UK Royal Navy retires last remaining Trafalgar-class submarine

The last of the UK Royal Navy’s Trafalgar-class nuclear-powered attack submarines has been formally retired after nearly 34 years of operational service.

HMS Triumph (S93), the seventh and last boat of the class, was decommissioned earlier this month. The submarine is now awaiting disposal along with her sisters.

Triumph was laid down in Barrow shipyard in February 1987 and commissioned less than five years later in October 1991, the last of the class to be built after her six sisters HMS Talent, HMS Trenchant, HMS Torbay, HMS Tireless, HMS Turbulent, and HMS Trafalgar.

Triumph served in Afghanistan in 2001, launching Tomahawk missiles at targets, and later deployed to Libya – again firing her weaponry at positions from the Mediterranean Sea as part of international efforts to protect civilians.

S93 was the tenth Royal Navy vessel to bear the HMS Triumph name.

The retirement of the Trafalgar-class submarines will make way for the introduction of additional Astute-class nuclear-powered boats into Royal Navy service.