A BRITISH nuclear submarine is on course to set a world record for the longest continuous patrol at sea after almost seven months at sea.
The HMS Vengeance set sail on 12 April armed with Trident 2 nuclear missiles.
She is expected home within hours after at least 208 days away.
Prime Minister – who has been in office for 110 days – is expected to greet the submarine as it sails towards HMNB Clyde at Faslane.
It is the first nuclear patrol to return on his watch.
The set by HMS Vanguard earlier this year.
During that time the 140-strong crew are almost totally cut off from their loved ones.
They are banned from broadcast messages home fear of revealing their location.
They receive a single text message a week, known as a family-gram, which has to be censored by the captain to avoid bad reaching crew members which hinder them doing their jobs.
The subs were designed to sail for a maximum if 80 days due to the toll on the crew.
All the patrols for the last three years have been over six months long, due to shortage of working .
Conditions are so extreme on board the 150m long vessels that has studied the crews to understand how astronauts might cope on a mission to Mars.
It is the MoD’s top priority to ensure one is always at sea to as the UK’s nuclear deterrent.
But only two of the four have been sea worthy since around 2023.
All four Vanguard class submarines were due to retire two years ago.
But their service has been extended because the Dreadnaught-class due to replace them are over a decade late.
They aren’t expected to enter service until at least the 2030s.
Former Chief of Defence Staff staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin lashed out governments when he retired last year over their empty promises to resource the deterrent.
He said: “There is something wrong when successive governments profess the nuclear continuously at sea deterrent is our highest priority, but our sailors are having to put to sea for extraordinarily long patrols in some of the most complex machines in the planet that are beyond their original design life.”
When HMS Vanguard returned from patrol in March 2024 four of her crew had babies waiting to meet them.
Last month the senior service was able to sail three Vanguard class subs simultaneously for the first time in several years because HMS Vigiliant came out of repairs.
HMS Vengeance was on patrol, HMS Vanguard was on work-up preparing to take over, and HMS Vigilant was on sea trials of the west coast of .
The fourth boat HMS Victorious is in a years-long life extension programme at HMNB Devonport, in Plymouth.
The Navy does not comment on submarine operations.
