i know for a fact that the Pakistan Navy uses midget subs for covert insertion and extraction of combat diver of the SSGN (navy special forces). these are locally manufactured Italian X-class subs. you can find more info and pics on pakdef.

hey mate,

Having served aboard Charger’s sister ship HMS Raider (Cambridge URNU’s boat) I know a fair bit about them. Charger and the other ships (excluding Raider and Tracker) are Batch 1s which have a usual speed of about 14 knots. Raider and Tracker on the other hand are batch 2s and have a usual speed of about 25-28 knots although I’ve been on her when we’ve managed to do well over 30 knots.

14 of these boats are with the university royal navy units (URNUs) whereas a few others are on deployment to Gibralter and Cyprus and carry weapons onboard. like u said the normal crew capacity is about 15-16 ppl and the endurance is probably more like 7 days.

interesting fact within the URNUs is that only Oxford and Cambridge somehow ended up with the faster batch 2s while everyone else has the ‘crappy’ batch 1s. if you need a bit of an online look round the ship then go to http://www.curnu.co.uk and follow the links for a tour of raider.

faz101.