The Royal Navy has announced that the name of the seventh and final Astute-class submarine, currently under construction at BAE Systems in Barrow, is to be HMS Achilles.
In a post shared on the Royal Navy’s official X account last night, the navy says the King has agreed to the name.
Originally the boat was to be called Agincourt.
The most recent use of the name Achilles was a Leander-class frigate launched in 1968 at Yarrow and later sold to Chile.
The name HMS Agincourt for the seventh Astute was confirmed in 2018 when the Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson announced the Ministry of Defence intended investing £2.5 billion in boosting Britain’s submarine building projects.
The Royal Navy website still names HMS Agincourt as the intended name for the boat.
The Astute Class boats are the largest and most advanced attack submarines ever built for the Royal Navy.
Their state-of-the-art nuclear technology means they never need to be refuelled and, as they manufacture their own oxygen and drinking water for their 98 crew members, they are able to circumnavigate the globe without surfacing.
The first five submarines in the class, HMS Astute, HMS Ambush, HMS Artful, HMS Audacious and HMS Anson, have been handed over to the Royal Navy, with work on Agamemnon which was launched in Barrow last October underway.
