Two Submarine Mysteries: Each Not Telling (Yet)

Molten Eagle:  "Submarines are always silent and strange." 

 

MYSTERY #  1 (Enduring)

Background

"Top Secret Data on India’s New Stealth Attack Submarine Leaked ... French defense contractor DCNS suffered a massive leak of secret documents."  click here for a few details revealed by those leaked documents

(AUGUST 24, 2016) India's Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar seeks submarine data leak report, navy says no need for alarm.  

"The navy also made it clear that the leak did not take place in India. The data, which comprises over 22,000 pages, was leaked, the Australian media reported. It contained documents on the Scorpene submarines, designed by French company DCNS and being built in India by the Mazagaon Dock Limited in Mumbai (Maharashtra) at a cost of around $3.5 billion. The news created ripples in India soon after the report in the Australian media came out."

 (AUGUST 25, 2016)  France and India Claim Submarine Data Leak Is No Big Security Problem
 
"France and India on Thursday played down the security risk posed by leaked data on French-designed submarines that a source told Reuters was probably stolen by a French former employee and that has raised concerns over a $38 billion contract with Australia. More than 22,000 pages of data about six submarines that France's DCNS is building for India's navy looked to have been stolen in 2011 by a subcontractor who was fired while providing training in India, the source said."

(SEPTEMBER 3, 2016) Scorpene leak: India shelves plan to expand French submarine order after data breach

"Details of the Scorpene submarine were published in the Australian newspaper last month, triggering concerns that it had become vulnerable even before it was ready to enter service." 

M.E.'s Rhetorical question: Which nation is responsible for the submarine data leak (Australia, France, India, none of the foregoing)?

****

MYSTERY #  2 (Enduring SSBNs; Temporary SSNs)

Background

"US Naval think tank: The US needs more submarines and smaller aircraft carriers" 

(FEBRUARY 10, 2017) Navy says more money needed to address submarine maintenance shortfall
"Five attack submarines could be decertified this year if Congress fails to provide more money to the Navy to address maintenance and readiness shortfalls, according to government officials.

The Navy did not immediately respond to a request for comment on which submarines are at risk of decertification."

M.E.'s Rhetorical questions (those serving aboard already know):  

• Which 5 U.S. submarines are at risk of "decertification"?  

• Is 5 actually the correct number?

****

Submarines are always silent and strange.

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.

State Department: On Submarine Missiles

Background

Some 39,000 lawyers work in federal cabinet agencies in various capacities. The State Department depends heavily on its attorneys.  Lawyers are often noted for their few virtues, including fairness and impartiality.  Some things lawyers generally are often associated with, however, have been penchants for citing complexity and tolerance for political doubletalk.
U.S. foreign policy has been neither predictable nor transparent, at least to those of us who have not paid dearly to influence it.

Now, Clear as Mud?

- INDIA -

India's ambitions for a sea-based nuclear deterrent were acknowledged in 1998.    
March 7, 2016 -  India conducts ballistic missile launch in the Bay of Bengal

March 22, 2016 - India successfully test-fired the K-4 submarine-launched ballistic missile earlier this month.  The missile was launched from a submerged replica of a submarine, from water 9 meters (around 30 feet) deep. 

March 25, 2016 - US criticises India over nuclear-capable submarine-launched ballistic missile K-4   Days after India conducted the submarine launch of the nuclear-capable ballistic missile (SLBM) K-4, the United States expressed concern citing risks to nuclear security and regional stability.  

- IRAN -

July 15, 2015 - Things We Must Keep In Mind About Iran Nuclear Deal
 1) It Would Curb Iran's Nuclear Programs, 2) But It Still Allows Iran To Continue Enrichment
3)  House Speaker John Boehner and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu among them — believe that this is a bad deal because it doesn't entirely dismantle Iran's nuclear program.  In a speech to the nation, President Obama said that while that is true, this deal extends Iran's "breakout time" — or the time it would take the country to make enough highly enriched material for a nuclear bomb. The White House estimates that at the moment, Iran's breakout time is two to three months.  
4)  Iran has a longstanding history of cheating on international agreements 
Iran has a long and proud history of cheating on its international nuclear agreements. Olli Heinonen, a former deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) who once monitored Iran’s nuclear program, observed in 2013: “If there is no undeclared installation today .  .  . it will be the first time in 20 years that Iran doesn’t have one.” Indeed, Iran’s main enrichment facility at Natanz was a covert facility that was only discovered in 2002, by the Mojahedin-e-Khalq, an Iranian opposition group. A year later, the European Union struck a deal with Iran to prevent it from spinning its centrifuges and beginning to enrich uranium. Yet for much of the deal, Iran was busy mastering its uranium supply chain. “While we were talking with the Europeans in Tehran,” wrote Iran’s nuclear negotiator and now president Hassan Rouhani, “we were installing equipment in parts of the [uranium conversion] facility at Isfahan.

- NORTH KOREA -

January 6, 2016 - North Korea announces it conducted a fourth nuclear weapons test, claiming to have detonated a hydrogen bomb for the first time. February 7, 2016 - North Korea launches a long-range ballistic missile carrying what it has said is an earth observation satellite in defiance of United Nations sanctions barring it from using ballistic missile technology.February 7, 2016 - North Korea is believed to have more than 1,000 missiles of varying capabilities, including long-range missiles which could one day strike the US.  

March 26, 2016 - North Korea released a new propaganda video Saturday showing a nuclear strike on Washington and then threatened South Korea with a “merciless military strike” for slandering leader Kim Jong-Un.

Submarines are always silent and strange

ANSWERS: Submarine QOTW from 27 DEC 2015

Background

Related information, photo(s) and links for questions are found in the original posting here.
The source of all answers provided below was "Undersea warfare: Surfacing now, navy's biggest batch of submariners", Jugal R Purohit, IndiaToday, Visakhapatnam, December 27, 2015.

Questions of the Week with ANSWERS

1 -  What is the current average age of India's sub fleet?  ANS: The average age of the Indian submarine 25 years.

2 -  Recent accidents - the explosion and sinking of INS Sindhurakshak in 2013, killed 18, and fire on INS Sindhuratna last year killed two officers. Unusually thorough accident reviews resulted in implementation of corrective procedures.  Is India's submarine force made up of volunteers?  ANS: YES.
 
3 -  India's navy has a submarine school comprised of three schools, the first is a year-long basics school for officers and enlisted.  What are the other two schools?  ANS: Escape training and the school of Advanced Undersea Warfare (for those assigned to nuclear-propelled submarines).
 
4 - According to one officer, what was the minimum passing grade (percentage correct answers) he needed to pass his first test (structure) in the basics school?  ANS: 85%, according to one officer.
 
5 -  Do India's submarine enlisted and officers attend submarine school together? ANS: YES.
 
6 - India's current fleet of operational submarines includes how many and of what classes? ANS: India's Navy (INF) fleet of operational subs consists of 14 boats: 9 Russian-EKMs or Sindhughosh class, 4 German HDW Shishumar class and the nuclear-powered boat, INS Chakra, an Akula class sub loaned from Russia.

7 - In addition to its operational fleet, how many subs does India have in sea trials and awaiting procurement?  ANS:  Winding up sea trials is the Arihant, an indigenous nuclear-powered boat.  And as currently planned, INS Kalvari should join the fleet in in September 2016 with 5 more of her French designed class coming at nine month intervals.  The INF also envisions construction of an additional 2 Arihants, 6 conventional diesel electrics, 6 nuclear powered subs, and lease of an 1 more Russian sub.   
 
8 - Besides earning an eventual dolphin badge, what unusual distinction separates India's submariners from every other branch of its military service?  ANS: "[O]urs is the only military service where on duty no one wears a uniform, not even a rank and for a reason," quipped an officer.
 
9 - What is the stated purpose of the policy referred to in question 8?  ANS: "Camaraderie is our hallmark and here sailors and officers train and earn their dolphins together. Anyone who volunteers is allowed a look-in period of a month in which he can walk away if he desires with no penalties imposed," said an officer.
 

Submarines are always silent and strange. 

Submarine Questions of the Week: Dec 27, 2015

Background

Today's submarine questions relate to India's submarine force.  After years of backwater stagnation and tragic accidents, the submarine arm of India Navy's (IN) finally appears to be on track for unprecedented growth.  Unfortunately, the rapid pace of force development assures growing pains are in store and pitfalls still remain.  

 
Molten Eagle certainly wishes all of India's brave submariners the safest environment possible in their hazardous undertakings.

Questions of the Week

1 -  What is the current average age of India's sub fleet?

2 -  Recent accidents - the explosion and sinking of INS Sindhurakshak in 2013, killed 18, and fire on INS Sindhuratna last year killed two officers. Unusually thorough accident reviews resulted in implementation of corrective procedures.  Is India's submarine force made up of volunteers?

3 -  India's navy has a submarine school comprised of three schools, the first is a year-long basics school for officers and enlisted.  What are the other two schools?

4 - According to one officer, what was the minimum passing grade (percentage correct answers) he needed to pass his first test (structure) in the basics school?

5 -  Do India's submarine enlisted and officers attend submarine school together?

6 - India's current fleet of operational submarines includes how many and of what classes?

7 - In addition to its operational fleet, how many subs does India have in sea trials and awaiting procurement?

8 - Besides earning an eventual dolphin badge, what unusual distinction separates India's submariners from every other branch of its military service?

9 - What is the stated purpose of the policy referred to in question 8?

ANSWERS:  Saturday, 2 JAN 2016.

Submarines are always silent and strange. 

Consider the timing...

Background
Operation Wigwam  evaluated the detonation of a Mark 90 Betty, a nuclear depth bomb.  The test was conducted May 14th in 1955, some 500 miles southwest of San Diego.  OP Wigwam results helped determine (see declassified Wigwam film) the effectiveness of deeply detonated nuclear weapons (nuclear torpedoes and depth charges, for example) in combat against submerged eneny subs.


What prompted Operation Wigwam to surface at 'War Is Boring" in December of 2014?


First, we know that nuclear tests are conducted and evaluated with limited publicity and nil transparency of results until declassified decades later:

"The bomb was suspended by cable from an unmanned barge and detonated at a depth of 2,000 feet in water that was 16,000 feet deep. The test had a yield of 30 kilotons. ...

In 1980, when the details of Operation Wigwam became publicly known, Governor Brown of California issued an immediate call for the federal government to publicly release the names of all servicemen involved in Wigwam, so that they could receive suitable medical treatment."  source

Additionally, tests, capabilities, limitations and ceetain operations applicable to specific U.S. submarines are justifiable secrets kept from public knowledge for significant periods of time.
Wigwam participants had to sign 25-year nondisclosure and secrecy agreements. Since all submariners had already signed some form of secrecy agreement beforehand, it was also necessary for many to sign non-travel agreements to certain foreign destinations for x years after their discharge from active duty.


More Recent Events

North Korea Is In The Process Of Developing A Fleet Of Nuclear Missile-Capable Submarines

In October, US General Curtis Scaparrotti, the commander of US forces on the Korean peninsula, warned that North Korea had developed "the capability to miniaturize a device at this point and they have the technology to actually deliver what they say they have."

In addition to submarine and WMD ambitions of known and suspected bad actors like North Korea, there have been unprecedented programs to acquire updated subs by nations dependent upon oil for food and energy shipments in an age of piracy, crime and Russian imperialism:

Global Submarine Proliferation: Emerging Trends and Problems

"Russia continues to be an active exporter of finished diesel submarines and is now providing nuclear reactor and submarine-design technology to China and India. In the Middle East and elsewhere, Germany remains a major submarine exporter, despite the WMD potential of some of its clients."

 In Molten Eagle's opinion, the How to Nuke a Submarine article by War Is Boring contributor Steve Weintz is a very timely reminder to potential bad actors of a severe, unexpected vulnerability to any injudicious acts they may have planned.  Like India (unfortunately) the DPRK has decades of catchup to overcome.

Submarines are always silent and strange.

Synthesis = "the combination of ideas to form a theory or system."

Background
From March 2014 HMS Tireless Mystery :

"Making news today, it has just been revealed that a Briritsh SSN, HMS Tireless (S88), was refused entry to the United Arab Emirates.  The Royal Navy downplayed the refusal, hinting that it amounted only to a "delay" rather than a safety issue. Curiously, UAE authorities have not commented."

A week after the vessel had first been refused clearance, the Royal Navy finally decided to dock at Goa, India.

 "We do not discuss submarine movements for reasons of security." - The Royal Navy

"A small number of families did travel to the region at their own expense in anticipation of the visit. They were kept informed of the situation by local Royal Navy personnel ashore." 

 The Foreign and Commonwealth Office denied there were any diplomatic issues between the UK and the UAE.
Was the port denial a cover story to explain a detour to the Indian Oean for a secretive intelligence gathering mission by the British SSN Tireless? 


Synthesis 

• [T]he Indian media reported that a type-093 attack nuclear submarine was on deployment (December 2013 to February 2014) in the Indian Ocean and that the Chinese Ministry of National Defense (Foreign Affairs Office) had informed the Indian military attaché in Beijing of the submarine deployment to show ‘respect for India’. Apparently, the information of the deployment was also shared with the United States, Singapore, Indonesia, Pakistan and Russia.
• On 1 April 2014, Tireless arrived in the southern Indian Ocean to join the search for a missing Malaysian airliner, where its sophisticated underwater listening equipment was used in an unsuccessful to attempt to detect the underwater locator beacon of the aircraft's flight recorders. 
• China had deployed a number of ships, aircraft and satellite in the southern Indian Ocean in its attempt to locate the debris of MH 370. These factors may have encouraged the Chinese Navy to dispatch the submarine to the Indian Ocean.

 Read the rest here.

Tireless had been scheduled for retirement during 2013, but its service was extended until eventual decommissioning on 19 June 2014.

Had China deployed an SSN to the Indian Ocean as speculated above, some rather nice technical data about it could have been discretely collected by a properly equipped HMS Tireless. 

On 1 April 2014, Tireless arrived in the southern Indian Ocean to join the search for a missing Malaysian airliner, where its sophisticated underwater listening equipment was used in an unsuccessful to attempt to detect the underwater locator beacon of the aircraft's flight recorders.  On 1 June 2014 Tireless returned to Plymouth for the last time before decommissioning, and was formally decommissioned on 19 June. 

 "We do not discuss submarine movements for reasons of security." - The Royal Navy

What was Tireless's secretive mission?  Who injected the bogus MH370 locator signals. Was the Chinese submarine responsible for the little-mentioned MH370 encrypted chirping as a warning to the U.S. that their technology has already been hacked?  

Tireless will be replaced on active duty by HMS Artful^,[5][4]  which only completed its maiden dive recently.

Submarines are always silent and strange.