Facts and Figures
Launched:	1979
Displacement:	3,500 - 4,500 tons
Length:	83.82 metres (275ft)
Beam:	10.12 metres (33.2ft)
Armament:	Five 21-inch torpedo tubes
Propulsion:	Water-cooled nuclear reactor fuelling English Electric, geared steam turbines, single shaft.
Speed:	30 knots dived
Complement:	12 officers, 98 ratings

New Spartan Spirit Abroad
Text from Ships Of The Royal Navy No. 290
Commissioned little more than three months ago, HMS Spartan has already ventured out of British waters. In November the Royal Navy's latest nuclear-powered Fleet submarine spent five days in Gibraltar before returning last month to her home port of Devonport for continued trial and work-up.

The "Spartan spirit" is already strong, helped along by sports, social functions and charity walks during the 18 months that the boat remained the property of her makers - Vickers Ship-building Group at Barrow-in-Furness.

Cricket and soccer teams played in local matches and many members of the crew took part in the annual Keswick-Barrow charity walk.

HMS Spartan is the 292nd submarine to be built at Barrow for the Royal Navy - and the first after nationalization of the shipbuilding industry in 1977.

Fleet submarines, of which she is the fifth in the Swiftsure class, are the main striking power of the Fleet and in themselves the most effective single anti-submarine weapon available.

The Spartan operates a vast range of sensors and weapons for her main role as a destroyer of enemy submarines, her payload including Tigerfish homing torpedoes and salvo (unguided) torpedoes. Eventually she will be equipped with and underwater-launched, anti-ship missile.

HMS Spartan's commanding officer is Cdr, Nigel Goodwin, son of Lieut.-General Sir Richard Goodwin, formerly Military Secretary and now Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk.