saturn_656 saturn_656:
There was nothing wrong with the subs when you laid them up, it's the six years tied up without receiving proper care and maintenance from the RN that screwed them.
Your guys broke 'em, sorry to say.
There was nothing at all wrong with those submarines when you bought them (on a buyer beware basis). Most of the faults which occurred on them were the results of Royal Canadian Navy incompetence.
Look at the Chicoutimi incident. Despite all the rhetoric from Canadian opposition parties that the government had bought "inferior submarines" on the cheap - something which many Canadians still believe - the Chicoutimi, as the then British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon pointed out, had been brought up to top standards by the time the Canadians bought them. The submarines were in perfect condition when the Canadians bought them.
In fact, the Chicoutimi incident was discovered to have been the result of a Canadian "error in operational procedure" - in other words, it was the result of the Royal Canadian Navy's own incompetence. Yet Canadians still like to blame it on "a crappy British submarine".
And it wasn't just Canadian incompetence that the Chicoutimi incident exposed. It was also Irish search and rescue incompetence that it exposed. The Irish RNLI lifeboat "Sam and Ada Moody", stationed on Achill Island, County Mayo was put on standby to assist, but was later stood down. An Irish Navy ship, LÉ Róisín, responded to the submarine's mayday signal and set out to assist it, but was seriously damaged by the rough seas and forced to return to harbour. The only other Irish Navy ships available to help, LÉ Aoife and LÉ Niamh were patrolling off Ireland's southern coast. At 2 p.m. local time, the Royal Navy frigate HMS Montrose and the auxiliary vessel RFA Wave Knight reached the crippled Chicoutimi, with an additional three British ships en route. LÉ Aoife later reached the area and took over coordination of the rescue and salvage efforts. Other British ships dispatched to assist the submarine were HMS Marlborough and RFA Argus, as well as a number of specialist vessels to handle the situation.
I think the then Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon was right when he later stated that the Royal Navy would charge Canada for the cost of the rescue. We sent out all those Royal Navy submarines to help rescue a Canadian Navy submarine that had floundered to to Canadian incompetence.
The Upholder-class submarines actually highlight modern Canadian naval incompetence and whether or not Canada is capable of having a submarine fleet, more than anything else.
CKA Uber 
