Reprisal-class submarine

File:Reprisal Class SSBN.png Reprisal Class
Class overview
Name:	Reprisal Class ballistic missile
Builders:	Arthuristan Dynamics
Operators:	Commonwealth Navy
Succeeded by:	Styx Class
Retired:	6
General characteristics
Type:	Ballistic missile submarine
Displacement:	8,200 tonnes (submerged)
Length:	130
Beam:	12.5m
Draught:	12m
Installed power:	1 x pressurised water reactor (20mW)
Speed:	25kn+ submerged
Range:	Theoretically unlimited
Test depth:	300m+
Complement:	14 officers, 121 enlisted
Armament:	16 x Bluemoon SLBMs, 4 x torpedo tubes

The Reprisal-class was a class of Arthuristan nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine. The first boat of the class was accepted into service in 1962. Delays the development of its primary armament, the Bluemoon, meant that the Reprisals only received their missiles in 1970 and they spent the first eight years of their service life as training and attack boats. Vessels of this class had a remarkably long-lived career, until they were replaced by the far more modern Styx Class in the early- to mid-90s. They were periodically modernised during their service life and all units received the latest sonar suite available to Arthuristan submarines.

With the introduction of the Bluemoon Mk 2 in 1978, which featured a combination of MIRV and true intercontinental range, the Arthuristan defence establishment finally felt able to relinquish the full nuclear triad and implement a shift towards a less costly strategic posture of minimal deterrence, based around the Commonwealth Navy's SSBNs and their near-guaranteed second strike capability. With each submarine now able to destroy six times more targets than before, two boats were deemed to be surplus to requirements, converted into SSGNs, then retired as a cost-saving measure.

The class was retired in the 1990s as its successors entered service.

A total of four Reprisal Class vessels were built:

• Reprisal
• Revenge
• Retribution
• Retaliation