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.