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History
UK
Name	HMS Superb
Operator	Royal Navy
Ordered	20 May 1970
Builder	Vickers
Laid down	16 March 1972
Launched	30 November 1974
Commissioned	13 November 1976
Decommissioned	26 September 2008
Homeport	Faslane
Motto	With Strength and Courage
Nickname(s)	Super B
Status	Decommissioned, at Devonport
General characteristics
Class and type	Swiftsure-class submarine
Displacement	4,900 tonnes (dived)
Length	82.9 metres
Beam	9.8 metres
Draught	8.5 metres
Propulsion	One Rolls-Royce pressurised water nuclear reactor (PWR1)
Speed	In excess of 20 knots (37 km/h), dived
Complement	116 officers and men
Armament	list error: <br /> list (help) 5 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes Spearfish torpedoes RN Sub Harpoon missiles

HMS Superb (S109) is a nuclear powered fleet submarine of the Swiftsure class serving in the Royal Navy.

She was built by Vickers Shipbuilding Groups, now a division of BAE Systems Submarine Solutions. HMS Superb was launched on 30 November 1974 at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria and commissioned into the Royal Navy on 13 November 1976. After being damaged in May 2008 in the Red Sea, she returned to Devonport where she was decommissioned slightly ahead of schedule on 26 September 2008.

Operations

She was the first British submarine to visit the Arctic Ocean and sail under the polar ice caps.

During the Falklands War, Superb was spotted sailing from Gibraltar, which prompted press speculation that she was sailing to the South Atlantic to enforce a maritime exclusion zone. In fact, only HMS Spartan was sailing south at that time but the speculation was useful to promote the apparent threat of the Royal Navy in the South Atlantic and was not corrected by the Navy or MoD.

In support of the war against terror in 2001, HMS Superb operated in the Indian Ocean.

In 2007, Superb successfully completed training manoeuvres off the Scottish coast, engaging with HMS Daring, a brand new Type 45 destroyer.

In January 2008 a sentry was found sleeping while on watch, the reprimand to the crew was caught on video..

On 26 May 2008, the Superb hit an underwater pinnacle in the Red Sea, 80 miles south of the Suez Canal. She remained watertight, and none of the 112 crew were injured, however she was unable to resubmerge due to damage to her sonar. After undertaking initial repairs at the Souda Bay NATO base on Crete on 10 June 2008, she passed through the Mediterranean, with a pause (at night) some miles off Gibraltar to disembark some less critical crew. Superb then continued back to the UK, arriving at Devonport Dockyard on 28 June 2008. After surveying the damage, the Royal Navy decided to decommission the Superb slightly ahead of schedule on 26 September 2008.

Crest and Affiliations

Superb's official crest depicts a heraldic lion with an anchor superimposed. This was the family crest of Sir Richard Keats who commanded a previous vessel of the name during the Napoleonic wars. However, throughout the Navy she is known as Super B, and there is an unofficial crest depicting a superhero bumblebee.

Superb is affiliated with The Royal Dragoon Guards.

References

1. News : HMS Superb : Swiftsure Class : Fleet Submarines (SSN) : Submarine Service : Operations and Support : Royal Navy
2. "MoD acts over submarine incident". BBC. 2008-06-03. Retrieved 2008-06-03.
3. "UK submarine hits Red Sea rocks". BBC. 2008-05-27. Retrieved 2008-05-27.
4. "Superb submarine's final service". BBC. 2008-09-26. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
5. "Lone Piper Lament as Oldest Submarine Retires". RN. 2008-09-26. Retrieved 2008-09-29.

External links

• The Royal Navy's HMS Superb page

• Swiftsure class submarines
• Royal Navy nuclear submarines
• Barrow-built ships