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.

Quotation of 2015 (first half)

Background (pertinent facts and official opinions)

• JUN 21, 2015 -  Assessing the U.S. Navy’s Arctic Roadmap   As outlined at the beginning of the Roadmap, the Navy expects the Arctic “to remain a low threat security environment where nations resolve differences peacefully.”  It sees its role as mostly a supporter of U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) operations and responder to search-and-rescue and disaster situations.   A report from the U.S. Naval War College on this exercise noted the following: The U.S. Navy is inadequately prepared to conduct sustained maritime operations in the Arctic region. ... Within the near-term (2014-2020), the Navy plans to have a limited Arctic presence, “primarily through undersea and air assets.”  Surface operations will only take place in open water conditions.

• AUG 29, 2015 - U.S. Is Playing Catch-Up With Russia in Scramble for the Arctic        

• AUG 31, 2015 - US submarine returns from 6-month 'under ice' Arctic mission   When they finally punched through the Arctic ice cap just shy of the North Pole, it took them five hours to break the ice off their submarine's key hatches so they could reach the fresh air.   USS SEAWOLF (SSN 21)  The Navy estimates the potential value of hydrocarbons in the U.S. Arctic alone exceeds $1 trillion."The Arctic is going to be a place of growing strategic importance. The Russians are active there," Defense Secretary Ash Carter told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in March.
  Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the same session that "the Russians have just taken a decision to activate six new brigades — and four of them will be in the Arctic."

• SEPT 1, 2015 -  Obama visits receding glacier in Alaska to highlight climate change 

• SEPT 1, 2015 -  Obama to Call for More Icebreakers in Arctic as U.S. Seeks Foothold   

The Quotation of the Quarter

"The U.S. has a secret weapon that most politicians don’t know about — an invention made in the Naval Research Labs — that can solve the world’s energy needs while actually lowering carbon emissions. If deployed, it could pull the wind out of Putin’s sails, improve the U.S. economy, and mitigate climate change. Unfortunately, government officials appear clueless and are not funding or focusing on this potential world-saving technology." - William Craig Reed, "Writing nonfiction more compelling than a great thriller for author", June 7, 2015.

 

W. Craig Reed served as a U.S. Navy diver, submarine weapons technician, and espionage photographer for special operations aboard nuclear fast-attack submarines, earning commendations for completing secret missions during the Cold War, several in concert with Navy SEAL teams. He is the author of the non-fiction books Cold War III: How the U.S. Navy can Defeat Putin and Halt Climate Change (RCG Publishing, 2015) and Red November: Inside the Secret U.S. - Soviet Submarine War (HarperCollins, 2010) and he is the only author invited by the U.S. Navy to observe recent ICEX operations in the Arctic.   

Reed's Concluding Speculations

"The U.S. Navy has a working prototype, but they lack funding and awareness to bring it to life. Perhaps it’s time for politicians to stop bickering and posturing for votes, and explore innovative ideas like this to help defeat Putin and halt climate change before it’s too late."  - from Reed's  Say Goodbye to the U.S. Petrodollar.

Submarines are always silent and strange. 


 

One Submarine Fleet's Surprising Recovery

Background

Canada's fleet of 4 Victoria class subs, British-made vessels bought in 1988 for as a package for $750-million, had been plagued with hefty maintenance issues.  

From November 2007:
 Canada's four Victoria-class, diesel boats are capable of only limited operations in arctic waters and options include extensively upgrading them or buying new ones capable of prolonged, under-ice ops. 'Nobody knows precisely where it's going, but it looks to be focused on the Arctic.' said Eric Lerhe, a former commodore and Pacific fleet commander. The Prime Minister's Office is considering whether to "scrap them altogether, upgrade the existing boats or buy new," said a political source. -THE CANADIAN PRESS


From November 2013: 
(the caption - see photo accompanying photo in linked article - says, "By the time Canada's submarines are ready for duty, they'll be due for retirement.")
Defence Minister Peter MacKay blames the Liberals for Canada’s troubled fleet of second-hand Victoria-class submarines. It was the Liberals who purchased the four . Yet it was none other than MacKay himself who, 10 years later, persuaded his Conservative colleagues not to scrap them. It was MacKay who signed taxpayers up for another $1.5-billion worth of refits and repairs, thereby throwing good money after bad. It was apparent long before 2008 that the submarines were deeply flawed. The diesel engines were designed for railroad locomotives and not the rapid stops and starts required of submarines. [red and underlined emphasis is mine]- National Post.com

UPDATE  February 2015

 

The fleet of Victoria-class subs is now fit, with three of four submarines available for operations, according to the Royal Canadian Navy's Feb 2015 state of the fleet announcement. 

HMCS Windsor, Victoria and Chicoutimi operated a cumulative total of about 260 at-sea days during 2014.  HMCS Corner Brook is currently docked at Victoria Shipyards for extended dry dock availability until 2017 [under ice?].

Canadian submarines generally work an operational cycle in which each s available to the fleet for six years, the so-called "operational period", followed by two years of major maintenance work during a period prolonged dry dock, says the Royal Canadian Navy in its state of the fleet.

Small size and extremely quiet, diesel-electric propulsion equip the Victoria class for stealth and increased maneuverability [under ice?]. 

They have advantages in certain conditions with respect to nuclear submarines, especially on the coasts and in strategic choke points, which makes them a valuable asset for Canada and our international partners in the coming years.  

Submarines are always silent and strange.

"Cold War" vs. Climate Change and Sub Quote of the Month

History
The name "Cold War" was coined by the English writer George Orwell, after the dropping of the first atomic bombs in 1945. ...It described a world where the two major powers—each possessing nuclear weapons and thereby threatened with mutually assured destruction (MAD)—never met in direct military combat.  

The Cold War, often dated from 1947 to 1991, was a sustained state of political and military tension between powers in the Western Bloc, dominated by the United States with NATO among its allies, and powers in the Eastern Bloc, dominated by the Soviet Union along with the Warsaw Pact.

[P]ressures escalated inside the Soviet Union, where Communism fell and the USSR was formally dissolved in late 1991.

In 1990, then Senator Al Gore presided over a three-day conference with legislators from over 42 countries which sought to protect the environment." In the late 1990s, Gore strongly pushed for the passage of the Kyoto Protocol, which called for reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Cold War Update
Dec. 5, 2013 -  abcNEWS - Cold, Cold War: Putin Talks Tough Over US Arctic Rivalry
With many experts saying that global warming is expediting the melting of the Arctic icecaps, newly created water routes have opened up a possible treasure trove of commercial wealth to northern nations in the form of oil, mineral, and natural gases. There has been competition among countries for Arctic usage rights since the 1950s, but the accelerated melting of Arctic glaciers in recent years has resulted in the resurgence of a Cold War-like scramble ...

 
"Russian President Vladimir Putin said this week that U.S. military capabilities in the Arctic Circle leave his government little choice but to maintain a strong foothold in the frigid north, where tensions between the former Cold War adversaries in recent years have heated up as the polar ice thawed. "

Putin's mistrust of U.S. nuclear-powered submarines' proximity to Russian borders is fueling Russia's professed need for a strong military presence in the Arctic, Hans Kristensen, Director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, told ABC News.

Submarine Quote of the Month
Current submarine design does not allow the ship to break the ice to emerge quickly without damage to the housing. - Igor Kurdin, ormer commander of the nuclear submarine Yekaterinburg and chairman of the St. Petersburg Submariners' Club  more from source

“Surfacing from the ice is done for only one purpose – for the application of nuclear missile attack from a surface position. This is done only in the Arctic regions. After surfacing when people come on deck, the whole deck is in huge blocks of ice,” Kudrin said.

By 2016, Russian submarines will have the ability to cut through thick, Arctic ice without damaging the ship’s housing during rapid surfacing, thanks to a new design that puts advanced technology on the boats.

The new technology for the submarines will allow subs to quickly surface for Arctic missions or to rescue the crew in case of an accident, according to the Central Design Bureau for Marine Engineering in charge of the new submarine design.

Related: 2008 "Chicken Game"

Submarines are always silent and strange.