Only 29 More Days Until the "CRISIS for ISIS" Begins

Molten Eagle plans to resume posts Monday, 2 JAN 17, 25 days before the "CRISIS for ISIS" finally starts in earnest. Soon thereafter, ISIS's desperation will become very apparent as its petulant leaders struggle successively for declining relevance with barbaric acts against humanity. 

For now we must still wait patiently, but soon All the World's Legitimate Religions Including peaceful Muslims should Rejoice!

Submarines are always silent and strange. 

ANSWERS: Post Cold War Sub QOTW [18 DEC 2016]

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

Our Post Cold War Submarine Questions & Answers

1 - Which is the most appropriate explanation for the symbol (inset) displayed on the foremost centerline, at eye-level of the sub's sail (above)?  ANS: (e) Russian sailors painted the "kill marking" on their sail  commemorating the ostensible “defeat” of the USS Baton Rouge since the latter was not returned to service due to damage in the 1992 collision. [Instead, the Baton Rouge was belatedly placed in restrictive "reserve" status and by January 1995, with costly nuclear refueling and repairs rejected, SSN-689 became the first LA-class sub decommissioned after a mere 17½ years in commission.] 

2 - Identify the submarine above (class, unit ID number, & name).  ANS: The SIERRA I class (Project 945), B-276, ‘Kostroma’ (formerly K-276 Crab until 1992).

3 - Identify the submarine below  (class, unit ID number, & name).  ANS: Same as # 2.

4 - Which is the most appropriate description for the object being hoisted to/from the sub's sail (photo directly above)?  ANS: (e) The object is an escape pod for a few crew. Note that the nominal crew complement was 59 men of whom only a few could fit in such a small escape capsule. Successor SIERRA-II boats had a longer sail with two escape pods. Note the sail damage from the collision between the subs (bottom photo above).

5 - What year is considered the final year of the Cold War? ANS: December 1991, coincident with the Soviet Union's collapse. 

Submarines are always silent and strange. 

Post Cold War Submarine QOTW - 18 DEC 2016

Submarine Questions of the Week

Part I

1 - Which is the most appropriate explanation for the symbol (inset) displayed on the foremost centerline, at eye-level of the sub's sail (above)?

----(a) The sub was the first of its class (specify its class).
----(b) The sub received its nation's excellence award the month before (specify award date).
----(c) The sub's commanding officer was the fleet's commodore (specify the commodore).
----(d) The sub's commanding officer was the fleet commodore's son (specify the C.O.).
----(e) The sub was credited with decommissioning a U.S. submarine (specify the U.S. sub).  

2 - Identify the submarine above (class, unit ID number, & name).

3 - Identify the submarine below  (class, unit ID number, & name).

Part II

4 - Which is the most appropriate description for the object being hoisted to/from the sub's sail (photo directly above)?

----(a)  Object was a high-yield ballistic missile warhead (specify mega tons).
----(b)  Object was a low-yield warhead (specify kilo tons).
----(c)  Object was a high-yield rocket warhead (specify type of high explosive).
----(d)  Object was a satellite (specify type: spy, gps, communications, other.).
----(e)  Object was an escape capsule for sub's crew (specify crew size).  

5 - What year is considered the final year of the Cold War?

ANSWERS: Wednesday, 21 DEC 16.

Submarines are always silent and strange.
  

Contrast This

UPDATE (DEC. 18, 2016): Muted U.S. Response to China’s Seizure of Drone Worries Asian Allies
Across Asia, diplomats and analysts said they were perplexed at the inability of the Obama administration to devise a strong response to China’s challenge. It did not even dispatch an American destroyer to the spot near Subic Bay, a former American Navy base that is still frequented by American ships, some noted. ...  “Allies and observers will find it hard not to conclude this represents another diminishment of American authority in the region,” said Douglas H. Paal, the vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

---------------------------------------------

Note: All color emphasis below has been added by Molten Eagle's Vigilis.

What explains the disparity in Obama response to national security issues versus Trump's response? 

Contrast the facts, circumstances and responses to CASEs (1) & (2), then decide for yourselves.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

CASE (1)

ALLEGATION of MALICIOUS FOREIGN INTERFERENCE

with Sovereign Process

"The allegations of Russian interference were raised during the presidential campaign won by Republican Donald Trump last month. But the issue re-erupted last week after Obama ordered an intelligence review of malicious cyber activity by foreign powers in the last three presidential elections."  source

ADMISSION of WRONGDOING by an ALLEGED FOREIGN STATE

NONE: President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has denied the allegations, and U.S. President elect Trump has disputed the unanimous consensus of 16 intelligence agencies headed by Obama appointees and the Department of Homeland Security. "If Russia, or some other entity, was hacking, why did the White House wait so long to act? Why did they only complain after Hillary lost?" he tweeted Thursday. 

U.S. PRESIDENT'S DELAYED RESPONSE

(three election cycles or 12 years)

Dec 16, 2016 |  WASHINGTON — President Obama promised to retaliate against Russia for its attempts to undermine the U.S. elections process, saying that the United States would take action "at a time and place of our own choosing."  

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

 

CASE (2)

ALLEGATION of MALICIOUS FOREIGN INTERFERENCE

with a Sovereign Process

 The Chinese navy seized the US underwater research vessel in the South China Sea on Thursday [15 DEC 16], the US alleges.  "The UUV [unmanned underwater vehicle] was lawfully conducting a military survey in the waters of the South China Sea,"  Pentagon spokesman Capt Jeff Davis told reporters. "It's a sovereign immune vessel, clearly marked in English not to be removed from the water - that it was US property."

U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT'S QUICK RESPONSE

(President-elect Donald Trump blasted the seizure.  POTUS OBAMA drags his lawyerly feet, as lawyers commonly do.)

ADMISSION of WRONGDOING by an ALLEGED FOREIGN STATE

China said Saturday [17 DEC 16] that its military seized a U.S. Navy unmanned underwater glider in the South China Sea to ensure the "safe navigation of passing ships," in one of the most serious incidents between the two militaries in years.  source

Dec 17, 2016 |   BEIJING — The Pentagon on Saturday said that Beijing had agreed to return an underwater drone seized by China in international waters, an indication that the two countries were moving to resolve an unusual incident that risked sharpening tensions in the run-up to the inauguration of President-elect Donald J. Trump.

Obama will be out of office in 33 DAYS 21 HOURS and 48 MINUTES as of this writing.

Submarines are always silent and strange.

Answers to Submarine Q.O.T.W. from 12 DEC 2016

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

ANSWERS to Question(s) of the Week

1 - What is the name of the sub shown in a canal?  ANS: USS Shark.

2 - What is this sub's hull number?   ANS: SSN 591.

3 - In which canal is this sub shown?   ANS:  The Panama Canal.

4 - When was the sub's transit conducted?   ANS:  The official USN photo shows crew members standing on and diving planes of the nuclear-powered attack submarine Shark en route to the Pacific Ocean as locomotives pull it through the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal on 11 Nov 1989. 

5 - BONUS Question (Not in original set) - How many locomotives were employed to safely maneuver the sub through the lock?  ANS:  4  (Four lines from four separate directions are clearly visible in at larger photo shown here).

Submarines are always silent and strange. 

Submarine QOTW, Adm's Quote of the Month, & Panama Canal

Background

 (October 2008)

"China’s Control of the Panama Canal Revisited"
...[I]n the event of a serious military conflict with the United States, such as one over Taiwan, it would be highly possible for Beijing to use Hutchison Whampoa to effectively interrupt U.S. intervention. As former Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger puts it, Hutchison Whampoa’s control of the canal is a national security threat because “The Company would not be able to survive if they don’t do something the Chinese government tells them to.”[ii] Admiral Moore, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, claims that in case of military conflict in the Pacific, a large number of logistic ships need uninterrupted access to the canal to support deployed forces.[iii] If the use of the canal were denied, those ships would need to travel an extra 9,000 miles around South America and would not be able to sustain combat effectiveness in the Pacific.[iv]  - Yojiro Konno with Nancy Menges.

(June 2016)

"The New Panama Canal: A Risky Bet"  - New York Times, June 22, 2016, WALT BOGDANICH, JACQUELINE WILLIAMS and ANA GRACIELA MÉNDEZ   
Last summer, water began gushing through concrete that was supposed to last 100 years but could not make it to the first ship. The Hill analysts had warned that the consortium’s budget for concrete was 71 percent smaller than that of the next lowest bidder. The budget also allotted roughly 25 percent less for steel to reinforce that concrete. ...

A native Panamanian who graduated from the United States Merchant Marine Academy, Mr. de la Guardia [chief of the tugboat captains’ union] has spent 20 years running tugboats in the canal. “We think it’s going to be a real mess,” he said. “I think something awful is going to happen.”

His concern stems from the canal authority’s decision to abandon [canal-side, electric] locomotives to guide the ships. Tugboats will now push and pull vessels that are more than three football fields long and stacked with up to 13,000 containers, nearly three times as much as the old, smaller ships. Tugboat captains fear that their boats will be overmatched.

(December 2016)

In testimony on Thursday before the House Armed Services Committee's subcommittee on oversight and investigations, Naval Surface Forces Commander Vice Adm. Thomas Rowden revealed that the most recent casualty, damage to the USS Montgomery when it transited southward through the Panama Canal, was at least in part due to failure on the part of canal engineers not to follow the Navy's instructions on how to guide it through the narrow passage.

The Oct. 29 mishap was the second time an Independence-class LCS, with its wider trimaran design, had been damaged passing through the canal. The USS Coronado had also required repairs after a canal transit in early 2014.

"When we took the first ship through and there was some damage associated with it, we sent a team down to the Panama Canal to talk about how we needed to take these ships through the canal," Rowden said. 

*********

Had the good admiral forgotten there had also been this Panama Canal casualty:

"The US Navy's newest destroyer broke down while transiting the Panama Canal, colliding with the Canal lock walls and forcing the $4 billion dollar ship to resort to a tow from a tugboat. The USS Zumwalt was towed to a former U.S. naval station in Panama where it will undergo emergency repairs. This is just months after a similar incident in September."

Which brings us to our...

Quotation of the Month

"Unfortunately with the most recent transit, that was not executed. We've gone back to them and we're going to get it squared away in the future, but we know how to get the ships through the canal safely and if we we execute the procedures as we outlined them, we won't have any problems with that in the future."  - Naval Surface Forces Commander Vice Adm. Thomas Rowden,  Military.com, Dec 09, 2016, "New Details Emerge on Littoral Combat Ship Breakdowns" by Hope Hodge Seck

                                                                                  Click to Enlarge

Submarines are always silent and strange. 

Truth and Fiction

Note:  Vigilis and his regular content are due to return early this week.  - Juan Caruso

Submarines are always silent and strange.

Just a Snow Bubble

Note:  Vigilis and his content are due to return early next week.  - Juan Caruso

H.Payne's published "Bubble U." cartoon from December 3, 2016, is better viewed here.  

Submarines are always silent and strange