The boat was built by Vickers Limited Shipbuilding Group (now a division of BAE Systems) at Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria, England.

Spartan was the first vessel to arrive in the islands and began to enforce a 200-mile (320 km) maritime exclusion zone imposed by the British.

This was partly due to British concerns about escalating the war too early, but also to avoid scaring off more lucrative targets such as the Argentine aircraft carrier Veinticinco de Mayo.

He considered, as the highest ranking naval officer in the area, he should control the RN submarines in the area and potentially faced losing the war by the lack of local control in the battle zone [2] In the following days Veinticinco de Mayo was therefore able to move, unchecked by the British nuclear submarines, and potentially launch an A-4Q Skyhawk attack from much closer range than possible from Argentinian airfields.

Unlike HMS Conqueror, Spartan did not fire in anger during the Falklands War, though she did provide valuable reconnaissance to the British Task Force on Argentine aircraft movements.