Britain’s mighty fleet of fearsome new nuclear submarines, dubbed the Royal Navy’s future ‘silent enforcers’, will feature separate cabins for female sailors, an on-board gym and study room for its 130-strong crew.
The new Dreadnought-class submarines will soon prowl the globe’s oceans, cutting silently under the waves while carrying Britain’s arsenal of nuclear weapons.
The four vessels – HMS Dreadnought, HMS Valiant, HMS Warspite and HMS King George VI – will replace the ageing Vanguard fleet and become the UK’s main nuclear deterrents.
Sailors will be forced to spend months underwater locked inside them, with zero contact with their loved ones as they carry out patrols.
Much of the design of the boats has remained shrouded in secrecy. However, last week the world was given a fresh insight into them when Prime Minister Keir Starmer laid the keel for the first sub, HMS Dreadnought.
The exact date Dreadnought will enter service has not been revealed. However, it’s thought it will be in the early 2030s, as part of a 20-year project costing £31billion.
But in a social media video boasting about the deadly submarines, the Ministry of Defence said: ‘The Dreadnought Class submarines are the largest, most complex and capable submarines ever built in the UK.
‘They will start to replace the current Vanguard Class from the early 2030s and keep the UK safe with our continuous at sea nuclear deterrent – 365 days a year.’
The new Dreadnought class of nuclear submarines will feature a gym, female-only cabins and three chefs. Pictured is what the boat will look like once it’s fully built
Pictured: The Royal Navy’s submarine HMS Vanguard which carries trident missiles. The fleet will be replaced by the new Dreadnought vessels
Displacing more than 17,000 tonnes and at a length of 14 buses, HMS Dreadnought will be the most-advanced boats of its kind in service anywhere, featuring – for the first time – ‘adaptive’ lighting to simulate day and night on board.
The nuclear-armed subs have been built in secret, with engineers constructing huge ‘mega-units’ that were transported in big ‘black binbags’ to the Barrow-in-Furness shipyard, where they will be stitched together.
However, the boats are ‘too fat to fit’ into existing berths, armed forces minister Luke Pollard admitted, meaning work is underway to redesign submarine ports to accommodate the vast vessels.
Inside the boats, three chefs will keep the 130-strong crew fed while they remain underwater on their secret nuclear deterrent mission. An on-call doctor will also be available.
And for the first time, the submarines will feature female-only cabins.
It comes following a series of scandals within the submarine service that has seen female sailors reportedly being sexually assaulted and harassed by male colleagues.
So ‘abhorrent’ was the behaviour, it prompted a major inquiry by naval top brass in a bid to stamp out the abuse.
Whistleblowers previously told the MailOnline the submarine service was plagued by ‘gang bangs’, drugs, sordid initiation ceremonies, ‘rape lists’, with lewd officers sharing Top Trump-style cards celebrating the worst kinds of debauched behaviour.
The ‘mega-unit’ section of the Royal Navy’s newest nuclear submarine HMS Dreadnought was kept under wraps as it headed north to Barrow shipyard
As part of a £31bn programme, the huge section of HMS Dreadnought is seen protected against the elements by what the Royal Navy describe as ‘what must be the world’s largest black bin bag’
The Dreadnought subs will be built in Barrow. Pictured is Keir Starmer meeting some of the personnel at the shipyard last week
PM Sir Keir Starmer gives an address during the keel laying ceremony of HMS Dreadnought
A former nuclear submarine captain said the British public will be ‘rightly appalled’ by the ‘levels of depravity and failures in leadership’. While a former head of the Royal Navy branded the reports ‘extraordinary’ and ‘unpleasant’.
Sources claimed vile ‘initiation ceremonies’ are carried out by the crew, where new young sailors are terrorised and told to get onto ‘their hands and knees’ before being forced to perform sex acts on other experienced sailors.
Male personnel on one nuclear-armed sub created a sickening ‘crush depth rape list’ which ranked which crewmates would be raped first in the case of a catastrophic event at sea – with senior officers allegedly aware of the document.
One young teenage male sailor was left so ‘petrified’ about being named on the list they begged older crewmates to protect them, amid claims complaints about the file had been ‘swept under the carpet’ and ignored by commanders.
‘The lunatics are in charge at the asylum,’ an insider told MailOnline. ‘We had a rape list on my submarine. There was a 19-year-old kid [on it]. When he realised he was on it, he was s***ing his pants. Everyone wanted to rape him. He was petrified.’
Sailors also created a vile Top Trumps-style cards dubbed ‘Disgraced Dabbers’, which appears to celebrate the some of the worst offenders of alleged debauched behaviour – including high-ranking officers.
The claims appalled former nuclear submarine captain, Commander Ryan Ramsey, who said he was ‘depressed and saddened’ by the allegations.
Pictured is an example of the Top Trumps card which have been shared among crew on a nuclear submarine
A mock-up of the deck of cards, dubbed ‘Disgraced Dabbers’ appeared to show a number of Royal Navy sailors
Allegations have also been made that young sailors are forced to undergo repulsive ‘initiation ceremonies’ when they join a boat, which include performing sex acts on other sailors. (Pictured, HMS Vanguard arrives back at HM Naval Base Clyde)
‘I really don’t understand how we have got to these levels of depravity and failures in leadership and it needs to be sorted,’ Cdr Ramsey said.
‘When I was a junior officer, the thing was bullying and shouting and screaming. That was the really bad stuff. But now we’re talking about rape lists.’
‘The general public will be rightly concerned about those environments and those people in particular. They should be rightly appalled by the behaviours described.’
Former First Sea Lord, Admiral Lord Alan West, also expressed concern. He told MailOnline: ‘It’s very clear how one should behave in the Royal Navy – in my time if anyone did something wrong, we came down on them like a ton of bricks to sought them out. It all sounds very unpleasant and extraordinary.’
The Dreadnought subs have a lifespan of about 30 years and an ‘unlimited range’ thanks to its new nuclear reactor, defence giant BAE Systems claimed.
First steel was cut for Dreadnought nearly a decade ago and huge sections have already been completed. Last week’s keel laying was broadly symbolic, with the ceremony attended by military and political top brass.
‘This keel laying ceremony is considered the ‘birth’ of a vessel and I congratulate all those involved across the Alliance for reaching this important milestone in the life of HMS Dreadnought and look forward to bringing this exciting and highly capable submarine into service,’ said First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Ben Key.
‘Whilst the Vanguard-class of submarines continues to deliver our continuous at-sea deterrent today, the Royal Navy is greatly looking forward to operating highly sophisticated and advanced Dreadnought class submarines.’
