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The three Improved ''Valiant'' class submarines, sometimes known as the ''Churchill'' class,〔Hool, Jack, and Nutter, Keith, ''Damned Un-English Machines, a history of Barrow-built submarines'', pub Tempus, 2003, ISBN 0-7524-2781-4 page 177.〕 were nuclear powered fleet submarines which served with the Royal Navy from the 1970s until the early 1990s. The ''Churchill'' class was based on the older ''Valiant'' class, but featured many internal improvements. The lead ship was named after the former Prime Minister and First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill. was the most famous of the class, sinking the Argentinian cruiser ARA ''General Belgrano'' during the 1982 Falklands War. , this is the only instance of a nuclear-powered submarine of any nation sinking an enemy ship by torpedo. ==Design== The ''Churchills'' carried a crew of 103 and had a full load displacement of 4,900 tons whilst dived. They were 86.9 metres long, had a beam of 10.1 metres and a draught of 8.2 metres. Their single pressurized water-cooled reactor supplied steam to two English Electric geared turbines, producing a total of for the single shaft and resulting in a maximum of 28 knots submerged. One Kelvin Type 1006 surface-search radar was fitted. The ships were built with a Type 2001 sonar array, but this was replaced in the late 1970s with a Type 2020 array and a Type 2026 towed array. Weapons included Mark 8 torpedoes, Mark 24 Tigerfish torpedoes, and Sub-Harpoon anti-ship missiles. Six torpedo tubes fired from the bow. Like all nuclear-powered submarines the ''Churchill'' class could remain submerged almost indefinitely, with supplies of food being the only limiting factor. HMS ''Churchill'' evaluated both the American Mark 48 torpedo and the UGM-84 Harpoon missile, though only the latter was adopted by the Royal Navy. She was decommissioned in 1990 and is laid up at Rosyth awaiting disposal. In 1981 became the first British submarine to carry the Sub-Harpoon missile. She was decommissioned in 1992 and is at Devonport Dockyard serving as a museum ship. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Churchill-class submarine」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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