Nominally the Submarine Industrial Base Council would not post news about foreign submarine programs but we thought this might be of interest to our members supporting OHIO Replacement and the Common Missile Compartment (CMC). The CMC is a joint investment by both the United States and United Kingdom in our next generation ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) as both nations will continue to use the Trident D-5 submarine launched ballistic missile. The first CMCs will actually be built in the United Kingdom for the VANGUARD Class ballistic missile submarine replacement program known as SUCCESSOR, which will now be formally known as the DREADNOUGHT Class SSBNs. Read more below.
From the United States Naval Institute News: U.K. Revives Dreadnought Name for Successor SSBNs
LONDON — The first of the Royal Navy’s future ballistic nuclear missile submarines will be known as HMS Dreadnought, the UK Ministry of Defence announced on Friday.
The decision revives a famous old name that has been carried by nine British fighting ships since the 16th Century, including the revolutionary battleship launched in 1906 and the country’s first nuclear-powered submarine.
All four of the 17,200-tonne ‘successor’ SSBNs will now be known as the Dreadnought class, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said in an announcement timed to mark the 211th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar (during which the sixth ship to bear the name captured a Spanish warship) and the 56th anniversary of the launch of the pioneering SSN at Barrow in northern England.
Read the full story here.