Royal Navy investigates how official documents about a £1.3bn submarine were found in pub toilet
Official documents about a Royal Navy submarine have reportedly been found in the toilets of a Weatherspoons pub in Cumbia.
Forces News has not seen the files but they are said to have detailed the inner workings on HMS Anson and teaching materials on how submariners can depressurise elements of its system.
The Royal Navy has said the papers did not contain any classified information but they "take all security matters extremely seriously and will investigate the circumstances of their discovery."
According to The Sun newspaper the documents were found on the cubicle floor of a toilet in The Furness Railway pub, which is just a short distance from the Barrow-in-Furness site where the submarine was built.
A naval source said: "These documents enable submariners and contractors to understand how systems interact. They do not detail how they work, just that they exist."
The source added that the files only contained simplistic designs of the systems on board, without revealing how they work.
The Astute class submarine is one of the most sophisticated submarines ever built, capable of hitting targets 1,000 miles away and armed with up to 38 Spearfish Heavyweight Torpedoes, and Block V Tomahawk land attack missiles.
Two final submarines in the Astute class – Agamemnon and Agincourt – are currently in various stages of construction at BAE's Barrow-in-Furness site.
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