Answers to Submarine Q.O.T.W. from 14 NOV 2016

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

Q & A: 

"In 1968, A US Nuclear Submarine Went On a Russia Super Secret Spy Mission (And It Never Came Back)" by Kyle Mizokami

1 - An unusually high number of submarines vanished in 1968, including three (3) non-U.S. subs. Identify 3 of the non-U.S. subs sunk in 1968 (by names and navies). ANS: The Israeli submarine Dakar (69 lost); The French submarine Minerve (52 dead); and, The Soviet submarine K-129 (98 lost).

2 - The U.S. sub which sank in 1968 "was in a very poor state of preservation", according to its commanding officer.
- a) Who was the commanding officer? ANS: Cdr. Francis Atwood Slattery  
- b) Some of its crew had derisively referred to the sub as (fill in blank) USS Scrap Iron.
- c) Name the vessel's major (most restrictive) known defect before its 1968 departure on a secret Russian spy mission. ANS:  Leaking valves caused the submarine to be restricted to  less than half its nominal test depth. It had “chronic problems” with its hydraulics, its emergency blow system didn’t work and emergency seawater shutoff valves had not yet been decentralized. source
 
3 -  The U.S. Navy’s report on the U.S. sub incident is inconclusive. Several malfunction theories—and at least one conspiracy have arisen to explain the loss of the ship and its ninety-nine crew, but all lack hard evidence. What is the leading conspiracy theory?  ANS: The leading conspiracy theory is that the Scorpion was somehow caught up in some kind of Cold War skirmish, and that the nearby Soviet flotilla had sunk the sub.
 
4 -  What major fact issue tends to confound the leading conspiracy theory? ANS: There is scant explanation for how a Soviet task force with only two combatants could manage to kill the relatively advanced USS Scorpion.  
 
5 -  Does it now appear at all likely that there would ever be a conclusive explanation for the loss of the U.S. sub in 1968? ANS: No. 
 
6 - What has been the convention (minimum average time) for submarine secrets to be divulged by various navies (in Vigilis's opinion)? ANS:  30 years.

7- How many years have already elapsed since May 1968? ANS: 48 years
 
8- BONUS QUESTION:  Where is the longest submarine memorial in the U.S. now located? ANS: The entire length of Route 9 in Saratoga County, NY (a fifty-four-mile stretch) has been named the U.S. Submarine Veterans Memorial Highway.  The county is home to the Naval Nuclear Power Training Unit where American sailors learn how to operate nuclear-powered submarines. The New York state submarine veterans memorial honors the fifty-four submarines lost during war and the Cold War. 

Submarines are always silent and strange.  

Submarine Nuggets of the Week - Women, Cells Not Allowed

The following excerpts were snipped from Silence, tight quarters and no women: On board Israel's most advanced submarine  By Amos Harel Sep 09, 2016 (read all few pages)

Haaretz’s military correspondent joined the crew of INS Rahav, the Israel Navy’s newest submarine, on a brief training cruise. He learned about the unique physical and mental demands of service on the IDF's most expensive war machine, its technological capabilities and why Israeli subs are still off-limits to women. 

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( color and underscoring emphasis added by M.E. )

Nugget  1

“Discussion on the integration of women on submarines is legitimate.  ...  No one here would refuse an order for women to serve on submarines.  ...  It’s also not a matter of restraint. Possible sexual tension on a long cruise could make it more complex, but that won’t break a submariner – he’s used to giving up a lot of things.”  - Col. Doron, outgoing commander of Shayetet 7, the Israel Defense Forces submarine squadron. [Israel Defense Forces (IDF) censorship forbids publication of  officers’ surnames.]  

Nugget  2

Some countries, such as Italy and the Scandinavian countries, decided that this need not be a limitation. Women and men dress together in the same room. It’s not perceived as a sexual thing. The Italians concluded that their effort was a failure. [ibid]

Nugget  3

This might be justified if there were a large number of potential female submariners, not just one or two. “We asked the U.S. Navy for input – they’ve had women on submarines for the past two years,” Doron says. “But they have 72 subs, some of which are bigger than ours, so they have room for maneuver. The Australians have six women in their submarines, which are also larger, and they allocate them a specific area. If a woman gets sick, she is replaced by another woman. But assignment problems arise.   

Nugget 4

One outstanding feature of submarine service is the need for total severance from the outside world during long missions – almost unparalleled in other operational units. Is such a disconnect still feasible in an era when 20-year-olds are as active in the digital world as they are in the real one, if not more? Doron acknowledges that this has become a problem and necessitates more intensive preparation. “In the submariners course, they already can go weeks without a cell phone,” he explains.
 

Submarines are always silent and strange.

Submarine Quote of January 2016

Background

UPDATE 27 JAN 2016: "Replacing the ageing Vanguard-class submarine fleet - the only underwater vessels capable of carrying nuclear warheads - is expected to cost £31billion over 30 years -"  MAL-JOURNALISM source  (nuclear tipped torpedoes obviously carry nuclear warheads, too).

Why Journalists Get so much Wrong - The Problem and the Fix (2011) 

Professional journalists* (paid writers) rarely consider much less comply with M.E.'s obvious best practices of reporting:
1) Either possess expertise in matters upon which you, the journalist, report facts to readers, or disclose your inexpertise.
2) Report contrary assessments by dissenting experts when topics are controversial.
3) Never write an opinion piece without related education and experience that sets you apart from uneducated, inexperienced readers. 

Submarine Mal-Journalism (2008) 

Submarine Quote of the Month

[color emphasis added]
Tel Aviv — With Israel’s flag flapping over the country’s newest piece of military hardware, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu descended very carefully into the nuclear submarine INS Rahav at its inaugural ceremony this month in Haifa.

.....The Jewish state has for years also been modernizing and expanding its fleet of nuclear submarines, which are seen mainly as a deterrent to a long-range Iranian missile strike on Israel, but are also capable of directing firepower at militants around the Mediterranean basin. - "Facing threats and opportunity, Israel forges Mediterranean alliance" - by Joshua Mitnick,  The Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 25, 2016.

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Really, is INS Rahav a nuclear sub?  Hardly, it is an Israeli Dolphin 2-class, diesel-electric (non-nuclear sub).  Did the writer and editors flub such a fundamental propulsion methodology or do they imply that INS Rahav is capable of transporting nuclear weapons?  It is capable! --- Other operational diesel-electric subs can transport and fire nuclear arms, and even during the Cold War a few Russian commanding officers now admit their diesel subs had carried them.

Bottom line (who else smells censorship?):  The general public views possession of nuclear propulsed submarines as a mark of technological distinction, while the general public currently views owners of nuclear weaponry with some fear, loathing, and suspicion.  "Israel neither confirms nor denies its widely accepted possession of a nuclear arsenal."  - source

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.

Ghadir subsunk Updates

 Epitaph for the ten

May 6th THREAT (from Iran's naval chief)
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran will target American aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf should a war between the two countries ever break out, Adm. Ali Fadavi, naval chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guard warned Tuesday as the country completes work on a large-scale mock-up of a U.S. carrier.

May 6th RESPONSE (from U.S. Pentagon spokesman)
Col. Steve Warren said "imagery" of the "mock-up" within the last 30 days showed it was listing at about 30 degrees.

"We are wholly unconcerned about the Iranians mockup of an American ship," Warren said, joking with a reporter: "My guess is you could sink the mock-up in 50 seconds."

 Col. Warren wouldn't even go so far as to refer to the Iranian mock-up as a "vessel."

May 6th RESPONSE (from ISRAEL's Jerusalem-based military intelligence website)
nThe Iranians drew a tight veil of secrecy over the accident, curtailing the search for the estimated 10 crewmen to avoid drawing the notice of US or other intelligence agencies in the region.

"Chinese and Russian teams secretly enlisted to help search for the sunken mini-submarine, quickly abandoned it saying that none of the crew could have survived. It was up to Iran to decide, they said, whether to continue the search at the risk of exposing its plans for sinking US carriers in a war contingency. So long as the sub stayed on the bottom, its stealth technology would make it hard for Western intelligence to locate it."

Submarines are always silent and strange.

Beware of This Clever Deceit to Disarm

Background

Oct 22, 2013  -  CBO Says Navy Shipbuilding Plan $76 Billion Short

 "In particular, the plan would lead to temporary shortfalls relative to the Navy's goals for ballistic missile submarines, attack submarines, large surface combatants, and amphibious warfare ships," the report said.

Nov. 22, 2013 - Markey Seeks Cost Options for Modernizing Ballistic-Missile Submarines
Washington -- A proposed amendment to the U.S. Senate's fiscal 2014 defense authorization bill would require the Navy to update Congress on cost projections for different alternatives for modernizing the nation's ballistic-missile submarine fleet.

The measure submitted by freshman Senator Edward Markey (D-Mass.) would give the Navy until the end of March to report on the latest cost projections for all options for replacing the expiring generation of Ohio-class nuclear-armed submarines.

The estimated $90 billion expense of modernizing the sea-based leg of the country's nuclear triad has worried some lawmakers and Defense officials, who say it could eat up a huge chunk of the service's available shipbuilding funds for many years to come.


More Recently

Obama Administration Leader

February 2014 -Navy Secretary Ray Mabus in late February told a think tank audience there should be public debate over how to fund the submarine-modernization program.  <<<<<

Democrat Followers

March 12, 2014 - Some U.S. Lawmakers Eye Funding New Submarines Outside Normal Process Some U.S. lawmakers are calling for funding the Navy's new fleet of ballistic-missile submarines outside its regular shipbuilding budget, Inside Defense reports.  U.S. Representative Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) and Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.) contend that the tens of billions of dollars needed to build a successor fleet to the Ohio-class submarine should not come out of the usual funds because the vessels are a national strategic asset.

"I think this is a debate that, between now and 2019, which is now inside the five-year defense budget, that we need to have because we need to build these [submarines]. ...    <<<<<

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At a time when the U.S.  has wasted $billions in taxpayer subsidies on dozens of solar outfits (Solyndra), healthcare premiums are rising for the unemployed (Obamacare), the Sequester is beginning to effect us all, and nuclear is still (Fukushima ) a very bad memory, how many people does anyone know that even cares about somethiing few understand and even
fewer will ever see --- Trident submarines?

At the very time P.O.T.U.S. has unilaterally proposed warhead reductions, inadvertently injected fear and uncertainty into U.S. foreign policy posture, provoked ire among Europe's leaders (NSA phone intercepts), concern among our allies as to the ongoing value of military commitments (Benghazi, Ukraine), and raised concern in the Middle East (Syria, Israel, Saudi Arabia) about U.S. steadfstness, Democrats (so far, but soon to be joined by RINO lawyer-politician colleagues) suggest having public debate over how to fund a successor fleet for a strategic asset.

The outcome of such a debate would produce only a bigger question, the same one D.C. lobbyists working for elite, one-world globalists have pushed since WW2: Why have nuclear weapons and subs, at all.   

At stake:  Just perpetuation of Liberty, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  Don't be one of those fooled by their transparent ploy.


Submarines are always silent and strange.

Latest Nuclear Sub Thriller or Flopper

Based on the very entertaining book Thunder in the Deep: A Novel of Undersea Military Action and Adventure by Joe Buff ...

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U.S.S. Challenger (SSN-803), a high-tech, 'ceramic hulled' submarine.
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Synopsis

After destroying a German weapons lab, U.S. submarine captain Jeffrey Fuller goes head to head with his archenemy, German sub commander Kurt Eberhard. Fuller is assisted by a team of Navy SEALs and a sexy South African woman named Ilse. link
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Publisher's Note

Coming off a tactical nuclear battle at Durban, South Africa, the crew of the damaged submarine USS Challenger, under the command of acting Captain Jeffrey Fuller, heads for the northern German coast to destroy a lab developing unstoppable Mach 8 cruise missiles and find themselves in a vicious duel with their nemesis Kurt Eberhard, captain of the SMS Deutschland. [ibid]

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Wikipedia

Tactical nuclear warheads are now the weapon of choice with a gentleman's agreement not to hit any civilians. link
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The Planned 3D Movie

Movie Negatives (4)

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from M.E.

Production is going to be delayed well beyond the tentative start (spring 2011) since little over 25 percent of the production budget has been raised and 65% of projected costs are needed for filming in CT. Lengthy production delays often result in serious cost escalations and extra promotional expenses. PREDICTION #1: Richard Meyer's film script will not result in a 3D-blockbuster, and, more likely than not, never be released nationwide.

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from Library Journal

Despite almost nonstop action, ... this novel fails at several levels. ...Thunder and its predecessor include premises that stretch plausibility. The first is that the fossilized Hohenzollerns could somehow regain control of Germany and reinstate both the monarchy and the militaristic Prussian aristocracy. The second is that both sides could explode tactical nukes like popcorn without any real concern about escalation toward mutually assured destruction. The book just doesn't work. link

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from Poten & Partners

Richard Meyer, the executive producer, ...is also the screenwriter and co-star,... Even though he'd never written a screenplay, ...Meyer then wrote the script, and plans to star as the villain. He has little movie experience, but has acted Off Broadway. link

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The film does not [bold added], however, have official cooperation of the U.S. Navy, which has a submarine base in Groton. The reason: Germany is a U.S. ally.

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Movie Positives (4)

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from Poten & Partners (cite to The Hartford Courant)
The big-budget production will be in 3-D. [ibid]

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The big-budget production [has] ...a storyline about a nuclear war... [ibid]

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The big-budget production ... [has a storyline] with German fascists in 2030,... [ibid]

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from M.E.
Movies about submarine ops have had little traditional appeal to a rather large segment of our population -- females. Even a blockbuster film like Tom Clancy's Hunt for Red October attracted females through casting Sam Neill in a leading role. Apart from that, there were only 3 female speaking roles credited (Ryan's wife, young daughter, and flight attendant). In Thunder in the Deep Meyer has an opportunity to cast and portray a leading female role (Ilse). If clever enough, Meyer's script and casting can make Ilse's role the movie icon for female submariners, the general image for which is being promoted, free of cost to the filmmaker by the U.S. Navy. In M.E.'s opinion, the actress Minnie Driver is a natural pick for the role of Ilse.

PREDICTION #2: If this ambitious film is ever produced, producers will force Meyer to cast a voluptuous, relatively unknown actress as Ilse, to attract a male audience.

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PREDICTION #3: Within the next 7 years or so we can expect a book and hollywood film about the one-way pioneers to the planet Mars, mentioned in the news for 2030 departure. Any related Mars movie would be released before Thunder in the Deep.

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Submarines are always silent and strange.