|
The ''Upholder/Victoria''-class submarines, also known as the Type 2400 (due to their displacement of 2,400 tonnes), are diesel-electric fleet submarines designed in the UK in the late 1970s to supplement the Royal Navy's nuclear submarine force. They were decommissioned with the end of the Cold War after a short length of service in the Royal Navy. In 1998, Canada purchased the submarines and a suite of trainers from the Royal Navy to replace the decommissioned of submarines. ==Design and development== The Royal Navy was going to follow the ''Oberon''s with nuclear-powered boats but there was still a role for diesel powered boats, as demonstrated by activities during the Falklands War, and they could be built faster than nuclear submarines. The only yard building nuclear submarines was Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness and it was occupied with the ballistic missile submarines. Accordingly, to provide the Royal Navy with a diesel boat for the Greenland-Iceland-UK Gap, Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd developed the ''Upholder'' class from the 1970s onwards. The design was based on their private scheme for a 2400 tonne submarine for export sales. This was combined with lessons learnt from the ''Oberon''s and the design of the fleet submarines. They were built with teardrop hulls and the fin was built from glass fibre to keep weight down. The submarines have technology generally found only on nuclear-powered submarines and at the time (1992) were widely regarded as being among the best diesel-electric submarines in the world. The price of each submarine was published at US$215 million, but actual cost after correcting the design flaws was higher. As in most new submarine classes, the emphasis was placed on standardisation and automation to reduce manning requirements. The first of the class (''Upholder'') was ordered in November 1983 and completed in 1990, and there followed three more boats (''Unseen'', ''Ursula'' and ''Unicorn'') ordered in 1986 and completed in 1991-1993. The Royal Navy had planned to order 12 of the class, but this was trimmed first to 10 and then to nine before being curtailed at four as part of the "peace dividend" at the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s. 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「Upholder/Victoria-class submarine」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|