The UK Royal Navy has changed the name of the seventh and final Astute-class nuclear powered attack submarine from HMS Agincourt to HMS Achilles, citing the 80th anniversary of VE and VJ days, without specifying why the former name has been axed.
The process to change the name of Boat 7 from HMS Agincourt to HMS Achilles began more than a year ago, meaning its pre-dates the change of UK government from Conservative to Labour in July 2024. This would mean it began in the final months of the premiership of Rishi Sunak, who served as prime minister from October 2022 to July 2024.
The name Achilles has been born by six ships previously, having earned six battle honours including Trafalgar, as well as River Plate and Okinawa in World War II. An earlier HMS Achilles was laid down 120 years ago this year, in 1905.
“The name was proposed by the Royal Navy Ships Names and Badging committee and approved by His Majesty the King,” a Royal Navy spokesperson told Naval Technology.
Still under construction at the BAE Systems submarine facility at Barrow-in-Furness, the newly named HMS Achilles will be the final Astute-class submarine built for the Royal Navy.
It is not known what impact a 2024 fire at the BAE Systems Devonshire Dock Hall has had on the build or work-up of the final Astute-class submarines (HMS Agamemnon and HMS Achilles), or the first of the Dreadnought-class ballistic missile submarines also being built at the site.
The Royal Navy operates just five nuclear powered attack submarines, all of the Astute class, following the decommissioning of HMS Triumph in 2024.
HMS Achilles: how are Royal Navy ship names chosen?
According to the UK government, the Ships’ Names and Badges does not choose the names, rather having the role of an advisory body. In this role, it considers names for new classes of warships as directed by the Controller of the Navy and subject to parameters laid down by the Controller or the Navy Board.
A 2021 written parliamentary response from the then Conservative government, responding to a question from Labour MP Kevan Jones, said all names for Royal Navy vessels are initially considered by the Ships’ Names and Badges Committee.
“Proposed names are then submitted to the Secretary of State for Defence who determines which names are forwarded for final approval by the Monarch,” wrote Jeremy Quin, then Minister of State of the UK Ministry of Defence.
The Royal Navy Ships Names and Badging committee was reduced in size in 2000 to comprise four members, these being The Captain, Naval Ship Acceptance (Chairman); Head Naval Historical Branch, Naval Staff; Naval Regional Officer, Scotland and Northern Ireland; and The Admiralty Librarian (Secretary).
It had been thought that HMS Agincourt could be renamed in order not to offend Nato ally France, with the name marking the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 that saw an English army led by King Henry V defeat a French force, one of a series of conflicts between the two kingdoms during The Hundred Years’ War.
However, navies regularly name warships after significant battles in national history, with the US Navy in particular a keen follower of this trends, as seen with the USS Bunker Hill, USS Fallujah, USS Tripoli, and the future USS Helmand Province.
