First, There Was Ramming Speed (Part 3)

Background: The Advent of Naval Warfare...

FEB 2007 -  First, There Was Ramming Speed
Before crossbows and black powder had been invented by China, early navies relied on ramming to sink enemy vessels.  And so, by 1210 BC, the first recorded naval battle was fought between Suppiluliuma II, king of the Hittites, and Cyprus.

Now: Back to the Future

3 June 2014 - TV Shows China Ship Ramming Another Vietnamese Vessel Near Oil Rig

7 Aug 2015 - Chinese Navy Warship Rammed Two Vietnamese Fishing Vessels

20 FEB 2016 - Chinese media calls for government to 'fire shots and ram U.S. warships to teach them a lesson' over disputed South China Sea islands 

Chinese state media have urged their national military to fire warning shots and deliberately ram U.S. warships that sail too close to their footholds in the disputed South China Sea.

U.S. ship Curtis Wilbur [USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG-54)] came within 12 nautical miles of Triton Island in the Paracels last month, catapulting tensions in the oil-rich region to an all-time high.

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Submarines are always silent and strange. 

Unexplained Flying Objects Are Out There

BACKGROUND
Enel North America, a subsidiary of Italy's Enel, operates the Fenner Wind Farm in central New York State. Operational in late 2000, its twenty 1.5 megawatt GE turbines produce 30 megawatts, enough renewable energy to serve at least 7,800 homes. Originally, all of the $2.5 million towers weighed 187-tons.

RECENT FENNER HISTORY

February 12, 2016 | Fenner — 113-foot blade falls off Fenner windmill
A 113-foot blade from a wind turbine in the Fenner Wind Farm came unattached to its tower and plummeted 213 feet to the ground early this morning off Buyea Road. No people were injured and no property was damaged, according to Fenner town officials.

PRIOR FENNER HISTORY
October 24, 2014 | Fenner — Windmill catches fire in Fenner (click to see photo)
 
December 27, 2009 | Fenner — Fall of Fenner windmill remains a mystery
After Tower 18 had suddenly collapsed Fenner Wind Farm was shut down for 10 months to reinforce all 20 foundations with tons of steel and concrete. GE Turbine 18 (the one noted above to have lost a blade) was eventually replaced on a higher tower with a larger turbine of Chinese (Goldwind) manufacture. So, the fallen blade and turbine were not parts supplied by GE.

What Has Gone Wrong Elsewhere?  Plenty ...
Here are just a few examples:

• A blade from a wind turbine at Lister Hospital in the United Kingdom flew off and hit a car in September 2011, the Comet reported.  

• A turbine blade crashed through the roof of a neighbor’s home in Wallaceburg, Canada, the Chatham Daily News reported in February 2009.

• In Norway, a blade from a Suez Energy North American V-90 wind turbine was hurled about 1,600 feet, landing near a home’s back door, the Journal Pioneer reported in December 2008.

• In Western Illinois in 2008, a 6.5 ton blade sailed about 150 feet away, the Associated Press reported.

 Submarines are always silent and strange.

Kim Jong-un's Stressful Role

Background

Counted among the worst experiences that might befall any dictator are personal or regime embarrassments and world ridicule. For mature dictators political survival and continued existence depends upon keeping power over subjects and projecting it toward foreign states that condemn it. For untested successors survival requires building a new personal power legacy, exercising harsh discipline and possessing even more impressive weapons.   

Following his father's (KIM Jong Il's) death in 2011,  young Kim Jong Un (then 28) assumed most of his father's dictatorial titles, duties and policies.  In the 5 years since, young Kim and his regime have encountered public embarrassments, if not outright ridicule.  In 2013 the regime announced its new policy calling for simultaneous improvements of its nuclear weapons and its economy.  Kim considers foreign condemnation of North Korea's policies proof to his subjects of DPRK's standing as a world power.  Kim Jong-un must also believe that his subjects attribute N. Korea's world standing to him, and that they would defy any attempt by his military to grab his power.  He covets the gratuitous condemnation received by threatening South Korea and the world's superpower --- the U.S.

Some Personal Embarrassments

1 

Security around Kim reportedly increased dramatically in 2012 because Kim "is extremely nervous about the possibility of an emergency developing inside North Korea" caused by "mounting opposition to his efforts to rein in the military".[90]

2

The May 2014 collapse of a 23-story apartment building in Pyongyang was speculated to have caused hundreds of fatalities. No official casualy count was released, but North Korea's' official news agency quickly issued a rare statement of "profound consolation and apology".

3

Kim Jong-un did not appear in public for six weeks in September and October 2014. State media reported that Kim was suffering from an "uncomfortable physical condition". Previously he had been seen limping.^{[134 et al]} When Kim reappeared he used a walking stick.^[140] and in September 2015, the South Korean government observed that Kim appeared to have over the previous five years, reached a total estimated body weight of 290 lb.^[142]

Latest Foreign Ridicule of N. Korea

Kim Jong un is been reversing his predecessor's reliance on the military by stripping its top officers of export controls.  Related cash flows are thus removed from military oversight diminishing a once dominant role.

Chief of Staff, General Ri was last seen in public on January 5, at about the same time as the North’s claimed “hydrogen” bomb test, when he participated in an “inspection of coastal artillery” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Yonhap reports that its source “raised the possibility that Ri may have raised objections to Kim’s recent appointment of party leaders [civilians] to key military posts.”

Kim's increasing willingness to execute some of the most senior figures in his military may suggest the young leader is struggling to maintain control. Analysts are beginning to wonder how much more the military will put up with. source

Latest Embarrassment for Kim Jong-un  

11 February 2016 - US sends submarine to South Korea

Dispatch of Virginia-class submarine USS North Carolina (SSN-777)  withTomahawk cruise missiles and submarine-launched torpedoes is in response to the recent North Korean space satellite launch condemned by both Seoul and Washington, claiming it may be a veiled missile test violating UN Security Council resolutions.

The spokesperson claimed the United States is also considering dispatching two new combat aircraft with stealth capabilities, possibly a B-2 bomber and an F-22 Raptor fighter plane, to South Korea.

M.E. note:  A new administration may send a vessel like this to anchor off South Korea as a very serious diplomatic message and an instant game changer for N. Korea's young Kim Jong-un.

Submarines are always silent and strange.

Tuesday Submarine Tidbits

1

Navy aircraft returning to former Cold War base in Iceland

Updating Land Base

DOD’s fiscal 2017 budget request includes funds to upgrade an existing P-3 hangar for the P-8 Poseidon. The Keflavik base, established in 1951, has been closed since 2006.

NAPLES, Italy — The Navy is turning to a former Cold War air base for a familiar mission — hunting Russian submarines.    ...The Navy now routinely sends P-3’s to Keflavik from its air base in Sicily to patrol for Russian subs in the North Atlantic, a Navy official said. The P-8 will fill the same role once the hangar is updated with new wiring, flooring and a rinse station, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak on the record about the project.

Russian submarines are patrolling the North Atlantic more frequently than at any time since the end of the Cold War, U.S. and European defense officials say.  ...Keflavik was home to about 2,500 Navy and Air Force personnel when the base closing was announced in 2006. 

2

US Navy Absorbing $7 Billion Budget Cut

Fiscal Pressures  

A Navy source said the decision was made due to fiscal pressures, and claimed the service can meet operational requirements with nine active wings. Four aircraft squadrons are to be deactivated or canceled, and Whidbey Island will shift from sea to land-based ops.

WASHINGTON — The US Navy is absorbing a $7 billion reduction in fiscal 2017 funding – about 3.5 percent over last year’s plan, according to newly released budget documents. The service is reducing the number of ships it’s buying while adding more aircraft, and uniformed personnel also are being cut, up to as many as 6,400 sailors below previous forecasts.

 3

 The Ottoman Empire invented missiles and submarines in the 18th century  

 Taking Liberties with the Truth

Salim Ayduz of the British Muslim Heritage Center stated that missiles and submarines wereinvented in the Ottoman Empire in the 18th century. According to Ayduz, the Ottoman Empiresignificantly surpassed Europe in terms of weapons development during the so-called Tulip Era, which lasted between 1718 and 1730.  

"First, the Tahtelbahir submarine was created by shipyard worker Ibrahim Aga and shortly after, gunner Bayramoglu Ali Aga invented firearms and missiles," Ayduz said, adding that all knowledge in this field was ultimately lost."

What about a little  History Check from 1620?

Submarines are always silent and strange.

Submarine Quote of the Week - 6 FEB 16

Background

Poor journalism but excellent Sun Tzu strategy

Not only are Russian submarines returning to Cold War levels of operational activity, but Russian submarines have made a major jump in technological performance, Vice Adm Johnstone said, with NATO seeing "a level of Russian capability that we haven't seen before".

Submarine Quotation of the Week

"I think none of that would worry us if we knew what the game plans were or we knew why they were deploying or what they were doing … we don't understand what the strategic and operational objectives are of the Russian state."  -  Royal Navy Vice Adm. Clive Johnstone, Commander, Allied Maritime Command, IHS Jane's Defence Weekly, Russian submarine activity topping Cold War levels, by Nicholas de Larrinaga, London, 02 February 2016.

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Molten Eagle's Analysis

• Why the erroneus reporting by Business Insider that quoted Vice Admiral Clive Johnstone as a "U.S. Navy" admiral when he is obviously not?  Also, why inject the U.S. into the Business Insider's reporting story at all?

• ANSWER:  Not sloppy reporting, but more than likely to make it more relevant since most of BI's readership are in the U.S. and North America.  

• Why a strange profession of ignorance by NATO's Maritime leader when the strategic significance of the Arctic to Russia has been plain from the get go?

• ANSWER:  Someone, most likely Russia, is being deliberately conned into spending lots of time and treasure in the Arctic. This could be a deliberate distraction from something of much greater significance. And what possibilities might be greater than oil? Might there be something on the order of this one, or even this one?

Submarines are always silent and strange.

Update V: Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR) Power

Background

The pace of interest has been increasing 

The 1989 Fleischman - Pons experiment was eventually debunked and since then the term cold fusion has become almost synonymous with scientific chicanery. 

 I.   27  JUN  2005 - "Cold Fusion Revival and The US NAVY"

II.  27 MAY 2010 -  "Navy Scientists Zip Lips LENR"

III. 17 AUG  2012 - "Something real is happening." 

IV. 06 NOV 2014 -  "Periodic Update for LENR power (Cold Fusion)"

"The scientists trying to replicate the work of Fleischman and Pons were mainly looking for nuclear signals, like radiation, which generally are not present. They missed that heat was the main by-product. In addition, I learned that there have been nearly 50 reported positive test results, including experiments at Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, EPRI, and SRI." - Tom Darden, founder and CEO of the $2.2 billion private equity fund Cherokee Investment Partners.

UPDATE V

August 2015 - After a lapse of two decades, the Japanese government has issued a request for proposals for low-energy nuclear reaction (LENR) research.  "The budget for this program this year is $27 million".  

September 2 015 - Scientists get locked into paradigms until the paradigm shifts. Then everyone happily shifts to the new truth and no one apologizes for being so stupid before.  It’s like when physicists say that according to the laws of aerodynamics bumblebees can’t fly but they do.

Rossi was awarded an important U.S. patent recently... This is one of very few LENR-related patents to date. But let me make one thing very clear. We don’t know for sure yet whether it will be commercially feasible. We’ve invested more than $10 million so far in Rossi’s and other LENAR technology and we’ll spend substantially more than that before we know for certain because we want to crush all the tests. (Recently, we have been joined by Woodford Investment Management in the U.K., which has made a much larger investment into our international LENR activities—so we are well funded.)  - Tom Darden

 January 2016 -  After 25 years of experimentation, several research groups have produced evidence that real nuclear reactions lay behind the results claimed by Profs Fleischmann and Pons.  The problem according to Professor Huw Price, a philosopher of science at Cambridge university, is that cold fusion became a “reputation trap” which most researchers avoid because they know the scientific world will not take their work seriously. 

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Submarines are always silent and strange.

ANSWERS: Sub Questions of Week (28 JAN 16)

Background

Related information, photo(s) and links for questions are found in the original posting.

ANSWERS Submarine Questions of the Week

1  -  Why are modern, military-quality submarines not prone to capsizing?   ANS:  By virtue of their capability to submerge and operate near neutral buoyancy, submarine design includes features allowing significant ballast controls. ( more )

2  -  Is it even possible for modern, military-quality subs to capsize?  ANS:  Not only is it possible, as recently as 1979, a Danish military submarine did capsize, though not at sea:   

(The following relate to the recent capsizing of car carrier Modern Expess)

3  -  If the vessel shown has not washed up upon a beach, approximately where is it?  ANS: The photograph accpmpanying the question shows the capsized vessel in the In the Bay of Biscay.

4  -  Has the crew been rescued?  ANS: Fortunately, yes, all 22 men were rescued by Spanish authorities last Tuesday in an operation co-ordinated by the UK’s Falmouth Coastguard. 

5  -  From where did it sail, and to where was it sailing?  ANS: The Modern Express had sailed from Gabon, Africa en route to port Le Havre, France.
 
6 -  How large (tonnage) is the vessel, and with what cargos is it said to be laden?  ANS:  The Modern Express is a mid-sized car carrier of 33,000 tons.  Besides a cargo of 3,600 tons of timber and construction equipment, it also carries 300 tons of fuel which could complicate an ongoing salvage operation. 

7 -  Where is the pilot house located? ANS:  Due to the vessels severe list, the Modern Express's pilot house was not visible in the photo published with the QOTW.  It is positioned forward in the vicinity of the bow (as shown below):

8 -  Has this vessel sunk or has it been towed?  ANS: A Spanish tugboat is currently towing Modern Express to open sea.
 
Submarines are always silent and strange.