Photo: Sheila Weir / Royal Navy

The War Zone column from the Drive.com blog recently featured photographs of a Royal Navy Vanguard class submarine returning to HM Naval Base Clyde, which is also known as Faslane, on the west coast of Scotland, after a 197-day nuclear deterrent patrol. The nuclear ballistic missile sub looked like what they describe as a “sea monster that had emerged from a long slumber at the bottom of the ocean.”  The hull is indeed covered by an impressive growth of marine fouling.

Of course, the mission of ballistic missile submarines, often referred to as “boomers,” is to serve as undetectable launch platforms for intercontinental missiles, which is to say that their job is to go find a place to hide in the ocean for extended periods of time.  The opportunity to keep the hull free of maritime growth is, at best, limited, even with the latest anti-fouling coatings now available.

Where the befouled submarine was deployed and which of the four Vanguard-class boomers is captured in the photos is unclear. The Royal Navy prefers to keep information regarding their ballistic missile submarines secret.

The fouling, however, does provide clues to expert observers as to the general characteristics of the mission deployment. Tom Sharpe, an ex-Royal Navy commander, posted on X/Twitter that the images suggest that the sub undertook warm-water operations, in littoral/shallow shores and at very low speeds.

What do we know from this📷

1⃣Long patrol – BZ team (new record?)
2⃣Warm water ops (common)
3⃣Littoral/shallow (less common)
4⃣Sustained slow speeds (standard)
5⃣Outside now as honking as inside (new)
6⃣I can’t do 100% serious tweets (standard)

Welcome back everyone🫡 pic.twitter.com/Yo7I2Jw8pF

— Tom Sharpe (@TomSharpe134) September 11, 2023

Vanguard class submarine returns to Faslane after long patrol