Once in service, HMS Swiftsure proved her value as a quiet, effective submarine. Her systems allowed her to carefully spy on enemy actions and in this role she excelled. Her armament was never used in anger and she was part of the 1977 operation to acquire the acoustic signature of Kiev, the Soviet Navy's premiere aircraft carrier of the time (which she successfully accomplished. She then entered a period of refitting in April 1980 (delayed since January of 1979) and was not made ready until 1983. From there, a second scheduled refit was intended for 1992 but it was decided to have the boat decommissioned instead - possibly due to cracks in the reactor unit or, more popularly cited, damage to the hull encountered during prior diving trials.
In either case, the ocean-going career of HMS Swiftsure was certainly cut short. The rest of the class managed sailing careers into the 2000s with HMS Sceptre, the forth boat of the class, becoming the last to see retirement in December of 2010.
The Trafalgar-class succeeded the Swiftsure-class in the same undersea role for the RN.
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Operators
Global operator(s) of the HMS Swiftsure (S126). Nations are displayed by flag, each linked to their respective national naval warfare listing.
[ Untied Kingdom (retired) ]