Royal Navy submarine HMS Trenchant has broken through the ice of the North Pole with two US submarines to bring Ice Exercise 18 to an end…
A few weeks after punching through the ice off Alaska, the hunter-killer submarine emerged at the top of the world some 2,750 miles from – and 37 degrees Celsius colder than – her home base of Plymouth.
Trenchant joined the USS Connecticut and USS Hartford for the drills, co-ordinated by the US Navy’s Arctic Submarine Laboratory, and broke through the ice at the North Pole five times. The demanding trials are designed to test submariners’ skills in operating in the frigid climate of the Arctic Circle.
Commander David Burrell, the Commanding Officer of HMS Trenchant, said: “This ice exercise has been excellent and very well conducted. The Royal Navy operates all across the globe acting on behalf of Britain’s interests. That includes being able to successfully operate and conduct warfighting beneath the ice cap. It’s a vital skill which we have been honing over these last few weeks and I couldn’t be more proud of my sailors for their excellent work.”
