A British nuclear-powered submarine collided with rocks beneath the surface of the Red Sea, damaging its sonar, the military said.
The HMS Superb hit an undersea mountain while diving in the northern Red Sea on yesterday, the Ministry of Defence said. There were no casualties and the ship has now safely surfaced, the ministry said in a statement. It added that the vessel remains watertight and that its nuclear reactor was "completely unaffected." The vessel does not carry nuclear weapons.
The Superb's Web site said the submarine, commissioned in 1976, has completed an "intensive maintenance and upgrade period" and would spend a short period on a training mission before its main deployment in 2008.
However it was not clear whether the training had now finished and a spokesman for the ministry refused to say what the Superb was doing in the area.
The submarine's current mission was being reassessed because the sonar damage made underwater operations impossible, the spokesman said, speaking anonymously in line with military policy. He added that the military was still weighing where the sub should dock.
The Superb is a Swiftsure-class attack submarine. The vessel is 83 metres long and carries a crew of 112.
