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How did a US $ 3 billion submarine hit a mountain underwater?

2021-11-05T06:55:06.545Z


Despite its high cost and sophisticated technology, the US Navy says the Seawolf-class nuclear-powered attack submarine crashed into a seamount in the Pacific on October 2.


Hong Kong (CNN) -

Some divers call the USS Connecticut the luxury car of submarines.

It's a $ 3 billion piece of American military hardware that's fast and packed with the latest electronics that are only available when price isn't a factor.

But despite its high cost and sophisticated technology, the U.S. Navy says the Seawolf-class nuclear-powered attack submarine crashed into a seamount in the Pacific on Oct. 2.

The Connecticut is now at the US naval base on the island of Guam.

The Navy says it got there, more than 2,900 kilometers east of the South China Sea, on its own and that its nuclear reactor was undamaged, although 11 members of its crew suffered minor injuries in the collision.

The Pentagon has not released details of the damage sustained by the ship or how long it could be out of action in a region that, with the rise of the Chinese Navy, is experiencing increasing demands on the US fleet.

Which leaves US military planners with some important questions to answer in the weeks and months ahead.

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And not being the least of the questions: how did this happen?

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Drive a submarine

The Navy on Thursday gave a clue as to what could have led to the accident when it relieved Connecticut leaders of command due to loss of confidence.

The commanding officer, Commander Cameron Aljilani, was relieved of his position, as was the executive officer, Lt. Cmdr. Patrick Cashin, and the ship's chief, chief sonar technician, Cory Rodgers.

Vice Admiral Karl Thomas, commander of the US Seventh Fleet, determined that "good judgment, prudent decision-making, and adherence to the required procedures in planning navigation, executing surveillance equipment, and risk management could have prevented the incident, "according to a statement on the decision.

The underwater environment is unforgiving and even small mistakes can have huge consequences.

"Diving is difficult, it's really difficult. Not everything works out all the time," said Thomas Shugart, who spent more than 11 years in American submarines, including commanding an attack submarine.

Crew members sit at the controls aboard the Seawolf-class attack submarine USS Jimmy Carter in 2005.

Surface ships or a submarine operating at periscope depth can relay global positioning satellites to give sailors a very precise location, said Shugart, now an associate researcher at the Center for a New American Security.

But in depth, GPS systems are not available.

Divers use their compasses and charts.

Accurate charts (with a resolution of 328 feet or 100 meters) of the sea floor are compiled by sending surface ships over an area and bathing the bottom with sound waves, a method called multi-beam sonar.

But the process is expensive and time-consuming, leaving up to 80% of the Earth's seafloor unmapped.

In the busy South China Sea, through which a third of the world's maritime trade passes and where China has been building and militarily fortifying artificial islands, less than 50% of the seafloor has been mapped, David Sandwell, a professor of geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California.

"It's no wonder he might run into something," he said.

The US Navy has not said exactly where Connecticut struck the seamount.

Officially, the service says it was in Indo-Pacific waters, but US defense officials had previously told CNN that it happened in the South China Sea.

Sandwell tried to reduce the area.

Using a method called vertical gravity classification - taking satellite altimetric measurements of the Earth's gravitational field - and overlaying those results with mapping the bottom of the South China Sea, he was able to identify 27 locations where Connecticut might have collided with a seamount that it was not on the US Navy lists.

"These are places where gravity predicts that there is something less than 400 meters (1,312 feet), around the depth at which a submarine could hit it," he said.

Officially, the Navy says that Seawolf-class submarines have a maximum depth of more than 243 meters (800 feet), although some experts estimate their maximum depth around twice that.

Submarines have their own sonar, but using it comes at a price: loss of stealth.

Those sonar sounds, so ubiquitous in submarine movies, also reveal the position of the submarine to opposing forces.

"Sonar is your only way of looking at the bottom, but you don't want to make more sound than is necessary," Shugart said.

"You would have to do that every 20 seconds or so" to get an accurate image, Sandwell said.

"It makes a lot of noise".

When it comes to knowing the terrain below them, even astronauts can have an easier time than submarines, according to Shugart.

"Basically, the surface of the Moon is better traced than the bottom of the ocean," he said.

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A history of submarine stranding

The USS Connecticut is not the first US Navy submarine to be involved in an underwater collision.

The attack submarine USS San Francisco stands in the dry harbor, on January 27, 2005, in the port of Apra, Guam, to assess the damage sustained after running aground approximately 560 km south of Guam on January 8, 2005.

On January 8, 2005, the USS San Francisco, a Los Angeles-class attack submarine, collided with a seamount about 350 miles (about 560 kilometers) south of Guam in the Pacific Ocean.

The incident killed one sailor and injured 97 others among the crew of 137.

A Navy investigation concluded that the San Francisco was traveling at maximum speed at a depth of 525 feet (160 meters) when it struck the seamount, which was not on the chart that the sub's commanders were using at the time.

But the investigation found that commanders should have known the seamount was there based on other charts in their possession, indicating a danger to navigation in the area.

"If San Francisco surveillance leaders and teams had followed required procedures and exercised prudent boating practices, stranding would most likely have been avoided," the Navy report said.

"However, even if it had not been completely avoided, it would not have been as serious and loss of life could be prevented."

Other incidents have been less serious but illustrate the difficulties of maneuvering submarines even in familiar waters.

For example, in November 2015, the USS Georgia, an Ohio-class guided missile submarine, struck a channel buoy and grounded while returning to port in Kings Bay, Georgia.

The Ohio-class guided-missile submarine USS Georgia departs Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in 2015.

The 18,000-ton, 560-foot-long (170 meters) submarine sustained more than $ 1 million in damage and its captain was relieved of command.

And in 2003, the USS Hartford ran aground upon entering a NATO base in Spain, resulting in a $ 9 million repair bill and its commander relieved of his duties.

Despite those incidents, Shugart, the former deputy commander of the US Navy, defends the US Navy's record under the sea.

"We have more submarines, they spend more time at sea, they go much further from home and they operate at higher speeds than probably any other," he said.

"We do the most challenging underwater missions anyone does and the ones farthest from home," he said, adding: "Even professionals have bad days."

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What makes the USS Connecticut so special?

The Connecticut is one of three Seawolf-class submarines in the US Navy fleet, each costing about $ 3 billion to build.

The 9,300-ton, 107-meter submarine was commissioned in 1998 and is manned by 140 sailors.

Like all modern attack submarines in the United States Navy, the Connecticut is powered by a nuclear reactor, allowing it to be fast but quiet, without the noise produced by a combustion engine.

Nuclear power allows these submarines to remain at sea and underwater as long as there are provisions for the crew.

The Navy does not give exact figures when disclosing the abilities of its submarine, but experts say the Seawolf class is exceptional.

"These submarines have some of the most advanced submarine capabilities, indeed the most advanced, in the business," said Alessio Patalano, professor of warfare and strategy at King's College London.

The Navy says it is "exceptionally quiet, fast, well armed and equipped with advanced sensors."

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A Navy data sheet says the Connecticut is capable of going faster than 28 mph (46.3 kph) underwater.

That's faster than the average container ship or freighter at the sea surface and almost as fast as the US Navy's Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.

As it is larger even than the newer Virginia-class attack submarines, the Connecticut can carry more weaponry than other American attack submarines, including up to 50 torpedoes and Tomahawk cruise missiles, according to a US Navy fact sheet. USA

The USS Connecticut was commissioned in Groton, Connecticut on December 11, 1998.

And despite being more than 20 years old, it is also technologically advanced with updates to its systems carried out during its useful life.

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Although the Navy does not elaborate on the missions its submarines undertake, the three Seawolf-class submarines are believed to be important intelligence gathering resources, especially in shallower environments.

"The robust design of the Seawolf class enables these submarines to perform a broad spectrum of crucial military tasks, from beneath the Arctic ice sheet to littoral regions anywhere in the world," says the manufacturer, General Dynamics Electric Boat, in your website.

"Their missions include surveillance, intelligence gathering, special warfare, cruise missile strike, mine warfare, and anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare," says Electric Boat.

With no combat in the South China Sea, the submarine's focus in today's environment is likely to be on intelligence gathering.

And that is why China is paying close attention.

The guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain, behind, and the Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Ballarat sail together during integrated operations in the South China Sea in October 2020.

Beijing Questions

Following the collision, Beijing has accused Washington of not being forthcoming about what happened and how it could affect countries around the South China Sea.

"We have repeatedly expressed our grave concern over the incident and have asked the US side to take a responsible attitude and provide detailed clarification to provide a satisfactory explanation to the international community and countries in the region," said the spokesman for the Ministry of Justice. China's Foreign Relations Wang Wenbin this week.

The issue of nuclear powered submarines has been at the fore in Chinese state media for the past few months in the wake of Australia's decision to acquire such ships from the United States and the United Kingdom under an agreement known as AUKUS. .

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Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in September that the AUKUS deal "seriously damages regional peace and stability."

The Connecticut incident just added gasoline to Beijing's propaganda push.

Washington issued its first public statement about the collision five days after it occurred.

It did not disclose the fact that Connecticut hit a seamount until earlier this week, nearly a month after the incident.

U.S. Navy officials told CNN on Wednesday that the delays were due to concerns that include keeping the damaged submarine safe and ensuring a thorough investigation of the incident, as is standard.

"Due to the security of operations, we were unable to reveal the location of the submarine or the incident to the public at an earlier date," said Commander Hayley Sims, US Seventh Fleet public affairs, in an email. .

Sims said two internal investigations were launched, one under the command of the submarine and a second on safety procedures.

The first, he said, "determined that the USS Connecticut landed on an unexplored seamount while operating in international waters in the Indo-Pacific region" and has been presented to the commanders of the Seventh Fleet for review.

The second investigation, which is being conducted by Submarine Force, the US Pacific Fleet in Hawaii, is ongoing.

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A spokeswoman for the secondary force, Commander Cindy Fields, told CNN this week that the submarine is in "safe and stable condition" in the port of Guam.

"The nuclear power plant and spaces on the USS Connecticut were unaffected and remain fully operational," he said.

The Navy said Thursday that the Connecticut would move to Bremerton, Washington, for repairs.

According to a report by the state news agency Xinhua, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang asked Washington to clarify "the planned navigation of the nuclear submarine, whether the specific location of the incident was in an exclusive economic zone or in a territorial sea of ​​any other country, or if the incident has caused a nuclear leak or damaged the marine environment. "

The United States has not disclosed any of those details, but when it comes to the South China Sea, Washington's policy is consistent.

After a US destroyer conducted a freedom of navigation operation on the waterway in September, a statement by the US Seventh Fleet definitely answered Chinese objections: "The United States will continue to fly, sail and operate where international law allows." the statement said.

"Nothing to the contrary that (China) says will dissuade us."

CNN's Oren Liebermann and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.

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Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2021-11-05

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