HMS Torbay (S90)

HMS Torbay rounding Calshot Spit, Southampton in November 2010.
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Torbay
Builder:	Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering, Barrow-in-Furness
Laid down:	3 December 1982
Launched:	8 March 1985
Sponsored by:	Lady Ann Herbert
Commissioned:	7 February 1987
Homeport:	HMNB Devonport, Plymouth
Fate:	in active service
Badge:
General characteristics
Class and type:	Trafalgar-class submarine
Displacement:	Surfaced: 4,500 to 4,800 t (4,700 long tons; 5,300 short tons) Submerged: 5,200 to 5,300 t (5,200 long tons; 5,800 short tons)
Length:	85.4 m (280 ft)
Beam:	9.8 m (32 ft)
Draught:	9.5 m (31 ft)
Propulsion:	1 × Rolls Royce PWR1 nuclear reactor 2 × GEC steam turbines 2 × WH Allen turbo generators; 3.2 MW 2 × Paxman diesel alternators 2,800 shp (2.1 MW) 1 × pump jet propulsor 1 × motor for emergency drive 1 × auxiliary retractable prop
Speed:	Over 30 knots (56 km/h), submerged
Range:	Unlimited
Complement:	130
Electronic warfare & decoys:	2 × SSE Mk8 launchers for Type 2066 and Type 2071 torpedo decoys RESM Racal UAP passive intercept CESM Outfit CXA SAWCS decoys carried from 2002
Armament:	5 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes with stowage for up to 30 weapons: Tomahawk Block IV cruise missiles Spearfish heavyweight torpedoes

HMS Torbay is a Trafalgar-class nuclear submarine of the Royal Navy and the fourth vessel of her class. Torbay is the fifth vessel and the second submarine of the Royal Navy to be named after Torbay in Devon, England. The first vessel was the 80-gun second rate HMS Torbay launched in 1693.

Torbay was the first vessel to be fitted with the new command system SMCS-NG and therefore the first British warship to be controlled using the Microsoft Windows operating system.

Torbay was scheduled to be decommissioned in 2015 and will be replaced by one of the new Astute-class submarines. As of November 2013^[update] she is still undergoing extended maintenance and upgrades, which were originally scheduled to complete in Summer 2013. The work allows for a life extension beyond the previously-planned decommissioning date.

Torbay completed a refuel and modernisation process in February 2001.

In early 2006, Torbay was the participant in an experiment in the use of colour schemes to reduce the visibility of submarines from the air. The standard black paint of Royal Navy submarines was replaced by a carefully selected shade of blue. This was the result of research that found that black was the worst possible colour for a submarine attempting to avoid detection from the air. This change is in part the result of the changing nature of Royal Navy commitments since the end of the Cold War, with Navy operations moving from the murky waters of the North Atlantic to the clearer waters of the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.

In November 2010, it was reported in Hansard that Torbay had run aground in the Eastern Mediterranean in April 2009.