Catalogue of failure led to HMS Astute running aground

HMS Astute’s senior officers did not follow correct procedure and showed a “significant lack of appreciation … of the proximity of danger”.

A radio was missing from the vessel’s bridge and the sub’s main radar system was not on when it ran aground. A secondary radar was not available until it was “too late”, according to the report.

• Read the full report

The findings of the Royal Navy inquiry were branded “embarrassing” and reminiscent of “a script from Dad’s Army”.

Astute was stuck for ten hours in a channel between Skye and the mainland in October 2010, with its rudder damaged during the initial grounding on a silt bank and its starboard foreplane damaged during a recovery operation by the tug Anglian Prince during which the two vessels collided.

The report said the commanding officer had failed to act on three separate requests from other officers to reduce speed and alter course, during an exercise in transferring personnel by boat to and from the submarine near the Skye Bridge.

The inquiry found poor planning and communications, combined with a failure to adhere to correct procedures, had been to blame for the £1.2 billion vessel being left marooned near the Kyle of Lochalsh.

It said there had been a “significant lack of appreciation of the proximity of danger” by the submarine’s Officer of the Watch.

The commanding officer, Commander Andy Coles, was stripped of his post within weeks of the incident, which happened at 6:30am when it was still dark.

The Royal Navy revealed yesterday that a further two officers had been disciplined over the incident but refused to release further details.

The Faslane-based sub was freed only at high tide, after almost 11 hours of drama.

The ship had been patrolling on the surface in a narrow channel commonly used for such trials, but had drifted outside marker buoys that were in place to indicate where vessels were at risk of running aground.

The report found there had been “no dedicated plan or special briefing” for the transfer, there was no bridge chart, the main radar system was not deployed and a radio was missing from the bridge.

It said the preparations for and conduct of the watch by the commanding officer “fell short of the standards required to maintain submarine safety”.

The report went on: “The root causes of the grounding were non-adherence to correct procedures for the planning and execution of the navigation combined with a significant lack of appreciation by the Officer of the Watch (OOW) of the proximity of danger.

“However, a number of additional causal factors were present, including some deficiencies with equipment.”

Built by defence giant BAE Systems at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, HMS Astute was the first in a fleet that will replace the Trafalgar-class submarines, using nuclear power and carrying conventional weapons.

Astute weighs 7,800 tonnes, equivalent to nearly 1,000 double-decker buses, and is almost 100 metres long.

The 39,000 acoustic panels that cover its surface mask its sonar signature, meaning it can sneak up on enemy warships and submarines alike, or lurk unseen and unheard at depth.

It can carry a mix of up to 38 Spearfish heavyweight torpedoes and Tomahawk Land Attack cruise missiles, which are able to target enemy submarines, surface ships and land targets from 1,240 miles with conventional weapons.

Ten recommendations were made by the internal inquiry, including that before Astute undertakes any more sea trials, it should be provided with a “surfaced navigation” training package to cover manning, routines, navigational planning, briefing and execution. The “fragility and limitations” of the internal communications system should also be addressed.

Rear Admiral Ian Corder said remedial action had either been completed or was under way.

He said: “The report is very thorough and identifies all the contributing factors, and I am confident that the incident is not indicative of wider failings.

“A thorough review of submarine navigation and associated training has already been conducted and I have ensured the inherent risks associated with such operations are kept as low as possible.”

The Ministry of Defence has never revealed details of the cost of repairs on Astute.

Skye MP Charles Kennedy said: “I welcome the Royal Navy’s report and, in particular, their conclusion that this was an isolated incident and not a sign of widespread failings in the submarine service as a whole.

“I hope that lessons have been learned for the future, not least because of the inherent dangers of such incidents involving nuclear-powered submarines.

“At the next opportunity, I will raise this matter, and the recommendations made by the Royal Navy, with defence ministers in the House of Commons, in order to help allay the concerns of all those living on the west coast and Skye.”

The SNP’s defence spokesman, Angus Robertson, said: “This report reveals the embarrassing catalogue of errors that led to a the Royal Navy’s most advanced submarine being ambushed by a pile of rocks.

“The incident involving HMS Astute was clearly not a one-off – there is a long list of collisions and groundings involving nuclear-powered submarines, which makes the Ministry of Defence look shambolic. One collision is one too many – especially when it involves a submarine with a nuclear reactor.”

John Ainslie, co-ordinator of the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said: “The report reads like the script of an episode from Dad’s Army. It is a catalogue of obvious failures which led inexorably to an embarrassing fiasco. The people commanding the navy’s newest nuclear submarine showed even less competence than Captain Mainwaring and Corporal Jones.”

Skye Lifeboat operations manager Ross McKerlich, whose house overlooks the scene of the incident, said the vessel should never have been allowed in such shallow and treacherous water.

“The Royal Navy was being very brash in taking their vessels so close,” he said. “This was for all to see. It landed on the sand bank but only a hundred metres away was a rock.”

The Duchess of Cornwall named and officially launched Astute at the Clyde naval base, Faslane, in August 2010.

Six months after the Skye incident, Astute became host to tragedy, which led to fears the vessel was “cursed”.

In April 2011, Able Seaman Ryan Donovan shot dead Lieutenant Commander Ian Molyneux while Astute was docked in Southampton. Donovan was jailed for a minimum of 25 years last September for that murder and the attempted murders of Petty Officer Christopher Brown, 36, Chief Petty Officer David McCoy, 37, and Lt Cdr Christopher Hodge, 45.