Recent Submarine Curiosities Around Globe

 Curiosity 1  (?)

Can you identify the vessels and location pictured below?

During what event was this?

M.E. Comment:  Answers Friday

Curiosity 2  (US)

  "The Submarine Force is seeking high caliber female applicants from all ratings."

(Actual accompanying photo)

M.E. Comment:  Are those storm clouds rising?

 

 Curiosity 3 (INDIA)

‘Nepotism nuked our careers’  

A critical component of the almost $100 million training programme was a group of 11 officers who were to be trained by Russian experts for operating nuclear reactors on submarines. This group was to play a critical leadership role as India’s nuclear submarine capabilities reached the maturity to launch nuclear missiles.

In a bizarre twist to that pioneering effort, all the senior reactor operators, nine of them, have been denied promotion to the rank of Captain, despite their expensive and exclusive skills in commissioning, operating and maintaining nuclear reactors on submarines. 

 

 M.E. Comment:  Did Vice-Admiral Chatterjee manipulate the promotion process in such a way that he has been the Reviewing Officer for his own son-in-law for family benefit, or because the unpromoted officers are too valuable to INS nuclear subs to promote?  Well, read the linked story. 

 Curiosity 4 (Canada)

Partner with Australia for submarines

The Canadian government has an opportunity to partner with Australia to build DCNS Barracuda-class subs for the Royal Canadian Navy. 

 M.E. Comment:  But read the next curiosity --- is the price of those boats about to rise with India cancelling its big INS order?  India Drops Plans to Add 3 More French Stealth Attack Submarines.

Curiosity 5  (India)

   India Drops Plans to Add 3 More French Stealth Attack Submarines

The Indian Navy has purportedly shelved plans to add more French submarines to its fleet following the DCNS leak.  The INS will not procure additional Scorpene-class (Kalvari-class) diesel-electric attack submarines from France's DCNS, following the leak of documents detailing the top-secret combat capabilities of India’s new submarine fleet, according to media reports.

“India has ordered only six Scorpene submarines and orders have not been placed for three more as reported by some media. Therefore question of cancellation does not arise,” an Indian naval officer told Reuters.

 M.E. Comment: The less work for DCNS, the higher its residual overhead costs per hour of production.  If there was no agreement for 3 additional subs, why has justification been cited? India's defence official said he did not expect any movement on that project until the investigation into the Scorpene leak was completed and new security measures put in place. In other words, for leverage.

 Curiosity 6 (United Kingdom)

Morale: How The Internet Cripples SSBN Operations

In Britain the Royal Navy has found it impossible to attract enough qualified sailors to operate all its nuclear submarines, especially the SSBNs (nuclear powered subs carrying ballistic missiles). The reason is that SSBNs stay at sea for 90 days at a time .... The problem is that too many otherwise qualified sailors and officers are not willing to spend 90 days without Internet access. This shortage has already reduced the number of days British SSBNs can spend at sea.  

 

 M.E. Comment:  What has changed since the Cold War has been the waning interest of the recruiting pool in military service and modern youths' dependence upon their communication culture. (U.K., France, U.S., etc.).  

 Curiosity 7 (Australia)

Submarine Data Leak Roils Three Governments

The revelation Aug. 24 by an Australian newspaper that thousands of pages of presumably secret submarine documents were on the loose shook governments in Canberra, New Delhi and Paris. The news threatened the operational security of India’s new Scorpene-class submarines, embarrassed French shipbuilder DCNS, and raised security questions about Australia’s recent Australian $50 billion deal with DCNS for 12 Shortfin Barracuda submarines, of a design similar to the Scorpenes.

As reported by The Australian newspaper, a reporter was shown samples of up to 24,500 pages of highly technical data on the Scorpene submarine, an advanced, non-nuclear design that has been exported by DCNS to several countries. The documents, said The Australian, include highly technical drawings, specifications and operational capability descriptions of the submarine’s stealth features; noise signatures at different speeds; range, endurance, diving depths, magnetic and infrared data.  

DCNS has been made aware of articles published in the Australian press related to the leakage of sensitive data about (the) Indian Scorpene,” the company told Defense News on Aug. 23. “This serious matter is being thoroughly investigated by the ...  French national authorities for defense security,” DCNS said."

M.E. Comment:  There is ample blame to go around, hence very expensive learning opportunities.

Submarines are always silent and strange.

Prediction of the Next 5 Years

Background

The final sentence summarized our previous post:

"In other words, POTUS and his State Department will have plausible deniability if some portion of  it [the $400 Million in Cash from U.S. to top state TERROR sponsor] is sent to Venezuela under the guise of sorely needed "food assistance", then funneled off to support Latin American versions of ISIS." 

Conflicted Analyses

Administration's Opinion

US Secretary of State John Kerry told CNN on Sunday that recent terror attacks by Islamist extremists were a result of ISIS being “on the run”.

Contrarian View 

“These guys have all the energy and unpredictability of a populist movement.”   - Michael Hayden, retired Air Force general who led the CIA from 2006 to 2009.  Analysts expect further attacks are likely to continue and are likely to become worse.  source

Our Analysis 

The current Washington administration has habitually employed public deception (lies), incentivization (bribery) and threats (extortion) to hide fecklessness in affairs of state. Even the former head of our U.S. State Department often lied publicly according to details confirmed by FBI Director Comey.   

Barack Obama wishes above all else to preserve his presidential legacy.  Did payment of $400 Million to Iran require a commitment from Hassan Rouhani to assure no part of the $400 Million reaches Ansar al-Khilafah #Brazil until Brazil's Summer Olympic games are over? 
No, that promise had to be even longer, at least until a year when Obama will have had not a single day in office (plausible deniability) --- 2018 at the earliest. 

M.E.'s Prediction

"Millions will be sent to Venezuela under the guise of sorely needed "food assistance", then funneled off to support Latin American versions of ISIS."  

Will the Latin American recipient of Iran's $Millions via Venezuela be Ansar al-Khilafah #Brazil?  Not Brazil for two reasons:

1. Brazil's huge off-shore oil deposits are uneconomical in the current economy.  After Brazil'z Summer Olympics Ansar al-Khilafah #Brazil could become a terrorist relic, but...
2. ISIS affiliated groups rejoice in spreading geographically as much as in dealing fear. South America offers more lucrative sources of ongoing terror financing than Brazilian oil.  By 2019 the names of new ISIS groups in countries such as Argentina and Chile may be as familiar to North Americans as Nigeria's Boko Haram, which  pledged allegiance to ISIS in March 2015, and then expanded its attacks to neighboring countries. 

Will North Americans remember what Islamist apologist Obama did to help ISIS grow and spread?

Such memories are irrelevant to the media (never again to be mentioned) when plausible deniability created by lawyers has been approved by more lawyers. 

A recent example of plausible deniability is what has prevented Hillary Clinton's prosecution for intentional violation of U.S. secrecy laws which could not be proven to the satisfaction of Director Comey's FBI.  Instead, Clinton was branded as grossly negligent, which for any Republican would instantly signal incompetence. 

Think how much better U.S. leadership will become if the public consciously prevents crafty, scheming, ambitious attorneys from winning so over half of elected offices.    

Submarines are always silent and strange.

 
 

 

Strange Submarine News and Quote of the Week (14 JUN 16)

- 1 -

Recall Sweden's 2014 Russian submarine hunt:  BBC's 60 second video Review

Molten Eagle speculation had remained:  It is more likely, in our experience, that a much needed Swedish Military training excercise, a PR recruiting effort, or a combination of both, have been conducted with renewed world attention.      and now we learn...

Today's [June 13, 2016] NEWS UPDATE indicates we appear to have been correct all along:
"A sonar signature, which Swedish military claimed to be crucial evidence of a foreign submarine’s presence near Stockholm during the 2014 hunt, came from a 'Swedish object,' the country’s defense minister has admitted.

Peter Hultqvist would not go into details about the source of the signal, but said the military reconsidered their assessment of its nature in September 2015, he told Sveriges Radio."  {The Sveriges Radio AB Swedish Language article is consistent}

- 2 -

Sub-Ocean Geophysical Catastrophe (Pick the more likely story)   

February 13, 2016 - CNN  | The quake-maker you've never heard of: Cascadia

• The Cascadia is capable of delivering a 9.0-magnitude quake. The fault can deliver a quake with 30 times more energy than the more famous San Andreas 

• The Cascadia runs from British Columbia's Vancouver Island California's Cape Mendocino

• "...and then it generates a tsunami at the same time, which the side-by-side motion of the San Andreas can't do." - Prof. Chris Goldfinger, Oregon State University.

June 13, 2016 - PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) | Robot submarine streams live from ocean off Oregon coast
A robot submarine is roaming around the ocean floor off the Oregon Coast in an effort to detect any geological activity underground, and researchers are offering a live stream of the underwater view.  The mission off the Pacific Northwest is intended to find “methane seeps,” where the natural greenhouse gas is released from the ocean floor along the Cascadia subduction.
 
Another Russian exploration to locate ideal detonation sites to trigger earthquakes, or innocent scientific curiosity? Hint: See research efforts (Dr. Robert Ballard and the Corps of Exploration)   

- 3 - 

June 2016 | theatlantic.com  GPS Doesn't Work Underwater
So the U.S. Navy is developing a new kind of system—built specifically for drone submarines.

POSYDON wants to install acoustic speakers in buoys throughout the ocean, where they will broadcast the time like GPS satellites. “They will be heard across very, very wide swaths of ocean,” he told me. “And now our underwater vehicles will be able to listen to those acoustic signals and measure the time difference of arrivals of each one of them.”

There’s one big problem. GPS radio signals are electromagnetic waves, so they move at the speed of light—always, through any atmospheric medium. This makes it extremely straightforward to back-compute the location of a beacon from its signal.  

M.E. Comment: Would not laser emissions from orbiting satellites provide faster, broader coverage?  

- 4 -

May 18, 2016 - Military Times | CHEYENNE, Wyo. Tribute to a Navy vet served on captured German WWII sub

Toward the war's end, one of these U-boats, U-858, was sent to wreak havoc along the east coast of the United States. But two weeks after Hitler's suicide, on May 14, 1945, U-858 became the first Nazi submarine to surrender to U.S. forces.

It's a boat that Chuck Kline remembers well. That's because, for nine months after its surrender, Kline served aboard U-858.

Kline, now 93, is one of a dwindling number of American sailors who served aboard submarines during World War II, and the last to come from Wyoming. (more)

Submarines are always silent and strange.

Weekly Submarine Tidbits and Quote of the Week (31 MAY 16)

Submarine Quote of the Week

"I would submit that a country that has the largest maritime estate in the world, and that has interests well beyond our borders and our continent, should have a tool in its toolbox that can declare exclusive control over a piece of water at a time and place of its choosing, and that's what a submarine gives you."  - Vice-Admiral Mark Norman,  Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN)  source

Submarine curiousities new to the public's attention  ...

(1)

Report: China Will Send Submarines Armed with Nuclear Missiles to the Pacific
Last week, The Guardian reported how China revealed its plans on releasing an underwater vessel that carries nuclear-powered missiles in the Pacific Ocean.

While The Guardian appears to be convinced that China could really deploy an underwater vessel with a weapon of mass destruction, there are still some who see it to be far from possible, saying that the country's submarine capabilities have been grossly exaggerated.

"It seems that various news media reports and official statements continue to exaggerate or preempt the operational capability of the Chinese submarine force," the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) said in a report.  source 

 (2)

Background:  ILLEGAL RETENTION OF CLASSIFIED NUCLEAR SYSTEMS PHOTOS from USS Alexandria (SSN-757) by nuc Machinest Mate ex-submariner (later a First Class Petty Officer assigned to the Naval Support Activity Base in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.)

UPDATE:  Navy sailor pleads guilty to espionage for submarine photos 
The 29-year-old petty officer first class, Kristian Saucier, admitted to taking cellphone photos of instruments and equipment within the submarine on three separate occasions in 2009, the Justice Department announced. ...Sentencing is scheduled for August. Saucier faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.  

Will this delayed case be compared to the FBI's investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s alleged mishandling of highly classified information during her time in office as some have suggested?  Unlikely, in M.E.'s opinion.

Submarines are always silent and strange.

Weekly Submarine Tidbit and Quotes of the Week (18 MAY 16)

First (of Two) Quotes of the Week

"These are unusually bad submarines. These are submarines that were rejected by the British Royal Navy, which tried to sell them to South Africa and Greece, both of which rejected them."   - Michael Byers, a defence expert at the University of British Columbia (related story follows)

Background

May 17, 2016 (video link with excellent background info) - Canada's troubled submarine fleet has been hit with another headache: hundreds of potentially dangerous welds

"More bad news for Canada's problem-plagued submarine fleet: two of the boats will be out of commission for most of this year because of shoddy welding.

HMCS Chicoutimi and its sister, HMCS Victoria, are stuck in their Vancouver Island port for months because several hundred welds can't be trusted to hold tight when the boats dive.

"Numerous welds are located outside the boats' pressure hull, which will require docking to complete the review and effect repairs," says a briefing note for Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, obtained by CBC News under the Access to Information Act.

Weld problems on HMCS Chicoutimi are costing the navy about eight months' downtime, with the submarine returning to sea only in the autumn. Beginning in February this year, technicians had to inspect 344 suspect welds on the boat and found at least 30 needed re-welding, often in tight spaces where work is difficult.

Technicians are scheduled to inspect 325 dubious welds on HMCS Victoria. There's no word yet on how many of those will need re-welding. Weld analysis alone will keep Victoria in port for five months this year, with additional time for actual repairs."

Second (of Two) Quotes of the Week

"If a weld blows on a submarine while it's 100 metres below the surface, every person on board dies. There's no margin for error when you're talking about submarines." - Michael Byers, a defence expert at the University of British Columbia

Submarines are always silent and strange.

ANSWERS for (17 MAR 16) Sub Questions of Week

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

ANSWERS Submarine Questions of the Week

1  -  What is the significance of Ice Camp Sargo's name?  ANS: USS Sargo's (SSN-538) arctic history.

2 -   In the photo of Ice Camp Sargo (here): 
-  (a)  From what direction was the wind coming?  ANS:  Unknown, as we do not know exactly when the photo was taken. However, a subjective guess based upon March winds may help.

-  (b)  Which of the flags shown represent nations who have claimed portions of the extended continental shelf under UNCLOS? ANS:  Canada and Norway. 
- (c) Which flags represent nations who have not made such claims? ANS:  U.S.A.
- (d) Is there an UNCLOS claimant not participating in ICEX 16?  ANS: Russia

 
3 - Two U.S. subs are deployed for ICEX 16; which subs (names & hull numbers)? ANS: The Los Angeles-class submarines, USS Hartford (SSN 768) from Groton, and USS Hampton (SSN 767) from San Diego, are conducting maneuvers, data collection and training matters. 
 
4 -  Which of the following are not assigned ICEX 16 participants: Alaska Air National Guard assets, MIT students, Mobile Diving Salvage Unit 2, Norwegian personnel, SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team, Royal Navy personnel, Royal Canadian Navy and Air Force personnel, Russian contingents, the USCG?   ANS:  Russian contingents may be actively snooping, but not as ICEX participants.
 
5 - What seems strangely out of place in the © Edgar Su / Reuters ICEX-16 unrelated, U.S. submarine photo below (subjective answer)?  ANS:  M.E. has lightened the published photo to underscore issues raised below:

Submarines are always silent and strange.

Sub Questions of the Week: 17 MAR 16

Background

In a temporary departure from past Questions of the Week, which required objective answers, this edition also requires a few subjective answers to consider. 

Inspiration for this week's change comes from Ice Station SARGO, a temporary ICEX 16 command center built upon an arctic ice floe (a sheet of floating ice):

Sub Questions of the Week

1  -  What is the significance of Ice Camp Sargo's name?

2 -   In the photo of Ice Camp Sargo below:

-  (a)  From what direction was the wind coming?
-  (b)  Which of the flags shown represent nations who have claimed portions of the extended continental shelf under UNCLOS?  - (c) Which flags represent nations who have not made such claims? - (d) Is there an UNCLOS claimant not participating in ICEX 16?

3 - Two U.S. subs are deployed for ICEX 16; which subs (names & hull numbers)?

4 -  Which of the following are not assigned ICEX 16 participants: Alaska Air National Guard assets, MIT students, Mobile Diving Salvage Unit 2, Norwegian personnel, SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team, Royal Navy personnel, Royal Canadian Navy and Air Force personnel, Russian contingents, the USCG?

5 - What seems strangely out of place in the © Edgar Su / Reuters ICEX-16 unrelated, U.S. submarine photo below (subjective answer)? 

ANSWERS:  Tuesday, 22 MAR 16

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.

ANSWERS: Provocative Submarine Q.O.T.W.

Background 

Related information, photos and links for questions are found at original posting.

  

Questions of the Week & ANSWERS

1 -  Taking place during peacetime, what year marked the "first ICEX" according to the USN, and what submarine inaugurated such missioins (name and hull number)?  ANS: 1958; USS Nautilus (SSN-571).

2 - ICEXs nowadays have been highly classified. How highly classified was the "first ICEX"? ANS:  "Operation Sunshine was so secretive that the story of a routine Pacific cruise was created for Nautilus’ and her crew. To explain Nautilus’ appearance on the West Coast, a cover story was created involving a series of anti-submarine exercises in a supposed effort to familiarize military ships and aircraft with a nuclear submarine. ... The operation became known as the most top secret peacetime naval operation in history for two reasons. First, in proceeding through the Bering Strait, and while well removed from the territorial waters of the Soviet Union, Nautilus might have possibly neared areas of Soviet submarine operation. Second, White House officials preferred to attempt the voyage first and wait for success before making any announcements after the Vanguard debacle and its fallout. As such, few people within the government were privy to the plans for Nautilus as the summer of 1958 approached."   source Navy CNO

3 - What was one of the primary objectives of the "first ICEX"?  ANS:   (1) Operation Sunshine was first and foremost a White House mission, planned to enhance the United States’ image domestically as well as internationally. Nautilus’s crew remained in the dark as to their real destination as Nautilus left Groton, Conn., on April 25, 1958. [ibid].   (2)  "In response to the nuclear ICBM threat posed by Sputnik, President Eisenhower ordered the US Navy to attempt a submarine transit of the North Pole to gain credibility for the soon-to-come SLBM weapons system." Anderson, William R. "Fact Sheet – USS Nautilus and Voyage to North Pole, August 1958" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-09-06.   

4 - What are some newer ICEX's objectives today?  ANS: "Submarines have conducted under-ice operations in the Arctic regions in support of inter-fleet transit, training, cooperative allied engagements and operations for more than 50 years."

5 - What ICEX of the current decade publicly demonstrated a strong U.S. intention to maintain a superior commitment to submarine know-how and training?  ANS: 3/16/2011(NORFOLK, Va.) – "Commander, Submarine Force (COMSUBFOR) has announced that the Virginia-class submarine USS New Hampshire (SSN 778) and the Seawolf-class submarine USS Connecticut (SSN 22) "the world's most powerful attack submarine", have commenced Ice Exercise 2011 (ICEX-2011) in the Arctic Ocean.  NNS110316-07 

6 - Generally, how often are Arctic ICEX exercises conducted publicly?  ANS: The U.S. Submarine Force has completed more than 25 Arctic exercises at a pace of one Ice Camp every two years.

7 - There is a special reason east coast submarines participate in ICEXs; what might their participation illustrate to potential adversaries?  ANS:  US east coast subs can reach pacific without transiting the Panama Canal.

8 - Subsequent ICEX deployments involved both scientific and tactical exercises. What foreign navy has most often joined with the U.S. in arctic tactical exercises?  ANS: Apparently the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. However, prevailing secrecy in ICEX missions makes a factual answer publicly uncertain. As of 1984, for instance only three (3) ICEXs seem to hav been acknowledged in conjunction with foreign submarine participation.

9 - For at least one ICEX since 2000, a sub's culinary specialists planned having a rather large btu-value of food available for each crew member. How much per person was this (in calories)?  ANS:  5,000 calories per day.

10 - The first Sturgeon class submarine capable of shooting both TLAM and TLAM-N missiles participated in an ICEX.  In what year was that ICEX, what was that sub?  ANS:  1986;  USS RAY (SSN-653).

11 - It may strike the uninitiated as odd that subs from our arctic ally Canada have not participated in ICEXs; what is the reason? ANS:  Only nuclear subs participate publicly in ICEXs.  Canada has no SSNs and her fleet of 4 diesels has been plagued by mishaps and lay ups until recently. Canadaian submariners claims they operate operate north of 60 degrees, but the Canada's navy gives surface craft HMCS Shawinigan a potential all-time Arctic record for an RCN ship, reaching 80 degrees, 30 minutes north. 

Submarines are always silentrange.