September 9, 200817 yr From Jane's Commissioning problems hit Astute delivery By Richard Scott 8th September 2008 The introduction to service of Astute, the UK Royal Navy's (RN's) first Astute-class nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN), has suffered further delays as a result of problems encountered in the boat's commissioning and test phase. Representatives from prime contractor BAE Systems Submarine Solutions and the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) have engaged in a joint review process to re-baseline the boat's programme to delivery. No formal announcement on the extent of the delay has been announced, but it is expected that the schedule slippage will push Astute's programme acceptance date back by several months. Astute was rolled out from BAE Systems Submarine Solution's Barrow yard in June 2007. The boat completed a first basin trial in late October last year and BAE Systems had originally planned to have Astute ready to start sea trials at the end of July 2008 ahead of a planned handover in November 2008. However, a range of emergent first-of-class issues have conspired to delay the programme. Astute has encountered a number of setbacks in its commissioning and test phase, including damage to turbo generator bearings during testing in August 2007.
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