Working equipment would be nice. Most of the new Type 45's are tied up with constant electrical failures.

Are they the ones that need their engines/power plants replaced?

Yep.
I know someone who works on one of them. Apparently they have to call in BAE systems evrytime something breaks. They're not allowed to fix it themselves...... which is bloody stupid.

I wonder if Windows for Submarines is still based on Windows XP
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/16 ... s_rollout/
http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/brit ... windows-xp

Dear god. I didn't realise they'd PFI'd the warships as well. That could be exciting in a combat situation - having to log a call with the help desk while the ship burns.

Robertson, who was defence secretary in the Blair government and later was Nato secretary-general, and Hutton, who was defence secretary in the Brown government, wrote they did not accept as legitimate “the use of spurious arguments and self-created ‘facts’ to argue against the planned new submarines”.

On the threat of cyber-attacks, they said the UK nuclear command and control system was not connected to the internet and once a submarine was submerged internet viruses could not enter the hull. They assumed that malware could not be introduced while the submarine was docked and that steps had been taken to ensure portals were sealed to prevent sabotage through the insertion of a thumb-drive.