SUBMARINERS onboard HMS Trenchant have returned from a successful operation in the North Pole.

Admiral Sir Philip Jones, the First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, posted pictures on Twitter congratulating the crew as he hailed the Royal Navy's capabilities.

He said: "HMS Trenchant has just returned from the North Pole. Very few navies have the ability to operate nuclear submarines, even fewer can do so under the polar ice."

HMS Trenchant's crew has been taking part in ICEX 18 - a joint excercise with the Americans and Canadians to demonstrate submarine combat readiness for Arctic Operations.

Alongside the Seawolf-class fast attack submarine Connecticut and the Los Angeles-class fast attack sub Hartford, HMS Trenchant will spend five weeks in the Arctic.

The crew took time out of the operation to remember two lost submariners.

Leading Operator Mechanic Anthony Huntrod and Operator Mechanic Paul McCann died in 2007 following an explosion onboard HMS Tireless.

HMS Trenchant, one of four Trafalgar-class boats, was launched on 3 November 1986 in Barrow in front of a special guest – war hero Vice Admiral Sir Arthur Hezlet, who commanded the wartime Trenchant with notable success.

Trenchant was given a major refit and overhaul in the first half of the last decade, during which time her nuclear reactor was refuelled, at which time she was also fitted with state-of-the-art Sonar 2076, which is being built into the new Astute-class boats which will replace Trenchant and her sisters Talent, Triumph and Torbay.