The Royal Navy Had to Take an Astute-Class Nuclear Attack Submarine And Cannibalize it for Spare Parts

HMS Ambush, the second Astute-class nuclear attack submarine, has not put to sea since August 2022 and is now being cannibalized for parts at Faslane, according to Steve Balestrieri. Laid down in 2003 at Barrow and delivered in 2013, Ambush is sitting in the Royal Navy’s lowest readiness state while engineers remove components to keep her sister boats operational. The broader issue is that the Astute program is still not finished nearly three decades after the original contract, and it’s extending the strain across the fleet. A 2017 National Audit Office review found 28% of defects resolved in 2016-17 were fixed by stripping parts from other boats, totaling about £22 million in components and causing schedule and indirect cost impacts. The article also points to infrastructure and a thinning spares pipeline, with limited facilities for lifting nuclear boats.