HMS ''Tireless'' was the third

nuclear submarine A nuclear submarine is a submarine powered by a nuclear reactor, but not necessarily nuclear-armed. Nuclear submarines have considerable performance advantages over "conventional" (typically diesel-electric) submarines. Nuclear propulsion ...

of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

. ''Tireless'' is the second submarine of the Royal Navy to bear this name. Launched in March 1984, ''Tireless'' was sponsored by Sue Squires, wife of Admiral 'Tubby' Squires, and commissioned in October 1985. During the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

''Tireless'' was primarily involved in

anti-submarine warfare Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in the older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations ar ...

patrols in the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

. After the Cold War, ''Tireless'' was deployed around the world, including to the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceanic divisions. It spans an area of approximately and is the coldest of the world's oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

and

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. At the end of its career, ''Tireless'' was involved in the search for the missing airliner,

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370/MAS370) was an international passenger flight operated by Malaysia Airlines that disappeared from radar on 8 March 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia to its planned de ...

. The vessel experienced a number of serious accidents during its operational life. ''Tireless'' had been scheduled for retirement during 2013, but its service was extended until eventual decommissioning on 19 June 2014. ''Tireless'' was replaced on active duty by HMS ''Artful''.Hansard HL Deb 14 March 2005 vol 670 c116WA
quoted i

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Operational history

From commissioning in 1985, ''Tireless'' completed numerous exercises and visits around the world, including a trip to the

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

in 1991, before entering a refit in early 1996, returning to sea in 1999.

Primary coolant leak

In May 2000, ''Tireless'' developed a serious leak in the nuclear reactor primary cooling circuit, although there was no leak of radioactive material. The nuclear propulsion system was shut down and using backup diesel power ''Tireless'' made way to

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

. The damage was found to be more extensive than first thought, and the boat remained there pending repairs. This created diplomatic tension between

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

and

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

, until the submarine departed on 7 May 2001 after almost a year of extensive repairwork. During that year, all s were inspected for similar problems.

Collision with iceberg

On 13 May 2003, while on exercise in the

and travelling at a depth of 60 metres, ''Tireless'' collided with an iceberg. There was no prior warning of the impending collision from passive

sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances ( ranging), communicate with or detect objects o ...

or other onboard sensors. The submarine's bow was forced down nine degrees and the vessel subsequently broke free of the iceberg at a depth of 78 metres. Some damage was sustained to the upper section of the boat. Before the incident, the Royal Navy had not conducted under-ice operations since 1996. On 19 April 2004, ''Tireless'' and rendezvoused under the Arctic ice and surfaced together at the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

. ''Tireless'' again angered Spain in 2004 when the boat put into Gibraltar from 9 to 15 July for what was explained as "technical reasons." Britain assured Spain that the port call was unrelated to the British celebrations, on 21 July, of the 300th anniversary of Spain handing over Gibraltar to Britain. APLIS Camp Flags

March 2007 explosion

In 2007 ''Tireless'' ventured to the North Pole with to participate in the Applied Physics Laboratory Ice Station (APLIS). On 21 March, two ''Tireless'' crew members, Leading Weapons Engineer Paul McCann and Weapons Engineer 2 Anthony Huntrod (Weapons Submariner) were killed in an explosion on board, apparently caused by an oxygen generator candle in the forward section of the submarine. The boat was in service near the North Pole under ICEX-07 along with the USS ''Alexandria'' and had to make an emergency surface through the

ice cap In glaciology, an ice cap is a mass of ice that covers less than of land area (usually covering a highland area). Larger ice masses covering more than are termed ice sheets. Description By definition, ice caps are not constrained by topogra ...

. A third crewmember suffered "non life-threatening" injuries and was airlifted to a military hospital at

Elmendorf Air Force Base Elmendorf Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) facility in Anchorage, Alaska. Originally known as Elmendorf Field, it became Elmendorf Air Force Base after World War II. It is the home of the Headquarters, Alaskan Air Command ( ...

near

Anchorage, Alaska Anchorage, officially the Municipality of Anchorage, is the List of cities in Alaska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Alaska. With a population of 291,247 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it contains nearly 40 percent of ...

. According to the Royal Navy, the accident did not affect the submarine's nuclear reactor, and the boat sustained only superficial damage. Part of the exercise was being used to measure ice thickness by using sonar. The film '' Stargate: Continuum''—which was filming on the ice and in the ''Alexandria'' during the exercise—was dedicated to McCann and Huntrod.

2010-2011 deployment

From 9 July 2010 to 12 May 2011, ''Tireless'' undertook a ten-month deployment, spending 253 days at sea, the longest conducted by a Royal Navy submarine in ten years. During the deployment the boat passed through the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...

for the first time, provided protection for the French aircraft carrier ''Charles de Gaulle'' launching aircraft over

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

, and called into the ports of

Fujairah Fujairah City () is the capital of the emirate of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. It is the List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, seventh-largest city in UAE, located on the Gulf of Oman (part of the Indian Ocean). It is the only Em ...

in the United Arab Emirates,

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

in India and

Souda Bay Souda Bay () is a bay and natural harbour near the town of Souda on the northwest coast of the Greek island of Crete. The bay is about 15 km long and only two to four km wide, and a deep natural harbour. It is formed between the Akroti ...

in Crete. ''Tireless'' was also involved in a multi-nation anti-submarine exercise in the

Gulf of Oman The Gulf of Oman or Sea of Oman ( ''khalīj ʿumān''; ''daryâ-ye omân''), also known as Gulf of Makran or Sea of Makran ( ''khalīj makrān''; ''daryâ-ye makrān''), is a gulf in the Indian Ocean that connects the Arabian Sea with th ...

which saw the Australian frigate HMAS ''Melbourne'' and the French frigate FS ''Dupleix'' attempt to locate the submarine.

2012 South Atlantic deployment

In February 2012, it was reported that either ''Tireless'' or HMS ''Turbulent'' was being deployed to the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; ), commonly referred to as The Falklands, is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and from Cape Dub ...

amid increasing tension between

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

over sovereignty of the islands. However HMS ''Tireless'' surfaced in Southampton in March, conducting

towed array sonar A towed array sonar is a system of hydrophones towed behind a submarine or a surface ship on a cable. Trailing the hydrophones behind the vessel, on a cable that can be kilometers long, keeps the array's sensors away from the ship's own noise sou ...

calibration and testing in the

Bay of Biscay The Bay of Biscay ( ) is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea. It lies along the western coast of France from Point Penmarc'h to the Spanish border, and along the northern coast of Spain, extending westward ...

before returning to Devonport.

2013 Coolant leak

In early 2013 ''Tireless'' experienced a "small coolant leak that was contained within the sealed reactor compartment", requiring a return to

HMNB Devonport His Majesty's Naval Base, Devonport (HMNB Devonport) is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Clyde and HMNB Portsmouth) and is the sole nuclear repair and refuelling facility for the Roya ...

for repair.

2013 Mediterranean deployment

''Tireless'' was spotted off the

Rock of Gibraltar The Rock of Gibraltar (from the Arabic name Jabal Ṭāriq , meaning "Mountain of Tariq ibn Ziyad, Tariq") is a monolithic limestone mountain high dominating the western entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. It is situated near the end of a nar ...

amidst the tensions between Spain and the UK over the disputed territory of

. It was suggested that this SSN could be a key vessel used to strike Syria if military action occurred.

2014 Indian Ocean search - Malaysian Airlines flight MH370

On 1 April 2014, ''Tireless'' arrived in the southern

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

to join the search for a missing Malaysian airliner, where its sophisticated underwater listening equipment was used in an unsuccessful attempt to detect the

underwater locator beacon An underwater environment is a environment of, and immersed in, liquid water in a natural or artificial feature (called a body of water), such as an ocean, sea, lake, pond, reservoir, river, canal, or aquifer. Some characteristics of the underw ...

of the aircraft's

flight recorder A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to colloquially as a "black box", an outdated nam ...

s.Malaysia Airlines MH370: Submarine joins search as Malaysian PM Najib Razak arrives to inspect efforts

ABC Online The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the Australian Government, federal government and is administered by a government ...

, 2 April 2014

Final return to Plymouth

On 1 June 2014 ''Tireless'' returned to Plymouth for the last time before decommissioning, and was formally decommissioned on 19 June. ''Tireless final operations saw visits to Gibraltar, Crete, India, Jordan, the UAE and Australia. ''Tireless'' was moved in 2020 to a basin within Devonport dockyard often referred to as "the graveyard".

References

External links

Royal Navy HMS ''Tireless''
(royalnavy.mod.uk) {{DEFAULTSORT:Tireless (S88) Trafalgar-class submarines Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness 1984 ships Cold War submarines of the United Kingdom 2000 in Gibraltar 2001 in Gibraltar British submarine accidents Maritime incidents in 2007 Vessels involved in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370