See a cross-section of the new Astute submarine

The Duchess of Cornwall launched the most powerful and sophisticated submarine ever built for the Royal Navy today.

The Duchess named the Astute — a 7,400-tonne nuclear submarine that will never need to be refuelled — with a bottle of beer brewed by the boat's crew at the dockyard in Barrow, Cumbria, this morning.

The submarine will be lowered into the dock tomorrow before being delivered to the Royal Navy in August, where she will be commissioned to become HMS Astute, the first in a class of four new generation submarines that will cost £3.7 billion between them and help provide the backbone of Britain's naval defence for the next 25 years.

Around 10,000 visitors, workers, naval crew and military officers watched today's ceremony, which was first time the Duchess has launched a vessel, an honour which in naval tradition is always carried out by a woman and normally the Queen.

The First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, described the Astute as a "true multi-role platform submarine", which will be able to support British forces anywhere in the world, carrying 50 per cent more Spearfish torpedoes and Tomahawk cruise missiles than her predecessors and able to hit targets from more than 2,000km (1,240 miles) away.

“The Astute class submarines are immensely powerful vessels. They will form a key part of our future programme, giving the Royal Navy the versatility and technical excellence needed to operate successfully across the globe in decades to come," said the Admiral.

BAE Systems, which built the Astute over the last six-and-a-half years, compared the vessel to a space shuttle in its complexity. One hundred metres long, containing 100km of cabling and weighing as much as 1,000 double-decker buses, the boat contains more than a million moving parts and was constructed from more than 7,000 design drawings.

Its pressurised water nuclear reactor is considered more complex than a nuclear power station, partly because the boat's crew of 100 must all live within close proximity — the submarine commander will sleep just 10m away from the nuclear core — and partly because it is designed to work continuously for the entire lifetime of the submarine.

The power of the Astute class boats will enable them to circumnavigate the globe underwater, patrolling for up to 90 days at a time. Nearly 40,000 acoustic tiles will mask their progress through the water, making them the stealthiest ever used by the Navy despite being much larger than previous attack boats.

Lord Drayson, the Minister for Defence Equipment and Support, said: “I am delighted to be here to see the launch of Astute. She is the first of a class of hugely impressive vessels which will give the Royal Navy the world class capability it needs to protect the UK and her interests across the globe in the 21st century. Astute is a truly remarkable vessel, and her importance cannot be underestimated."

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