HMS Talent is the sixth of seven Trafalgar-class nuclear submarines of the Royal Navy, and was built at Barrow-in-Furness. Talent was launched by The Princess Royal in April 1988 and commissioned in May 1990. She was the last submarine to be launched down a slipway.. The boat is affiliated with Shrewsbury in Shropshire. Talent is the third submarine of the Royal Navy to bear the name. The first was the World War II Talent, a T-class submarine transferred to the Royal Netherlands Navy as RNLMS Zwaardvisch in 1943.
Talent is due to move to Her Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde by 2020.
Talent is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2021 and will be replaced by one of the new Astute-class submarines.
Talent undertook a refit at her base port in HMNB Devonport and in March 2007 rejoined the active fleet, following a £386 million upgrade. She has been given a new reactor core and has been equipped with a new sonar suite, Sonar 2076. Sonar 2076 has the power equivalent to approximately 400 PCs and can precisely track the movement of small objects from hundreds of miles away. The Royal Navy describe Sonar 2076 as the most advanced sonar in service with any navy in the world. She has also been given the ability to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles.