HMCS Victoria (SSK 876)
Encyclopedia

HMCS
Her Majesty's Canadian Ship
The designation Her Majesty's Canadian Ship , is applied as a prefix to any Canadian Forces warship. In the reign of a king, the designation changes to His Majesty's Canadian Ship; the French version of the title remains unchanged in this instance...

 Victoria (SSK 876)
is a long-range hunter-killer (SSK) submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

 of the Royal Canadian Navy
Royal Canadian Navy
The history of the Royal Canadian Navy goes back to 1910, when the naval force was created as the Naval Service of Canada and renamed a year later by King George V. The Royal Canadian Navy is one of the three environmental commands of the Canadian Forces...

, the lead ship
Lead ship
The lead ship or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable military ships and larger civilian craft.-Overview:...

 of her class. She is named after the city of Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...

. She was purchased from the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

, and is the former HMS Unseen (S41). The class was also renamed from the Upholder-class. She was also the focus of the novel H.M.S. Unseen
H.M.S. Unseen (novel)
H.M.S. Unseen is a naval thriller published in 1999 by Patrick Robinson; it is the third book in the series featuring Admiral Arnold Morgan, and marks the return of Ben Adnam. It is stylisticly similar to Tom Clancy, particularly his The Hunt for Red October...

.

Design

HMCS Victorias displacement is approximately 2,200 tons surfaced and 2,400 tons submerged. Covered in anechoic tile
Anechoic tile
Anechoic tiles are rubber or synthetic polymer tiles containing thousands of tiny voids, applied to the outer hulls of military ships and submarines, as well as anechoic chambers...

s to reduce her detection by active sonar
Sonar
Sonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...

, the submarine is 70.3 meters long, 7.6 meters across the beam and has a deep diving depth in excess of 200 meters. The main hull is constructed of high tensile steel sections stiffened by circular internal frames. Equipment located outside the main hull is covered by the Casing, which also gives the crew a safe walkway when the submarine is surfaced. The Fin, which helps support the masts, serves as a kind of keel and provides a raised conning position.

Specifications

HMCS Victoria has six torpedo tube
Torpedo tube
A torpedo tube is a device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units installed aboard surface vessels...

s and can carry up to eighteen Mark 48 Mod 4 heavyweight torpedoes for use against surface and sub-surface targets.

HMCS Victorias sonar sets allow her to locate and track ships and other submarines "passively", that is without transmitting on active sonar and thus giving way her location. She is fitted with radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...

 for general navigation, attack and search periscopes (incorporating video recording and thermal imaging), and an electronic support measures
Electronic warfare support measures
In military telecommunications, the terms Electronic Support or Electronic Support Measures describe the division of electronic warfare involving actions taken under direct control of an operational commander to detect, intercept, identify, locate, record, and/or analyze sources of radiated...

 (ESM) suite.

The vessel's propulsion is a conventional diesel-electric layout, in which an electric motor driving a single screw is powered by two main batteries, each consisting of 240 battery cells, the battery is charged via two diesel engines, each capable of producing up to 1,410 kilowatts when running on the surface or snorkeling
Submarine snorkel
A submarine snorkel is a device which allows a submarine to operate submerged while still taking in air from above the surface. Navy personnel often refer to it as the snort.-History:...

. The generators can float the load but this is not a normal configuration. HMCS Victoria can reach a submerged speed of up to 20 knots (39 km/h).

Construction

The submarine was laid down as HMS Unseen at Cammell Laird
Cammell Laird
Cammell Laird, one of the most famous names in British shipbuilding during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, came about following the merger of Laird, Son & Co. of Birkenhead and Johnson Cammell & Co. of Sheffield at the turn of the twentieth century.- Founding of the business :The Company...

's Birkenhead
Birkenhead
Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool...

 yard on 12 August 1987. She was launched on 14 November 1989, and commissioned into the Royal Navy on 20 July 1991.

Transfer

Looking to discontinue the operation of diesel-electric boats, the British government offered to sell Unseen and her sister submarines to Canada in 1993. The offer was accepted in 1998. The four boats were leased to the Canadians for US$427 million (plus US$98 million for upgrades and alteration to Canadian standards), with the lease to run for eight years; after this, the submarines would be sold for £1.

Unseen was the first to be reactivated, and was due to enter service in May 2000. However, problems were discovered with the piping welds on all four submarines, which delayed the reactivation. Unseen was handed over to the Canadian Navy on 6 October 2000, and was commissioned as HMCS Victoria on 2 December 2000.

Royal Canadian Navy

On arrival in Halifax, Victoria was placed into dockyard hands for refitting. This was originally scheduled to take six months, but was not completed until 2003. Victoria was then transferred to Esquimalt, British Columbia, becoming the first Canadian submarine stationed in the Pacific since the 1974 decommissioning of . The submarine was in and out of dock during 2004 and 2005, cumulating in a planned two-year repair program in late 2005.

Quoting a CBC News
CBC News
CBC News is the department within the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on CBC television, radio and online services...

report from May, 2006:
Navy technicians caused "catastrophic damage" to one of Canada's trouble-plagued submarines two years ago, says a Halifax newspaper report that cited military documents.
The technicians blew out the electrical system when they hooked up HMCS Victoria to a modern electrical generator, the Halifax Chronicle-Herald reported Saturday.
"Attempts to use a DC [direct current] feed … caused catastrophic damage to certain onboard filters and power supply units," the Chronicle-Herald reported, quoting recently released military documents about the incident, which occurred in British Columbia.
The navy is now spending about $200,000 to buy old electrical equipment that mirrors the original equipment found on the submarine.


As of March, 2011 repairs were still ongoing.

Between 2000 and 2010, Victoria has only been at sea for 115 days; it is expected to re-enter service in mid-2011, after six years in drydock.

As of April 23rd it is reported to be out of drydock and going through trials.
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