Oops! Senior Service Imitates Infant Navy

Background

British and American people who have worked with professionals from the subcontinent known as India have generally found them very knowledgeable and diligent. We naturally hold great hopes for India's military aspirations to assure survival of their republic and constitutional liberties.

Two months ago (January 30th), however we had posted the following regarding apparent obstacles to India's aspirations for a nuclear navy:

• India's male literacy rate in a proper context with its advanced nuclear submarine (naval) ambitions. It was pointed out, for example, that India's male literacy rate was below Swaziland's (82.6%).

• Consider this incident, not so much for its obvious humor, but for the absence of discilpine it evidences:
  

"Last week of December, 2013: A shell from the Coast Guard ship Sangram landed inside the premises of the Indian Navy in Mumbai when the ship was clearing its gun upon its return into the harbour."

Fast Forward

March 2014  The Guardian,  Warship fires dummy torpedo into nuclear submarine dockyard wharf

"We can confirm an incident occurred on board HMS Argyll on March 12 at 3.24pm, while the ship was alongside at Devonport naval base in Plymouth," the spokesman said. "HMS Argyll was conducting a system test when an inert Test Variant torpedo was jettisoned unexpectedly. The torpedo is not an explosive hazard."  

 

Analysis

Clearly, the Royal Navy (Britain's Senior Service based upon years of experience) unlike India, recruits candidates in a nation with a 99% literacy rate. Embarrassing training mistakes are made daily even among the world's more advanced navies.  In rare instances, even non-qualified U.S. submariners have committed similar errors.

Although HMS Argyll had recently engaged in counter-narcotics work before returning to home port via the Panama Canal, no connection between skimmers and narcotics should be assumed.

Great Brittain's paternalism toward India may not have ended in 1947, when India achieved its independence from the United Kingdom.  Was the dummy Stingray torpedo launch into a nuclear sub dockyard diplomatic cover for India's navy, a sign of Royal Navy aging pains, or just an uncannily similar embarrassment?

If you are reading this, John Marwood Cleese, please let us know. 

Submarines are always silent and strange.

Russia's Discipline Problem: "Crazy Ivan" is now "Sloppy Ivan"

BACKGROUND

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Russia embarrassed...
The  nuclear-powered missile submarine (Delta-IV-class).  The fire broke out on Thursday at an Arctic shipyard where the submarine Ykaterinburg (K-84) was in dry dock. Seven members of the submarine crew were taken to hospital after inhaling carbon monoxide fumes.  30 December 2011


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US  embarrassed ...
The fire broke out 23 May 2012 on submarine USS Miami -How long before truthful answers are exposed to sunshine and fresh air? The only answer that we could hardly expect to be revealed during our lifetimes is the one involving a foreign agent.

"The fire, the Navy said, started when hot welding slag in a vacuum cleaner [NOT] caught fire when the implement was placed among some cleaning supplies and left unattended." - NavyTimes

RUSSIAN EMBARRASSED AGAIN

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(Reuters) 16 SEP 2013 - A  fire burned for five hours on an atomic-powered submarine undergoing repairs, but naval and shipyard officials said there was no risk of a radiation leak and nobody was hurt [NOT]. The submarine Tomsk,  powered by two nuclear reactors, caught fire at the Zvezda shipyard. It had been undergoing repairs since 2010. The fire was the second on board a Russian nuclear-powered submarine in less than two years.

(Bellona) 16 SEP 2013 - The Unified Shipbuilding Corporation website said in a statement (in Russian) that the fire broke out in a ballast area of the submarine after a gas-powered saw was used to cut through a grate, setting an old rubber covering, cables and paint on fire.

 (RFE)  17 SEP 2013 - Russian investigators now say 15 sailors were hospitalized after a fire on a nuclear submarine in the Far East and that the submarine suffered damage as well.   

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Accidental events or espionage, you decide.

Submarines are always silent and strange.