Thursday Submarine Tidbits 28 May 2015

Category:  An Intense Odor of PC Recruiting Woes for U.S. Navy

Last year the Navy spent $39.6 million on measured media, according to Kantar Media.

The U.S. Navy confirmed today that WPP’s Young & Rubicam is being awarded its new advertising and marketing services account in support of the Navy Recruiting Advertising Program.  In 2000, Y&R was acquired by the WPP Group, a London-based company.

The contract being awarded has an annual value of $84.4 million. The contract contains one “base year” and four one-year optional periods, which if exercised, would bring the contract’s cumulative value to $457,461,287.  source

Why the switch...?

"The U. S. Supreme Court said it would hear an appeal from Campbell-Ewald during which the agency will argue that federal contractors can't be sued under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

The court appearance stems from a campaign the agency created for the Navy that involved the sending of text messages through a subcontractor to thousands of cell phones, including one belonging to Jose Gomez. Gomez says he never consented to receiving the texts and filed a class-action lawsuit." [ibid].

Category:  The U.K.'s Faulty? Able Seamen Selection Woes - Part II 

 

Four years ago, M.E. had asked (Part I):  How could a rap musician (Reggie Moondogg) who wrote a series of violent rap lyrics ever be placed in the crew of a nuclear submarine crew in the first place? That question was even raised by a senior member of British Parliament, defense expert Mike Hancock.  here

May 2015 - (Part II):  Able Seaman McNeilly published 18 pages of 30 alleged security and safety flaws with the Trident submarine fleet.  Only one problem, barely qualified on a Vanguard-class submarine of the Royal Navy he is very junior, and hardly in a position to really know whereof he spoke.

"Concerns about Trident raised by Royal Navy submariner William McNeilly were either incorrect, the result of misunderstanding or based on historic events, and safety has not been compromised", Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has said. Britain’s nuclear weapons on his mobile phone and appeared to have been learning Russian before he went absent without leave. here

Submarines are always silent and strange.

Submarine Mystery Question of the Week

Background

On October 23rd, Molten Eagle provided our analysis of Sweden's recent Hunt for Little Read October: Just a Navy Training Drill?

We provided the following facts:

• July 1, 2010  STOCKHOLM - Sweden ended 109 years of obligatory military service, setting the Scandinavian nation on the way to becoming a fully professional army.
• February 8, 2011 - StrategyPage - Sweden Runs Out Of Soldiers by James Dunnigan                ... Many of those officers and NCOs are simply leaving the military, or planning to. So there is some anxiety about what shape the Swedish military will be in by 2014, although at this point it appears it will be smaller than planned. 

and, the following alleged facts:   

• Sweden had begun a search after a distress signal in Russian was detected on an emergency frequency on Thursday evening. 
• Encrypted radio traffic from a point in the Stockholm archipelago and Kaliningrad were also later picked up.  

We quickly concluded: 
 It is more likely, in our experience, that a much needed Swedish Military training excercise, a public relations recruiting effort, or a combination of both, have been conducted with renewed world attention.   

But now, You can judge the latest facts...

•  October 28, 2014 -  The Local - Sweden could see return to military service                    A return to compulsory military service is being considered by Sweden's new Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist, four years after the policy was scrapped.
  

•  November 14, 2014 - BBC News - Sweden releases sonar image confirming 'foreign submarine'             

"Sweden has released a sonar image it says is proof that a foreign submarine entered its waters in October.  The grainy image shows underwater tracks allegedly left by the vessel."

•  

OPPOSITE from the arrow's direction, one plainly sees individual cross-stitches.
 
Well, do you agree, or not?  If not, please be good enough to cite your equally compelling evidence to the contrary.

Submarines are always silent and strange.