Lord West of Spithead – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord West of Spithead on 2016-01-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on 8 December 2015 (HL4049), whether HMS Astute was laid down on 31 January 2001, launched on 8 June 2007 and commissioned on 27 August 2010; and whether HMS Artful was laid down on 11 March 2005 and launched on 17 May 2014 and is planned to be commissioned in March 2016.

Earl Howe

The dates that the noble Lord refers to, including the planned commissioning date for Artful, are correct. The build time for the Astute class submarines has reduced with every boat built to date; for HMS Astute, the time taken from start of manufacture to operational handover was 170 months, which included first of class trials, and for Artful was 137 months.