The Royal Canadian Navy intends to return to service the submarine Corner Brook, nicknamed "the damned" for the numerous emergencies on board.
Built in England, the Victoria-class diesel-electric submarine served for two years in the British Navy under the name Ursula, and was then sold to Canada and entered the Royal Navy under the name Corner Brook. During the acceptance of the ship, problems with the welded seams of the pipelines were discovered, their elimination delayed the ship's entry into the fleet for four years.
In the summer of 2011, during maneuvers off Vancouver Island, the submarine collided with the bottom at a depth of 45 meters, having received a two-meter hole in the bow. Two submariners were injured. The ship was towed to a dry dock, the damage to the hull was so serious that the option of writing off the ship was considered.
However, in 2014, the renovation and modernization of Corner Brook began. The work was planned to be completed in 2017, but the restoration was delayed. In 2019, a fire occurred on board the submarine that was in the dock, and the commissioning was postponed again . In March 2020, during the pressure testing of ballast tanks, one of the tanks exploded. As the investigation showed, the cause of the accident was excessive pressure applied to the tank by the test team.
It is expected that the submarine will return to service by the end of 2021 and will serve for at least another nine years.
During the modernization, the standard Corner Brook Type-2040 sonar was replaced with the latest BQQ-10 sonar, writes FlotProm. The submarine is armed with six 533-mm torpedo tubes.
Anton Valagin
