But why do they call it 'Astute'?
Because
Astute is the name of the first the class.
When Feckless or Imprudent would be more appropriate......
Why would they?
littleme - they are relevent to you - apart from maritime stuff against submarines or surface ships they have other roles, including TLAM strike (could be used for defence suppresion), ISTAR and special ops.
We had twelve SSNs when this Government came to power. The SDR said it would cut that to ten. In a few years we'll be down to eight........yet the number of commitments increases. Overstretch once again.
See here and
here.
Everything is related...........
But going back to your original point - I suspect that they're looking for rounded individual.