HMS Churchill SSN (decom.)

 military, nuclear submarine

HMS Churchill S-46
Laid down: 30 June 1967
Launched: 20 December 1968
Commissioned: 15 July 1970
Decommissioned: 28 February 1991

HMS Churchill was the first of three Churchill-class submarine nuclear fleet submarines that served with the British Royal Navy.The three Improved Valiant class submarines, known as the Churchill class,were nuclear powered fleet submarines (SSN) which served with the Royal Navy from the 1970s until the early 1990s. The Churchill class was based on the older Valiant class, but featured many internal improvements; they were contemporaries of the US Sturgeon class.

This the lead ship was named after the former British Prime Minister and First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill. HMS Conqueror was the most famous of the class, sinking the Argentinian cruiser ARA General Belgrano during the 1982 Falklands War. She is the only nuclear-powered submarine of any nationality to have engaged an enemy ship with torpedoes.

Churchill was chosen to trial the first full-size submarine pump jet propulsion. Trials of a high-speed unit were followed by further trials with a low-speed unit, and these were successful enough for the same propulsion to be fitted in the rest of the class. Later British submarine classes also featured the pump jet, although first-of-class vessels Swiftsure and Trafalgar were fitted with propellers at build.

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