(These launches were all followed by public announcement of their use.) In 2015 an unspecified number of additional missiles was purchased. Submarine-launched TLAMs have been used in several conflicts since the UK purchased a stock of just 65 Tomahawks in 1998. Lack of Tomahawks, an abundance of Storm Shadow Such reports are within the bounds of possibility but should be treated as speculation only. Today’s Sunday Times tells a wonderful tale, reported as ‘fact’ that an Astute class boat was in a duel with a Kilo class boat. These kind of operations require stealth and launching TLAM would comprise this. Alternatively they were used to protect the surface warships by tracking Russian Kilo class SSKs, known to be in the eastern Med. Instead of firing TLAM, RN submarine(s) were possibly involved in collecting intelligence and intercepting communications off the Syrian coast. Supporting the operation in a less overt way This kind of choice may not be especially great for the Royal Navy’s public image, but would be a sensible prioritisation of scarce assets. Protection of the UK deterrent submarine is always a prime concern and it may have been felt their were sufficient assets already in the Med for the task. It is possible that the routine, but critically important business of shadowing Russian submarines in Northern waters was considered a greater priority for the RN submarine force. In this brief speculative piece, we look at some of the the possible explanations. Contrary to expectations, there has been no announcement that a Royal Navy submarine fired Tomahawk missiles during the operation against Syrian regime targets in the early hours of 14th April.
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