Monday, September 07, 2015

Wow! SUBMARINE scuttlebutt leaks EU Military Arrangements?

[color emphasis added - Molten Eagle]

Background

 (1)
"Article 42 of the [1992 Maastricht Treaty] Treaty on European Union provides for substantial military integration within the institutional framework of the union. Complete integration is an option that requires unanimity in the European Council of heads of state or government. For now it remains politically gridlocked considering the critical stance of the United Kingdom in particular.

Article 42 does also provide for a permanent structured cooperation between the armed forces of a subset of member states. As of 2015 this option has not been used, despite calls by prominent leaders such as former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini and former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt for a common defence for the Union. However the debate has intensified by the standoff between the EU and Russia over Ukraine.
"    source


(2) 
"...EU commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and ... other European leaders and policy makers like the head of the German parliament’s foreign policy committee Norbert Röttgen, saying an EU army was “a European vision whose time has come”.[6][7]

Interesting Rumors (Leak?)

...snip.....
"The German submarines will, at the end of 2015, be under Dutch Command due to a bilateral agreement outside of NATO or the EU.  The Dutch and German Armed Forces are in the process of merging into one common armed force.  This is seen as precursor to a common EU Army.  The Air Mobile Infantry of both countries are already merged and under German command and there are plans to merge the last of the Dutch tanks [both Germany and the Netherlands use the German made Leopard 2 tank - the world's second best tank!] and artillery with the German counterparts.

Next step is to place elements of the German Navy under Dutch Admiralty (like the Belgian navy [is already?]. The first units will be German subs.

The Dutch and British expeditionary [surface?] forces are also merging and being placed under the British admiralty.
"

...snip...   (read more of "KEVIN's BACKGROUND ON THE NETHERLAND and GERMAN SITUATION") at Peter Coates's Submarine Matters

Submarines are always silent and strange.

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Thursday, September 05, 2013

Submarines, Whale Meat, and Sonar 3 Decades Later

Background

Freshly commissioned the year prior, HMS Brilliant (F90) was assigned to the Royal Navy's Falkland Task Force under Captain John Coward's command to defend a British aircraft carrier from Argentine submarine and missile attacks. Brilliant was the first RN warship to fire Sea Wolf missiles in action (12 May 1982) when she downed three A-4 Skyhawks. On 21 May Brilliant was slightly damaged in another Argentine air attack. Days later the Brilliant rescued dozens of survivors from Atlantic Conveyor, a British merchant sunk by Argentine Exocet missiles. Brilliant initially carried a pair of nuclear depth charges. - Wkipedia

*** Two of Brilliant's helicopters unsuccessfully attacked the Argentine submarine Santa Fe.

In October 1990, the first members of the Women's Royal Naval Service officially assigned to on an operational warship came aboard. Brilliant starred in a BBC documentary with her name in the early 1990s.The Royal Navy decommissioned Brilliant in 1996. [ibid]
 

Revealed Now, 30 Years Later

 
September 01, 2013 - Plymouth Herald  "Plymouth warship torpedoed whales mistaken for Falklands submarines"  - A DEVONPORT-BASED warship killed three whales after mistaking them for enemy submarines during the Falklands War it has been revealed.

***  Two were killed by torpedoes fired from the anti-submarine frigate HMS Brilliant, and the third was attacked by one of the ship’s helicopters.

The previously undisclosed incidents are taken from the diaries of ship’s crew published to commemorate the HMS Brilliant's role in the Falklands War.
One crew member wrote of a “small sonar contact” that prompted the launch of two torpedoes, each of which hit a whale.  He noted dryly: “Whale oil sighted by Sea King [helicopter] . . . I think I’ll join Greenpeace.”
 The Ministry of Defence said the sonar equipment of the time could be easily confused by whale signals, but that modern-day equipment was far more discerning.

 A spokesman for Whale and Dolphin Conservation said: “Navies have a duty of care, and we wouldn’t expect our own to deliberately choose to blow-up whales.”
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Related
  
February 07, 2008,  Between the Lines of AIP Submarine Defense

March 13, 2008,  Solution to Navy Sonar Dilemma    

Submarines are always silent and strange.




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