Navies Compare Notes’, 3 August 1993. 45. Interview with Paul Branscombe, 1 April 2014. 46. Ibid. 47. Interview with Roger Lane-Nott, 25 March 2014 48. Interview with Paul Branscombe, 1 April 2014. 49. Interview with Roger Lane-Nott, 25 March 2014. 50. Independent, ‘Sub Goes Down in Russian History: Hard-Hit Navies Compare Notes’, 3 August 1993. 51. Interview with Paul Branscombe, 1 April 2014. 52. Interview with Roger Lane-Nott, 25 March 2014. 53. Interview with Paul Branscombe, 1 April 2014. 54. ‘Trenchant hosts own talk show’, Navy News, July 1994.