Nuclear submarine collission: Vanguard and Le Triomphant

(Collision between a French submarine and a British submarine)

"They drive on the left side even down here?!"

Britain and France say two of their nuclear-armed submarines, HMS Vanguard (first photo) and Le Triomphant (second photo), collided while submerged in the Atlantic earlier this month. BBC News examines how and why this happened, the BBC reported.

• Le Triomphant SNLE
• Triomphant SNLE Specifications
• Triomphant SNLE Ship List
• Triomphant SNLE Pictures

What happened?

The head of the UK's Royal Navy, Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, said HMS Vanguard and the French submarine, Le Triomphant, collided at slow speed while on separate routine patrols in the Atlantic Ocean.

Both submarines were badly damaged and had to return to port for repairs: HMS Vanguard (first photo) with what are described as visible dents and scrapes, Le Triomphant (second photo) with a damaged sonar dome.

[..] Factfile: How submarines use sonar [...]

A blog post on the collission here.