SILVERCREST SUBMARINES NEWSLETTER (2009-2010).

No more smoking aboard US Navy Submarines

Smoking below deck on US navy submarines will be banned by the end of the year so that non-smokers do not have to inhale second-hand smoke, the US navy announced. "Recent tests have shown that, despite our atmosphere purification technology, there are unacceptable levels of second-hand smoke in the atmosphere of a submerged submarine," said the head of US submarine forces, Vice Admiral John Donnelly. The order follows a 2006 US surgeon general's report that states there is no risk free level of exposure to second-hand smoke, and a year-long health study conducted in 2009 aboard nine different submarines that showed "measurable" levels of second-hand smoke. Until now permission to smoke aboard any of the 57 subs in the US fleet was at the discretion of each submarine captain. According to Mark Jones, spokesman for the US navy submarine fleet, 40 percent of the submarine sailors are smokers.

Officers Reprimanded for Crashing British Nuclear Sub.

A Royal Navy commander was reprimanded by a court martial, after pleading guilty to "failing to ensure the safe direction" of the submarine. Commander Steven Drysdale was in charge of the nuclear-powered submarine in May 2008, when it struck a rock pinnacle 132 metres below the surface. A navigation chart showed the pinnacle, but Drysdale said that he had misread its depth as 732 metres. Officer of the Watch Lieutenant-Commander Andrew Cutler and Navigating Officer Lieutenant Lee Blair were also reprimanded for their part in the incident by the court martial, held at the HMS Nelson centre at Portsmouth naval base. The £32 million submarine was in the Red Sea, heading for the Persian Gulf, and was suffering from technical problems at the time which were slowing it down. The officers decided to dive from 100m to 250m, which would allow them to travel faster and reach their destination on time. According to prosecutor Captain Stuart Crozier: “The three defendants all looked at the chart and the sub was taken to 250m. No thorough check was made to establish whether this depth was safe from obstacles." HMS Superb struck the pinnacle at 10.01 on May 26, suffering damage to its bow and sonar equipment. There were no casualties, but the submarine was forced to abandon its mission and return to the United Kingdom. It was decommissioned in September 2008, though the Ministry of Defence said that this was not due to the accident.

Munich Consul Suspended in alleged Shady Submarine Deal.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it was suspending Jurgen Adolff, the Portuguese consul in Munich for the past 15 years, until “full clarification of the investigations that involve him personally”. German magazine Der Spiegel reported last Tuesday that Adolff was suspected of having received €1.6 million in kickback payments from Man Ferrostaal, one of three firms in the German Submarine Consortium, which won the contract to build the two submarines for the Portuguese Navy in 2004. The magazine said Adolff had been instrumental in setting up a meeting between the then Portuguese Prime Minister José Manuel Durão Barroso, now chairman of the European Commission, and Ferrostaal’s administration. German authorities, it added, had found “dozens of suspect consultancy documents” intended to be passed on to the Portuguese Navy Ministry in a search of the firms offices last week. A spokeswoman for Durão Barroso told the Lusa News Agency in Brussels that he had had “no direct or personal intervention” in the decision to purchase the two U-214 submarines apart from participating in the “collective” cabinet decision.

Drug-Sub Culture

The craft surfaced like something out of a science-fiction movie. It was November 2006, and a Coast Guard cutter spotted a strange blur on the ocean 100 miles off Costa Rica. As the cutter approached, what appeared to be three snorkels poking up out of the water became visible. Then something even more surprising was discovered attached to the air pipes: a homemade submarine carrying four men, an AK-47 and three tons of cocaine. Today, the 49-foot-long vessel bakes on concrete blocks outside the office of Rear Adm. Joseph Nimmich in Key West, Fla. Here, at the Joint Interagency Task Force South, Nimmich commands drug-interdiction efforts in the waters south of the United States. Steely-eyed, gray-haired and dressed in a blue jumpsuit, he showed me the homemade sub one hot February afternoon like a hunter flaunting his catch. “We had rumors and indicators of this for a very long period beforehand,” he told me, which is why they nicknamed it Bigfoot.

Blast Rocks Indian Navy Sub, one Sailor Killed.

NEW DELHI: A sailor was killed and some others injured when a blast occurred in one of the Navy's Russian-origin Kilo-class submarines. The submarine, INS Sidhurakshak, was fortunately docked at the harbour when the explosion took place in the battery compartment of the vessel. The submarine did not suffer major damage," said an officer. If such an incident had taken place at sea, then the lack of deep-submergence rescue vessels (DSRVs) in the Navy would have been sorely felt. India, at present, has no option but to run to the US for help if its sailors get trapped deep underwater in a crippled submarine since the decade-old proposal to acquire two DSRVs, each of which will come for just Rs 360 crore, is yet to materialise. The Kilo-class submarines, incidentally, have recently undergone an upgrade in Russia and have been equipped with the 300-km Klub cruise missiles.

Montenegro Gives Away Yugoslav-Era Submarines

The defence ministers of Montenegro and Slovenia will sign a contract today in Podgorica for the giving away of a 1980 submarine. The P-911 submarine, which has been in the coastal town of Tivat in south-western Montenegro since 1997, is being gifted to Slovenia as a museum piece. The submarine is one of the six so-called “pocket submarines” produced for the needs of the Yugoslav Navy in the 1980s. They measure 18.8 meters in length, 2.7 in width and 3.4 meters in height. At the time of their production, it was said that, “in case of war, [the submarines] could reach the shores of Italy and take demolition experts there to secretly create small minefields.” In addition to the one that is to be gifted to Slovenia, Montenegro has three other such submarines. According to previous reports, the plan is to keep one of them in Tivat for the future nautical museum Porto in Montenegro and give the other two away to Serbia and Croatia, where they would also be displayed in museums.

Submarine Cash Revealed.

More than 80 million euros was paid to middlemen and officials in Greece to secure the sale of four German-made submarines to the Greek navy in 2000, sources told Sunday’s Kathimerini. Sources that are close to the investigation being carried out by prosecutors in Munich said that the total amount of under-the-table payments in relation to the deal was 83 million euros. Two German companies, Ferrostaal and HDW, won the contract to supply the submarines at a total cost of 1.8 billion euros. However, Ferrostaal was until last year a subsidiary of the MAN manufacturing group, which is under investigation for the payments of bribes to public officials in several countries. The deal for the submarines proved controversial, as Greece did not accept delivery of the first vessel due to technical problems. The two sides only reached an agreement last month and Athens has stated it wants to sell the submarine on to a third party.

The Stunted Son Of ASDS

May 6, 2009: Three years after admitting defeat in developing the ASDS (Advanced Seal Delivery Systems, a small sub for getting SEALs to the beach), another attempt is going to be made. The new SWCS (Shallow Water Combat Submersible) will be a smaller (30 feet long, carrying six SEALs) version of the ASDS (which was a 65 foot long, 60 ton mini-submarine.) Like the ASDS, the SWCS will be battery powered and with a crew of two. The larger ASDS could carry up to 14 passengers (fewer if a lot of equipment is being brought along, the usual number of passengers is expected to be eight.) With a max range of 200 kilometers, top speed of 14 kilometers an hour and max diving depth of 200 feet (65 meters), the ASDS operates from one of the seven U.S. nuclear submarines equipped to carry it on its deck, and several British boats that will be similarly equipped. Both mini-subs were equipped with passive and active SONAR, radar and an electronic periscope (that uses a video camera, not the traditional optics.) The SWCS will have a range of 160 kilometers and be able to dive to 300 feet (95 meters). While a nice piece of engineering, each ASDS cost over $300 million. The first ASDS production boat underwent testing in Hawaii and the Persian Gulf for three years, before being declared ready for service in 2004. But problems kept cropping up, until the production of the other five was cancelled in 2006. After a decade of development, the ASDS had too many technical problems. Only the first one remained, and it sort of worked, but last November, the sole ASDS caught fire, and burned for six hours. The navy was reluctant to repair the vessel.

Apparently there was not a big demand for something like the ASDS, as there was no immediate request for a replacement design. But now, another attempt is going to be made to develop a similar vessel. The U.S. Navy, and the British Royal Navy, both still need a delivery vehicle for their combat swimmers. Both nations are still using the Mk 8, which is a World War II era design that is basically a reusable torpedo that divers in scuba gear hang on to as they are taken to shore. Both navies want the SWCS, which will recycle ASDS technology that worked, and replace the stuff that didn't. Thus the current plan is to have the SWCS in service within four years.

Modernizing Spy-Sub “Sarov”

Less than two years after it entered service in the Russian Fleet, the top-secret spy-sub B-90 “Sarov” is at the White Sea Navy Base in Severodvinsk for modernization.The upgrades are made less than two years after the vessel entered service in the Northern Fleet, the newspaper informs. One of the unique features of the spy-sub is its ultra-small nuclear reactor aimed to charge the subs batteries, so it can stay much longer underwater, totally silent, than normal diesel-electric submarines. The vessel has since it was included in the fleet on 7 August 2008 conducted a number of specialized operations. After each operation, the vessel has undergone technical improvements. The B-90 “Sarov” was built in Nizhny Novgorod, and transported via Russia’s inner waterways to the Sevmash yard in Severodvinsk were it was equipped with its engines and nuclear reactor. The vessel was originally to be completed in 1993, but construction was halted due to money draught and the need for technical improvements.

The CIA funding of Glomar Explorer salvage attempt of a sunken Soviet Submarine, K-129

The newly released documentary film about a Soviet Submarine operation in which I was involved in the first detection of the boat after it started its patrol from the Soviet submarine port of Petropavlask, Kamchatca Pennisula, in late February 1968. At the time, I was the Evaluation Cemter Officer at the headquarters of a system known by the acronym "SOSUS." It stands for Sound Surveillance System, which back then was a super secret land based Anti Submarine Warfare platform providing frontline early warning to Washington D.C. military leaders of Soviet missile launching capable submarine threats on both coasts. This Soviet submarine threat is one of the five Soviet submarine transit operations that I use in my novel, “The SOSUS Man.” You can read my synopsis and first couple chapters of my book by clicking here: http://thesosusman.blogspot.com/. This is a system which, at the real time in 1968, we thought it had detected the explosion or implosion of this submarine in March 1968 but as I learned through the discovery and release of information by Michael’s work, which was previously unknown to me and my command senior officers, indicates we were incorrect in our real time post- analysis re-examination and reporting of a possible detection.

The documentary film is produced, written and directed by Michael White Films, Vienna Austria. “AZORIAN - The raising of the K-129. A mysterious CIA cold war operation. A secret journey into the oceans depths. A challenge of ingenuity and imagination. A story of man’s unprecedented resolve. Michael’s work, through his team of consulting experts, information data collection and verification technical advisor and meticulous computer animation and graphics by his production staff, have woven a factual visual presentation and story about one of the most controversial events undertaken by our CIA. This is a spectacular documentary film which finally appears to have revealed all of the highly classified sensors, intelligence, detection and tracking, sinking, search & localization and ultimate salvage attempt of a Soviet diesel-electric ballistic missile launching capable submarine during the height of the cold war period of 1968-1973 in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean.

Nasty Little Suckers

April 16, 2010: North Korea has a fleet of over 60 mini-subs, and about 25 older Russian type conventional boats. North Korea got the idea for minisubs from Russia, which has had them for decades. North Korea has developed several mini-sub designs, most of them available to anyone with the cash to pay. The largest is the 250 ton Sang-O, which is actually a coastal sub modified for special operations. There is a crew of 19, plus either six scuba swimmer commandos, or a dozen men who can go ashore in an inflatable boat. Some Sang-Os have two or four torpedo tubes. Over thirty were built, and one was captured by South Korea when it ran aground in 1996. The most popular mini-sub is the M100D, a 76 ton, 19 meter (58 foot) long boat that has a crew of four and can carry eight divers and their equipment. The North Koreans got the idea for the M100D when they bought the plans for a 25 ton Yugoslav mini-sub in the 1980s. Only four were built, apparently as experiments to develop a larger North Korean design. There are to be over 30 M100Ds. North Korea is believed to have fitted some of the Song-Os and M100Ds with acoustic tiles, to make them more difficult to detect by sonar. This technology was popular with the Russians, and that's where the North Koreans were believed to have got the technology. The most novel design is a submersible speedboat. This 40 foot boat looks like a speedboat, displaces ten tons and can carry up to eight people. It only submerges to a depth of about ten feet. Using a schnorkel apparatus (a pipe type device to bring in air and expel diesel engine fumes), the boat can move underwater. In 1998, a South Korean destroyed sank one of these. A follow on class displaced only five tons, and could carry six people (including one or two to run the boat). At least eight of these were believed built.

Sweden to invest in New Submarines

The Swedish Government proposes to spend billions of kronor on two new state-of the-art submarines while also upgrading two older vessels, Defence Minister Sten Tolgfors has revealed. Mr. Tolgfors underlines that the Baltic Sea area remains stable, with only Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg breaking the circle of EU and NATO-affiliated countries, - however, one can never rule out long-term risks and incidents, which could also be of a military nature, Tolgfors wrote in the Stockholm daily. Swedish ship building company Kockums AB in February signed a contract with the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration regarding the construction of next-generation submarines. The two new submarines are planned to be delivered to the Swedish Navy in 2018-2019, and will be replacing two subs of the Södermanland class. Along with the two new vessels, two attack submarines will also receive major upgrades as part of the investment.

Developments in N.Korean Submersible Technology

North Korea has stealth submersibles equipped with heavy attack torpedoes, intelligence sources claimed Tuesday. The anonymous sources said the North's Shark-class submersibles and Yugo-class midget submarines are covered with "special tiles" that can evade sonar, and some models of the Yugo-class subs are armed with 533 mm torpedoes. The sound-absorbing tiles are reportedly made by mixing chlorine rubber with silicon compounds. But one intelligence source said the North experienced some difficulty developing an adhesive glue to attach them to submarines or submersibles. The source claimed the North developed various models of Yugo-class subs, one of which was seized by South Korea when it became entangled in fishing nets in waters off Sokcho, Gangwon Province in 1998. The Yugo-class subs can travel underwater for four to five hours but are said to have difficulties travelling fast due to battery capacity.

50 years ago US Navy man was on Depest Dive.

Fifty years ago Navy Lt. Don Walsh and Swiss scientist Jacques Piccard climbed into the chamber of Bathyscaphe Trieste, a deep-sea research sub. The two men were about to make history. They would plunge seven miles to the deepest point of the Earth’s oceans. On Jan. 23, 1960, the Trieste descended 35,800 feet to the floor of the Challenger Deep, the deepest alcove of the Mariana Trench, about 200 miles southwest of Guam. It was the first time a vessel, man or unmanned, had reached the underwater abyss. “It was just another day at the office,” said Walsh, who is celebrated as one of the world’s great explorers. In 1958, the year the Navy purchased Trieste, Walsh was a 26-year-old submarine lieutenant temporarily serving on the Submarine Flotilla One in San Diego. Piccard, who co-designed the submersible with his father, requested two volunteers to operate the vehicle. Only Walsh and one other man stepped forward. “There was an opportunity to pioneer,” he said. “I wasn’t sure what I was going to be doing, but I knew I’d be at sea. It wasn’t until later they told us what they had in store.” Still, the first time Walsh saw the Trieste he thought to himself, “I will never get in that thing.” The last submarine he was on had a maximum operating depth of 300 feet. But by October 1959, Walsh was in the mid-Pacific, performing test dives to prepare for the record-setting descent, which would garner him lifelong recognition and send the San Francisco native to a meeting with President Dwight D. Eisenhower at the White House. A bathyscaphe is a submersible vessel with an observation chamber attached to the bottom of a tank filled with gasoline. Gasoline is more buoyant than water and highly resistant to compression, which made the deep-sea dives possible. The descent into the Challenger Deep took more than five hours. When they finally reached the deepest crevice of the Earth’s surface, Walsh and Piccard shook hands. “I knew we were making history,” Walsh said. After 20 minutes, and glimpsing little more than brown sediment and few signs of life, they began the three and a half hour trip back to the surface. Fifty years later, no other explorer has reached such depths.

UNDERWATER BAR.

Silvercrest has constructed and tested the Worlds first Underwater bar, that has a diving depth of 300ft. interested ???, then give us a call or email.

Measuring The Chinese Fleet.

January 21, 2010: The U.S. Navy accidentally posted their classified estimate on the size and composition of the Chinese Navy. The strength of the Chinese fleet was listed as 62 submarines (53 diesel Attack Submarines, six nuclear Attack Submarines, three nuclear Ballistic Missile Submarines). The U.S. has 72 nuclear submarines (53 attack and 18 ballistic missile).

Indian Navy Nuclear Submarine.

The Indian Navy will get the Russian-built nuclear-powered Akula-II class attack submarine on a 10-year lease before July 2010, a naval official said Monday. The submarine, which would primarily be used to train crews to operate these kind of vessel, is considered one of the quietest and deadliest among Russian nuclear submarine fleet. Partly financed by India under a deal signed with Russia in January 2004, the 12,000-tonne submarine was been built at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur shipyard in Russia. It will be commissioned into the Indian Navy as INS Chakra. Three Indian navy teams have already been trained at the specially set up training centre in Sosnovy Bor near St. Petersburg. The nuclear submarine will not be equipped with long-range cruise missiles due to international restrictions on missile technology proliferation. But India may later opt to fit it with domestically designed long-range nuclear-capable missiles. At present, India operates 16 conventional diesel submarines and awaits six French-Spanish Scorpene class diesel attack submarines to be delivered between 2012 and 2017. India plans to deploy at least three nuclear submarines armed with long-range strategic missiles by 2015. The first of the three domestic nuclear submarines is expected to begin sea trials by mid-2009. India previously leased a Charlie-I class nuclear submarine from the erstwhile Soviet Union from 1988 to 1991.

China and South Korea Flex Naval Muscle as U.S. Wanes.

China and South Korea are expanding their submarine fleets as the U.S. Navy shrinks its own. By 2025 the number of U.S. submarines in the Pacific Ocean will fall from 30 to 27. China will have 78 submarines and S.Korea 26. The military strength of the U.S. and Russia is waning while China and South Korea's capabilities are rising, and India and Australia also aspire to bolster their naval capabilities. In an attempt to dominate in the Pacific, these countries are increasing the numbers of diesel-electric attack, nuclear-powered attack, guided-missile and ballistic missile submarines. China's growth is especially noteworthy. Since 1995, China has focused on submarine construction and built 31 new models by 2005. China presently has 60 submarines including six nuclear and 50 diesel-powered ones. The South Korean Navy has also bolstered its submarine fleet. Since the 1,300-ton submarine Jangbogo was commissioned in 1993, a total of 12 submarines are in use, including the 1,800-ton Ahn Jung Geun commissioned last year. From 2012 to 2018, South Korea plans to manufacture six 1,800-ton submarines and nine 3,000-ton submarines to become Asia's second largest power after China in terms of the number of submarines. Australia and India feel they have no choice but to bolster their own naval warfare capabilities. Australia plans to boost the number of its submarines from six to 12,and India from 17 to 24. Meanwhile, Russia is struggling to just maintain its existing level of military capability.

Virgin Submarine.

Richard Branson, the head of the Virgin empire, has announced that his company will be releasing a winged underwater transportation device for deep sea rides. The “underwater plane” is planned to reach depths of 35,000, making it a deepsea submarine capable of incredible depths. The prototype, which will cost $660,000, is being called the Necker Nymph, and will only be able to reach 130 feet in its’ first phase, with longer depths being explored with later versions of the technology. “We hope to have submarines dotted throughout the world. A pressurized submarine is nearly completed. But the real challenge is to explore what’s going on at the bottom of the oceans,” Branson said.

French submarine hits subsea container.

February 11, 2009: The lead ship of the French Le Triomphant class SSBNs (ballistic missile nuclear submarines) had a little accident. Earlier this month, Le Triomphant submerged near the port of Brest, and promptly clipped something near where the bottom should not be. The uncharted object was apparently a shipping container, and it damaged the sonar dome on the front of the boat. The Le Triomphant surfaced and returned to port for repairs. The damage was light and there were no injuries to the crew. Uncharted underwater obstacles like this are increasingly common, especially around busy shipping lanes and ports. Brest is a port that frequently hosts container ships that sometimes come in through nasty weather, which often results in containers being blown overboard.

Last year, France launched the fourth (and last) of its new Le Triomphant class SSBNs, the "Le Terrible". This boat will enter service next year. The Le Triomphant class boats displace 12,600 tons, have a crew of 101 and carry 16 M51 ballistic missiles (weighing 56 tons each, carrying six warheads and with a range of 10,000 kilometers). The other three Triomphants, already in service, carry the older M45 missile (weighing 35 tons each, carrying six warheads and with a range of 6,000 kilometers). These boats will get the M51 after the "Le Terrible" enters service. The Triomphants replace the six SSBNs of the Redoutable class, 9,000 ton boats that entered service in 1971 and were retired in 1991. Each of these boats carried sixteen of the shorter range (5,000 kilometers) M4 missiles.

The French Navy announced that it always has two SSBNs available for duty, so that if one is unexpectedly put out of service, another is available to go out on patrol. Sea based, nuclear armed missiles are a deterrent to other nuclear nations only if you have one of your SSBNs at sea at all times.

Then, on February 15th, the French and British navies announced that two of their SSBNs, one of them the Le Triomphant, had collided with each other on February 4th. The French decided to try and come up with a cover story, but the British decided not to, and thus both navies were forced to come clean. How two SSBNs could bump into each other in such a large ocean, is to be the subject of a joint investigation by the two nations.

Why Boomers Collide.

February 17, 2009: On February 16th, the French and British navies confirmed that two of their SSBNs, the French Le Triomphant and the British Vanguard, had collided with each other on February 4th. The Vanguard was on patrol, while the Le Triomphant was returning to port (Brest) from a patrol. It appears that the Le Triomphant hit the Vanguard, while running in a parallel collision course. Both France and Britain have long maintained a force of four SSBNs each. Earlier, on February 6th, France had announced that The Le Triomphant had collided with some unknown underwater object, causing some damage to its sonar dome. Ten days later, the French admitted that they had lied, trying to cover up what really happened. By then, civilians had seen that the Vanguard had dents and scrapes along its side, indicating that the some other vessel had made contact with a long portion of the Vanguard's hull. This was visible on February 14th, as the Vanguard returned, early, to its base in Scotland. How two SSBNs could bump into each other in such a large ocean, is to be the subject of a joint investigation by the two nations. There are several plausible reasons for such a collision taking place.

First, both France and Britain have their SSBN patrol areas in the same patch of ocean. That's because the range of their missiles, and the location of potential targets (Russia, the only nation with nukes aimed at Europe) means there's only a small area of the eastern Atlantic where these patrols are going to take place. So while the two nations SSBNs are still operating, underwater, in a large bit of the Atlantic, it's not as big as you might think.

Second, SSBNs operate as quietly as possible. They use passive (it just listens) sonar and move slowly (about 10 kilometers an hour). Just how quiet SSBNs are is considered classified information, as is the possibility that two of them could be very near each other, and be undetectable to each other. It may now be revealed if the U.S., or anyone else, ever sought to discover if this was possible. Certainly, the British-French investigation of the SSBN incident will probably make it clear if these boats are quiet enough underwater to be invisible to each other. Note that this invisibility may only happen because of special conditions underwater (different temperature or salinity layers of water, which channel the sound away from layers above and below). Since this is all very sensitive material, the full results of the investigation may not be released for decades.

Third, there is a lack of cooperation between the French and other navies. NATO has protocols for member nations to inform each other of the general area where each other's submarines will be operating. But France left NATO in 1966 (although it has been discussing rejoining), and does not participate in this submarine "deconfliction" program.

There's also the possibility that one, or both, boats were having problems with their passive sonar at the time of the collision. It's also possible that one of the boats did detect the other at a distance, decided to investigate further, and that all went badly.

The 428 foot long Le Triomphant class boats displace 12,600 tons, have a crew of 101 and carry 16 M51 ballistic missiles (weighing 56 tons each, carrying six warheads and with a range of 10,000 kilometers). The other three Triomphants, already in service, carry the older M45 missile (weighing 35 tons each, carrying six warheads and with a range of 6,000 kilometers). These boats will get the M51 after the "Le Terrible" enters service. The Triomphants replace the six SSBNs of the Redoutable class, 9,000 ton boats that entered service in 1971 and were retired in 1991. Each of these boats carried sixteen of the shorter range (5,000 kilometers) M4 missiles.

The Vanguard boats are a little larger (465 feet long, crew of 135), and entered service in the 1990s. They carry 16 Trident II missiles, weighing 59 tons, with a range of 11,300 kilometers and carrying up to eight warheads.

On February 6th, the French Navy announced that it always has two SSBNs available for duty, so that if one is unexpectedly put out of service, another is available to go out on patrol. Sea based, nuclear armed missiles are a deterrent to other nuclear nations only if you have one of your SSBNs at sea at all times. Had these two boats hit each other sufficiently hard to cause a hull breach, and send one or both of them to the bottom, they would have joined many other nukes that have gone down since the 1960s. The nuclear reactors and warheads are built to stay submerged, and contain their radioactive material, for a long time. This has worked with the dozen or more other nukes that have gone to the bottom. Except, of course, for the Russian mass sinking of nuclear subs and reactors in the Arctic ocean in the 1980s and 90s. That was halted in the 1990s, because of the possibility of polluting Arctic fish stocks, by Western nations providing money to safely take apart and retire over a hundred obsolete Russian nuclear subs.

Russian Navy Cut-backs.

February 22, 2009: The Russian Navy has not only shrunk since the end of the Cold War in 1991, but it has also become much less active. In the last three years, only ten of their nuclear subs went to sea, on a combat patrol, each year. Most of the boats going to sea were SSNs (attack subs), the minority were SSBNs (ballistic missile boats). There were more short range training missions, which often lasted a few days, or just a few hours. But the true measure of a fleet is the "combat patrol" or "deployment." In the U.S. Navy, most of these last from 2-6 months. In the last three years, U.S. nuclear subs have carried out ten times as many patrols as their Russian counterparts.

Currently, Russia only has 14 SSBN (nuclear ballistic missile sub) boats in service, and not all of them have a full load of missiles. Some lack full crews, or have key systems in need of repair. Russia has only 14 modern, 7,000 ton, Akula SSNs (nuclear attack subs) in service. These began building in the late 1980s and are roughly comparable to the American Los Angeles class. All of the earlier Russian SSNs are trash, and most have been decommissioned. There are also eight SSGN (nuclear subs carrying cruise missiles) and 20 diesel electric boats. There is a new class of SSGNs under construction, but progress, and promised funding increases, have been slow.

Currently, the U.S. has six of the new, 7,700 ton, Virginia class SSNs in service, four under construction and nine on order. The mainstay of the American submarine force is still the 6,100 ton Los Angeles-class SSN. Sixty-two of these submarines were built, 45 of which remain in front-line service, making it probably the largest class of nuclear submarines that will ever be built. The Seawolf-class of nuclear attack submarines stopped at three from a planned class of twenty-nine. The 8,600 ton Seawolf was designed as a super-submarine, designed to fight the Soviet Navy at its height. Reportedly, it is quieter going 40 kilometers an hour, than the Los Angeles-class submarines are at pier side.

The peak year for Russian nuclear sub patrols was 1984, when there were 230. That number rapidly declined until, in 2002, there were none. Since the late 1990s, the Russian navy has been hustling to try and reverse this decline. But the navy budget, despite recent increases, is not large enough to build new ships to replace the current Cold War era fleet that is falling apart. The rapid decline of Russia's nuclear submarine fleet needed international help to safely decommission over a hundred obsolete or worn out nuclear subs. This effort has been going on for nearly a decade, and was driven by the Russian threat to just sink their older nuclear subs in the Arctic ocean. That might work with conventional ships, but there was an international uproar over what would happen with all those nuclear reactors sitting on the ocean floor forever. Russia generously offered to accept donations to fund a dismantling program that included safe disposal (of the nuclear reactors).

Since the end of the Cold War in 1991, most of the ship building money has gone into new nuclear subs. Six Akulas have been completed in that time, but the first of a new generation of SSBNs, the Borei class was delayed by technical problems, a new ballistic missile that wouldn't work, and lack of money. The first Borei class boat, after many delays, is finally ready for service, and ended up costing over two billion dollars.

The Russian admirals made their big mistake in the early 1990s, when the dismantling of the Soviet Union left the second largest fleet in the world with only a fraction of its Cold War budget. Rather than immediately retire ninety percent of those ships, Russia tried to keep many of them operational. This consumed most of the navy budget, and didn't work. There were too many ships, not enough sailors and not enough money for maintenance or training at sea. The mighty Soviet fleet is mostly scrap now, or rusting hulks tied up at crumbling, out-of-the way naval bases.

While Western nuclear subs can last for about thirty years, Russian models rarely get past twenty. That means two new SSN or SSGN has to be put into service each year to maintain a force of forty boats. Unless the sub construction budget get billions more dollars a year, that is not going to happen. Right now, the priority is on producing a new class of SSBNs (11 more Boreis are planned or under construction). These Boreis are critical, because they carry SLBM (Sea Launched Ballistic Missiles) that provide a critical (they are much harder to destroy in a first strike than land based missiles) portion of the nuclear deterrent. The rest of the Russian armed forces, like most of the navy, is in sad shape, and unable to resist a major invasion. Only the ICBMs and SLBMs guarantee the safety of the state. So the way things are going now, in a decade or two, Russia will end up with a force consisting of a dozen SSNs and a dozen SSBNs.

The current fleet of nuclear subs is tiny, and the Russians would rather keep them tied up at dock most of the time. The crews can do a lot of training at dockside, and only go to sea a few times a year to check on their state of training. Given the number of accidents their subs have had in the past decade, the training the crews are getting now is not sufficient.

Submarine collisions not so rare.

February 20, 2009: The recent collision between a British and French nuclear submarine is not as rare as most people think. Four years ago a U.S. SSN (nuclear attack sub) collided with an underwater mountain. The sub survived, but its sonar dome was smashed in, and one sailor died.

The Golden Age of submarine collisions was during the Cold War (1948-91). Once Russia began building nuclear subs in the 1960s, and putting them to sea often and for long periods, there were lots of collisions. Well, about one every two years. Most involved at least one Russian boat. The problem was that the Russians had pretty poor sonar, so they were the equivalent of half blind under water. From the 1970s on, the U.S. has increasingly superior sonar compared to the Russians. This led to the more collisions involving Russian and U.S. boats. It also saw the invention, by the Russians, of the "Crazy Ivan" maneuver. This occurred when an American sub was stalking a Russian one (often an American SSN keeping tabs on a Russian SSBN). The U.S. boat would stay in the Russian subs "blind spot" (behind its propeller). But sometimes the Russians would suspect they were being stalked, or just wanted to make sure they were not, and would perform the "Crazy Ivan" maneuver, which involved upping speed and making a sharp turn. The U.S. sub would have to quickly get out of the way, or there would be, and sometimes was, a collision. Most of the collisions during this period involved Russian subs bumping into other Russian subs, or inanimate objects (icebergs, oil rigs). Western boats had far fewer collisions because they had better sonar, and better trained and more experienced crews.

France Builds a new U-Boat.

March 5, 2009: French submarine builder DCNS is now selling a new coastal boat, the Andrasta class. This is an 855 ton, 153 foot long sub, with a crew of 19 (plus 8 passengers, usually commandos). The boat can stay underwater for up to five days. Surfaced, it can travel up to 5,400 kilometers, at slow (170 kilometers a day) speed. There are sufficient supplies on board to keep the boat out up to 30 days. Most missions are expected to be more like two weeks. The boat has six forward firing torpedo tubes, which can also carry mines or anti-ship missiles. There are no reloads, all the weapons are stored in the torpedo tubes. There is a special chamber for letting divers exit the boat while underwater.

The Andrasta is similar in size to the 769 ton German World War II Type VII boat, which was the most widely used (700 built) sub during the Battle of the Atlantic. The Type VII was longer (220 feet) and thinner, and didn't have all the electronics of the Andrasta, or all the automation. Thus the Type VII had a crew of 50 and carried 14 torpedoes (used in five tubes), plus an 88mm deck gun (and 220 shells). Moreover, the Type VII could only spend about one day underwater, although it had a surfaced range of 15,000 kilometers. The Andrasta is built to be quiet, and use its powerful passive sonar to detect surface ships or subs, and use its heavy torpedoes to destroy them. The Andrastas cost less than $200 million each (half the price of most normal size subs), and are attractive boats for nations wanting to use submarines mainly as defensive weapons.

Drug Subs.

February 26, 2009: The U.S. estimates that Colombian cocaine smugglers have developed semi-submersible boats that are so successful at evading detection, that they are carrying most of the cocaine being moved north. It's estimated that about 75 of these subs are being built in northwest Colombia each year, and sent on one way trips north. Each of these boats carries a four man crew and about seven tons of cocaine (worth nearly $200 million on the street). The loss of each boat and its cargo cost the Colombian drug cartels over $10 million in costs (of building the boat and producing the drugs). The crews are often Colombian fishermen forced to make the long voyage, because their families were being held hostage. Running these boats is considered very dangerous work, and the crews are paid well if they succeed, whether they volunteered for the work or not. Because of the risks (about ten percent are believed lost at sea), the boats are nicknamed "coffins." The crews are told the pull the plug (literally) and sink the boat (and its cargo) if spotted and about to be boarded. Even with the boarding party on the way, jumping off a sinking boat, often at night, is dangerous. Laws have been changed so that the crews escaping from their sinking boats, can still be charged with drug smuggling (despite the loss of the evidence).

Between 2000 and 2007, 23 of these boats were spotted. But last year, nearly 70 were seen or captured. Many of the captures are the result of intelligence information at the source, not air and naval patrols out there just looking for them. These boats are hard to spot (by aircraft or ships), which is why they are being used more often. These semi-submersible "submarines" have been operating off the northwest (Pacific) coast of South America for nine years. Over 75 percent of the 600 tons of cocaine coming out of Colombia each year leaves via the Pacific coast subs, carried in submarines, that move the cocaine north. Despite increased efforts, it's believed that less than ten percent of these subs have been caught.

At one point it was thought that as many as half of them were captured or lost at sea. But this is apparently not the case. That's because most of these subs are built for a one way trip. This keeps down the cost of construction, and the cost of hiring a crew (who fly home). That one voyage will usually be for about a thousand kilometers, with the boat moving at a speed of 15-25 kilometers an hour. The average trip will take about two weeks, because the boats have learned to go very slowly during the day, to avoid leaving a wake that U.S. airborne sensors can detect.

In the past, some subs making long range trips were caught while being towed by a larger ship. Apparently the plan was to tow a semi-submersible, loaded with a ten ton cocaine cargo, long distances, and then be cut it loose for the final approach to the shore of California or some area in Europe or on the east coast of North America. While the subs are most frequently used from the Pacific coast of Colombia, they are showing up elsewhere as well. These subs are not stealthy enough to avoid detection all the time, and the U.S. is working to tweak search radars, and other types of sensors, to more reliably detect the drug subs. For the moment, it appears that these semi-submersibles do work, because the drug gangs keep using them more and more. Delivery by sea is now the favored method for cocaine smugglers, because the United States has deployed military grade aircraft detection systems, and caught too many of the airborne drug shipments. The smugglers did their math, and realized that improvised submarines were a more cost-effective way to go. The technology has spread, with one of these boats found being built in Spain three years ago, by a local drug gang, to bring cocaine ashore from a seagoing ship far out at sea in international waters. GPS makes these kinds of operations possible.

Increased maritime patrols, and infiltration of drug gangs in Colombia, has led to a significant increase in captures of these boats. On land, Colombian soldiers and police are doing a lot of damage to cocaine production, and making boat production more difficult. All this is having an impact, with cocaine prices going up, and quality going down. Drug testing and surveys indicates that cocaine use in the United States has declined 10-20 percent as a result.

But the stealthy boats are a concern to counter-terror officials. Bombs and terrorists can be transported in these vessels, and the technology for building them can be, and perhaps already has, spread. The technology is improving as well. Recently captured boats had a system installed that cooled the engine exhaust, making it more difficult for infrared (heat) sensors to sport it. Thus the U.S. Navy is putting a lot of effort into improving its sensors and search techniques, for finding these boats.

Submarine Collision Alley.

March 22, 2009: There have been three collisions, involving American SSNs in the Persian Gulf, during the last five years. On March 20th, a U.S. 24,000 ton amphibious ship (the USS New Orleans, LPD 18) collided with a submerged submarine (the 7,000 ton USS Hartford, SSN 768) in the narrow Straits of Hormuz. Fifteen sailors aboard the sub were injured, while a fuel tank on the LPD was torn open, and 25,000 gallons of fuel oil got into the water. Both vessels returned to port under their own power. The accident happened at 1 AM, local time.

In January, 2007, there was a minor collision between an American nuclear sub (the USS Newport News) and 1,100 foot long, 300,000 ton tanker (the Mogamigawa) in the Persian Gulf. There was some damage to the ship, in the form of a 108 foot long tear in the rear hull. The tear was four inches wide, and letting water in. The U.S. sub had its sonar dome, in the bow, badly damaged. But both vessels were able to make it back to port under their own power. An investigation revealed that the tanker was passing safely over the 360 foot long Newport News, but was going at such "high speed" (probably about 35 kilometers an hour), that a sucking effect was created, that pulled the 6,300 ton sub up until its bow banged against the bottom of the passing tanker. The Newport News was moving south, through the Straits of Hormuz, as was the Japanese ship. The tanker carried a crew of 24, the sub has 127 sailors on board.

In late 2005, nuclear submarine USS Philadelphia and a Turkish freighter collided in the Persian Gulf. In that case, the sub was on the surface, but the small radar signature of the surfaced sub did not show on the freighters radar until the ship was almost on top of the sub. The freighter and sub were on converging courses, with the freighter behind the sub. The collision, which had the 53,000 ton freighter running up over the back of the Philadelphia, on the right side, did not cause serious damage to either vessel. The sub suffered damage to its propeller, the fairwater plane, the rudder and the housing for the towed sonar array. The freighter got a hundred foot gash in its hull, right above the waterline. The two ships were entangled for an hour, but both made it back to port on their own.

The Straits of Hormuz, and the Persian Gulf in general, is a busy waterway, and there are always one or two U.S. SSNs there. That pattern, and all those collisions, may lead to changes in the way U.S. nuclear subs operate in these crowded waters. The Persian Gulf is 989 kilometers long, and the average depth is 50 meters (maximum depth is 90 meters). A U.S. SSN is about 18 meters from the bottom of the sub (the keel) to the top of the sail (the box like structure on top of the sub).

British Subs Are Burning On Schedule.

April 7, 2009: The Royal Navy revealed, during a recent parliamentary investigation, that, during the last 21 years, it's nuclear submarine suffered about one fire a month. Moreover, the subs suffered two collisions every three years. None of the fires or collisions caused serious damage. Less than ten percent of the fires required more, than the sailors in the vicinity, to deal with. Three of the fires occurred while the ships were in port. Most of the fires, and all the collisions, occurred while the subs were underway, and submerged. That is when the boats are most vulnerable to something going wrong, as this is when the most equipment is in use, and often under stress. Subs are built to deal with these equipment failures, and in the case of the Royal Navy boats, that worked. The 237 fires and 14 collisions took place on 21 subs (13 SSNs and 8 SSBN) that were in service during that period. Nearly half those boats have since been retired.

Australian submarine update.

May 27, 2009: Although Australia is planning to expand its submarine fleet to twelve boats, it was recently revealed that only one of the six current subs is available for service. Four of the boats are undergoing maintenance, and another one is undergoing several months of repairs to fix a problem with its batteries. Even if all six boats were ready for services, there are only sufficient crews available to send three of them to sea.

Despite all these problems, Australia recently decided to make the submarine the key component of its fleet in the near future. Over the next decade, Australia will double the number of subs in service, from six to twelve. This will mean that more than half (12 out of 23) of their major warships will be subs. The purpose of this shift is to provide a naval force more capable of dealing with any Chinese moves into Australian waters. The Chinese fleet is undergoing rapid expansion, and it's believed that this poses a potential threat to Australia.

To make this new strategy work, Australia has to fix the problems with recruiting, and retaining, sufficient sailors to man the submarine fleet. The problems are numerous. The principal one is the relative isolation of the submarine sailors within the Australian navy. Because of that, and the smaller crews of subs, few submarine officers achieved high rank in the navy. But the admirals have come to recognize, for all that, the submarine is the best warship for Australia's needs (defense against a superior surface fleet, or enemy subs seeking to blockade the nation).

Currently, the Australian Navy has six Collins class subs, and the sailors who serve on these boats are not happy. This has been a problem for years. Recently, the navy surveyed the submarine sailors and were told that the submarine crewmen felt unappreciated and overworked. Half of them were getting out of the navy as soon as their current enlistments were up. Many found the work boring, and felt they spent too much time at sea. As a result, only enough qualified sailors are available to provide crews for three of the six Collins class subs. Each boat requires a crew of 45 highly trained sailors (eight of them officers.)

The initial navy response was to offer large cash bonuses to get existing submarine sailors to stay in the navy, and to attract qualified recruits to serve on subs. This helped a bit, but at the expense of officer morale. The bonuses increased sailors annual pay by up to $38,000, which meant officers were now making less than many of the men they commanded. Worse yet, not enough new recruits were attracted. The submarine service has high standards, thus many of those who were interested, were not qualified to undertake the long training courses. The global recession may help, because the Australian economy has been booming, providing many opportunities for the kind of guys who would qualify for the submarine service.

The Australian navy has been suffering from a serious geek shortage for several years now. With a total strength of 13,000, being short a few dozen people in some job categories can have serious repercussions, and that's what happened to the submarine force. For example, the navy is short about a third of the marine engineering officers it needs. There are less serious shortages in officers specializing in electrical systems and weapons systems. Australian warships have been active in the war on terror, resulting in many crews being away from home for up to six months at a time. There are shortages of both officers and sailors with technical skills.

The situation was further complicated by a booming economy, and big demand for those with engineering degrees, and a few years of experience. This made it easy for engineering officers to leave the navy and get a higher paying, and more comfortable, civilian job. The navy responded with cash bonuses, better living and working conditions, and other fringe benefits. But the submarine force cannot have their working conditions improved much. While the subs are of modern design and recent construction, they are still subs. That means not much space or privacy in there. All Western navies have similar problems, and have applied similar solutions, with some degree of success. U.S. subs have the advantage of being larger (because of the nuclear propulsion) and with larger crews (nearly three times the size of the Collins class boats). This apparently helps. Other nations have small, modern, diesel-electric boats like the Collins class, but do not send them off on long voyages. Australia can't avoid the long voyages, because Australia is surrounded by vast oceans areas, that require a lot of time to traverse. It is boring to transit all of that, and that was exactly what the dispirited sailors reported when asked.

The navy leadership has, in deciding to double the size of its sub fleet, agreed to either fix the morale and recruiting problems, or risk seeing most of those boats rarely going to sea, and manned by inexperienced crews when they did. The solution appears to be a combination of more pay, and using larger crews, so that everyone does not have to spend so much time at sea, or carry more people on cruises and reduce the workload for each. Another option is having two crews for each boat, a practice long used for American SSBNs (ballistic missile subs) and some surface ships. Another solution is the larger size of the next class of subs, that will provide, literally, more living room.

The current Collins class boats were built in Australia during the 1990s, and are based on a Swedish design (the Type 471.) At 3,000 tons displacement, the Collins are half the size of the American Los Angeles class nuclear attack subs, but are nearly twice the size of s European non-nuclear subs. Australia needed larger boats because of the sheer size of the oceans in the area, and these are the largest non-nuclear subs in service.

There were a lot of technical problems with the Collins class boats, which the media jumped all over. The design of these subs was novel and ambitious, using a lot of automation. This reduced the crew size to 45, but resulted in a higher workload for the submarine sailors. This is a major reason for the morale problem. Another problem with the small crew was that every one of the sailors had to be pretty sharp to begin with, then required years of training to learn the job, and more responsibility for each sailor as well.

The new class of subs are going to build on the Collins design, and will probably be a bit larger, and probably have an air-independent propulsion (AIP) system. This enables the sub to stay underwater for over a week at a time. Before the decision to expand the size of the sub fleet, the "Collins Replacement" boats were to enter service in 2024, just when the oldest Collins class sub was ready for retirement. That building plan will have to be sped up if the submarine fleet is to be doubled in a decade.

Russian Boomers Bumble Along.

June 3, 2009: Only eight of the twelve existing Russian Delta IV SSBNs (ballistic missile nuclear subs, or "boomers") are available for service. Russia wants to have about a dozen of the new Borei class boats, to replace the current Delta IV class SSBNs. The Delta IVs are getting old, and have only about a decade of useful service left. Currently, it appears that the navy will get at eight Boreis. These new boats are expensive, and the navy wants to build some aircraft carriers.

There are still more delays for the new Russian Borei class SSBN. This boat, the Yuri Dolgoruky, was launched over a year ago, and was to have begun sea trials late last year, then in January of this year, then by the end of May. It still hasn't happened. Major delays were introduced because of an accident on a new Akula SSN last November. There, a sailor hit the wrong switch and accidently triggered a fire suppressant system in a compartment where several dozen people were sleeping, killing twenty of them. The safety system was poorly designed, making it too easy for someone to do what the sailor did. Such design problems are common in Russian ships, and the additional months of inspections and modifications for the Borei is another attempt to eliminate such problems. There were also some problems with welds on the hull, and the nuclear power plant.

The first of its new Borei class subs was moved to a dry dock two years ago, for additional work. This ship, the Yuri Dolgoruky, was supposed to have been launched three years ago. But there were technical problems that delayed it until now. Construction of the Yuri Dolgoruky began thirteen years ago, but money shortages, and technical issues, slowed progress.

The first of three new Borei Class boats will be based in the Pacific, sometime early in the next decade. During the Cold War, most of Russias SSBNs were based in the north, at several bases east of the Norwegian border, and facing the Arctic ocean. But now Russia is spending over $350 million to expand and improve its submarine base on Kamchatka island. This will enable its new SSBNs to threaten China, as well as the United States.

This is the first new Russian boomer to enter service in 18 years, and the first new Russian sub design since the end of the Cold War. The second ship in the class, the Alexander Nevsky, is also nearing completion. Construction on the third, the Vladimir Monomakh, began two years ago.

The Boreis are closer in design to the Delta IVs, than to the more recent, and much larger, Typhoon boats. The Boreis are 558 feet long and 44 feet wide. Surface displacement is 15,000 tons, and twelve Bulava SLBMs (Sea Launched Ballistic Missile) are carried. Work on the Yuri Dolgoruky was delayed for several years because the first missile being designed for it did not work out. A successful land based missile, the Topol-M, was quickly modified for submarine use. The Bulava was a larger missile, cutting the Boreis capacity from twenty to twelve missiles. The boat also has four torpedo tubes, and twelve torpedoes or torpedo tube launched missiles. The Borei also sports a huge sonar dome in the bow.

The Boreis have a crew of 107, with half of them being officers (a common Russian practice when it comes to high tech ships like nuclear subs). Each of these boats will cost at least two billion dollars. This high cost, by Russian standards, is partly because many factories that supplied parts for Russian subs were in parts of the Soviet Union that are not now within the borders of present day Russia. So new factories had to be built. All components of the Boreis, and their missiles, will be built in Russia. A dozen (or eight) of these boats probably won't be completed for at least a decade.

Another problem is the reliability of the new Bulava missile, which, so far, has failed five of its ten test launches. The Bulava is believed to be fundamentally sound, but it could be another year, or more, before all the kinks are worked out. The Yuri Dolgoruky might be ready before its ballistic missiles are, which is not unusual for a new class of SSBN, carrying a new missile.

Gold in a submarine kitchen.

June 9, 2009: Yet another shocking revelation about the Australian submarine force is the fact that the cooks onboard these boats make more (about $160,000 a year) than some admirals. It's all about morale, which is very important on submarines. A major component of good morale in all navies is the food, and this is particularly true on submarines. Australia's booming economy has created a shortage of skilled personnel. Being able to produce good food in the crowded confines of a submarine galley requires a skilled chef with excellent organizational skills, and the ability to master basic skills required of all who serve on a sub. Turns out that there are not many men in Australia who possess this skill set. Thus while basic pay for a navy cook is $47,000, it grows quickly once you add the bonuses for being at sea, in a submarine, and hard to recruit. There are three cooks on each sub.

The Australian Navy has six Collins class subs, which are the core of Australian naval power, and the sailors who serve on these boats are not happy, even with the good food. The sailors feel unappreciated and overworked. Many find the work boring, and feel they spend too much time at sea. Half of the submarine sailors tend to get out of the navy as soon as their current enlistments were up.

As a result, only enough qualified sailors are available to provide crews for three of the six Collins class subs. Right now, maintenance problems have resulted in only one of the boats being able to go to sea. Each sub requires a crew of 45 highly trained sailors (eight of them officers.) The initial navy response was to offer large cash bonuses to get existing submarine sailors to stay in the navy, and to attract qualified recruits to serve on subs. This helped a bit, but at the expense of officer morale. The bonuses increased sailors annual pay by up to the point that officers were making less than many of the men they commanded. Despite that, not enough new recruits were attracted. The submarine service has high standards, thus many of those who were interested, were not qualified to undertake the long training courses. The global recession may help, because the Australian economy has been booming, providing many opportunities for the kind of guys who would qualify for the submarine service.

The Collins class boats were built in Australia during the 1990s, and are based on a Swedish design (the Type 471.) At 3,000 tons displacement, the Collins are half the size of the American Los Angeles class nuclear attack subs, but are nearly twice the size of s European non-nuclear subs. Australia needed larger boats because of the sheer size of the oceans in the area.

The situation is further complicated by a booming economy, and big demand for those with engineering degrees, and a few years of experience. This makes it easy for engineering officers to leave the navy and get a higher paying, and more comfortable, civilian job. The navy is responding with cash bonuses, better living and working conditions, and other fringe benefits. But the submarine force cannot have their working conditions improved much. While the subs are of modern design and recent construction, they are still subs. That means not much space or privacy in there.

All Western navies have similar problems, and have applied similar solutions, with some degree of success. U.S. subs have the advantage of being larger (the nuclear propulsion) and with larger crews (nearly three times the size of the Collins class boats). This apparently helps. Other nations have small, modern, diesel-electric boats like the Collins class, but do not send them off on long voyages. Australia can't avoid the long voyages, because Australia is surrounded by large water areas, that require a lot of travel time to traverse. It is boring to transit all of that distance, and that was exactly what the dispirited sailors reported when asked. At the moment, there is no solution in sight. So while Australia can buy modern submarines, they have not yet found a way to obtain crews to operate the boats.

Playing Tag With The Chinese subs.

June 17, 2009: On June 11, the American destroyer USS John McCain, while training off Subic Bay in the Philippines, had its towed sonar array collide with a Chinese submarine. The U.S. Navy did not reveal if the American ship had detected the sub before the collision. If the array was not activated, its sound (sonar) detectors would not have detected the sub. The Chinese admitted the sub was one of theirs, and the boat was apparently following the American ship unaware that a sonar array (which usually operates over a hundred meters beneath the surface, and two kilometers behind the ship towing it) was there.

The Chinese sub was probably a diesel-electric sub, which is a lot quieter under water than one of their nuclear powered models. The incident brings up memories of similar incidents with Russian subs during the Cold War. Some of these collisions were believed to be intelligence operations, an effort to grab portions of the American sonar array for examination (and reverse engineering.)

U.S. anti-submarine forces (subs, aircraft and surface ships) are increasingly playing tag with Chinese subs. As was done with Russian subs during the Cold War, the American sailors want to hone their skills at finding Chinese subs. All this effort is kept quite secret, as any information about American successes or failures, can be useful to the Chinese.

Outlawed subs.

June 26, 2009: Colombia has outlawed the construction, and use, of the semi-submersible boats used to smuggle much of the cocaine coming into North America. For those caught building these boats, it's twelve years in prison. For those caught using these boats, it's fourteen years. The U.S. estimates that Colombian cocaine smugglers have developed semi-submersible boats that are so successful at evading detection, that they are carrying most of the cocaine being moved north. Several years of effort by the U.S. Navy to improve detection methods, have not had much success. In the last three years, U.S., and other navy and coast guard ships off the coast between Mexico and Colombia, have detected over 120 of these subs. Between 2000 and 2007, only 23 of these boats were spotted. But last year, nearly 70 were detected or captured. The numbers are up these year as well, with 37 caught so far this year, with six caught so far this month. Many of the captures are the result of intelligence information at the source, not air and naval patrols out there just looking for them. These boats are hard to spot (by aircraft or ships), which is why they are being used more often.

It's estimated that about 75 of these subs are being built in northwest Colombia each year, and sent on one way trips north. Each of these boats carries a four man crew and about seven tons of cocaine (worth nearly $200 million on the street). The loss of each boat and its cargo cost the Colombian drug cartels over $10 million in costs (of building the boat and producing the drugs). Running these boats is not as dangerous as they used to be, but the crews are still paid well if they succeed, often over $100,000 each. Because of the risks with the early designs (about ten percent were believed lost at sea), the boats were nicknamed "coffins." The crews are told to pull the plug (literally) and sink the boat (and its cargo) if spotted and about to be boarded. Even with the boarding party on the way, jumping off a sinking boat, usually at night, is dangerous. U.S. laws have been changed so that the crews escaping from their sinking boats, can still be charged with drug smuggling (despite the loss of the evidence). This, plus the new Colombian laws, is why the drug gangs are looking into automating the boats, so that no crew is needed at all.

These semi-submersible "submarines" have been operating off the northwest (Pacific) coast of South America for at least nine years. More than a third of the of the 800 tons of cocaine coming out of Colombia each year leaves via the Pacific coast subs, that move the drugs north. Despite increased efforts, it's believed that less than ten percent of these subs have been caught. The drug gangs still use other smuggling methods (aircraft, hidden in ship or aircraft cargo), but apparently the subs can move the most cocaine at once, with the lowest risk.

The semi-submersibles are built, often using specially made components brought in from foreign countries, in areas along the Colombian coast, or other drug gang controlled territory nearby. Early on, Russian naval architects and engineers were discovered among those designing and building these boats. But that did not last, as the Russian designs were too complex and expensive. Instead, local boat builders created and refined the current design. Some foreign experts have been seen in the area, apparently to help the boat builders with some technical problem. These subs cost over $700,000 to construct, and carry up to ten tons of cocaine. The boat builders are getting rich, constructing the boats in well hidden locations up the rivers that empty into the Pacific. Colombian security forces are bringing more troops into this coastal areas, and in one recent week, found five of these subs (completed or under construction.) Troops and police are also going after the materials (fiberglass) needed to build the boats, and the suppliers who are getting the building materials for the gangs. This could force the gangs down the coast, to Ecuador, but the coast there, and local conditions, are not as conducive to sub building. So the gangs are fighting hard to keep the army away from the dozens of hidden submarine building "yards" along the Colombian coast. The one trip these craft undertake, will usually be for about a thousand kilometers, with the boat moving at a speed of 15-25 kilometers an hour. The average trip will take about two weeks, because the boats have learned to go very slowly during the day, to avoid leaving a wake that U.S. airborne sensors can detect.

These subs are not stealthy enough to avoid detection all the time, and the U.S. has been trying to tweak search radars, and heat sensors, to more reliably detect the drug subs. Increased maritime patrols, and infiltration of drug gangs in Colombia, has led to a significant increase in captures of these boats. On land, Colombian soldiers and police are doing a lot of damage to cocaine production, and making boat production more difficult. All this is having an impact, with cocaine prices going up, and quality going down. Drug testing and surveys indicates that cocaine use in the United States has declined 10-20 percent as a result.

But the stealthy boats are a concern to counter-terror officials. Bombs and terrorists can be transported in these vessels, and the technology for building them can be, and perhaps already has, spread to terrorist groups. The technology is improving as well. Recently captured boats had a system installed that cooled the engine exhaust, making it more difficult for infrared (heat) sensors to spot it. Thus the U.S. Navy is putting a lot of effort into improving its sensors and search techniques, for finding these boats.

Peruvian U-Boat Stalks the USN.

July 16, 2009: For the fifth year, the U.S. Navy has trained with a diesel electric sub from a South American navy. This program, called DESI (Diesel Electric Submarine Initiative) hopes to eventually entice NATO navies to send one of their subs over for the exercise.

So far, DESI has provided 450 engagement days involving diesel electric subs maneuvering against American anti-submarine forces (air, surface and subsurface.) The exercises give the sub crews a realistic workout against the most modern ASW (anti-submarine warfare) equipment, and allows them to show how dangerous a diesel electric boat is when it's submerged and running on batteries. This year, the sub was the Peruvian Arica (SS-36). This is a German built Type 209, which is one of the more widely used diesel-electric subs in the world. The Arica displaces 1,300 tons, is 183 feet long, has eight torpedo tubes and carry 14 torpedoes and a crew of 36. The boat is 34 years old, but had a major overhaul in 1983-4.

Droids For Bottom Dwellers.

August 5, 2009: The U.S. Navy has revealed that its four "commando subs" are carrying robotic aerial (UAV) and underwater (UUV) vehicles. The Sea Stalker is a torpedo shaped UUV that is deployed via the frogman deployment capsule on the deck of the sub. The 45 pound Scan Eagle UAV is already used by navy surface ships, and by marines on land. The fifteen pound Buster UAV is also being used by the subs, apparently from the deck, or from ashore by SEALs. With four hour endurance, and able to operate 40 kilometers from its radio control gear, Buster can easily be taken ashore.

As of last year, the U.S. Navy has completed the conversion of four Ohio class ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs), to cruise missile submarines (SSGN). Each of these boats now carries 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles, and provides space (for living, working and training) for 66 commandos (usually SEALs) and their equipment (including all those UAVs).

The idea of converting ballistic missile subs, that would have to be scrapped to fulfill disarmament agreements, has been bouncing around since the 1990s. After September 11, 2001, the idea got some traction. The navy submariners love this one, because they lost a lot of their reason for being, with the end of the Cold War.

The United States had built a powerful nuclear submarine force during the Cold War, but with the rapid disappearance of the Soviet navy in the 1990s, there was little reason to keep over a hundred U.S. nuclear subs in commission. These boats are expensive, costing over a billion each to build and over a million dollars a week to operate. The four Ohio class SSBN, after conversion, each now have at least twenty years of life left in them.

The idea of a sub, armed with 154 highly accurate cruise missiles, and capable of rapidly traveling under water (ignoring weather, or observation) at a speed of over 1,200 kilometers a day, to a far off hot spot, had great appeal in the post-Cold War world. The ability to carry a large force of commandos as well was also appealing. The Ohio SSGNs can also carry a wide variety of electronic sensors and other data collecting gear. Thus in one sub you have your choice of hammer or scalpel. More capable cruise missiles are in the works as well. Whether or not this multi-billion dollar investment will pay off remains to be seen. But it's certainly a bold move, and the navy already knows that Tomahawks and SEALs work.

As when it was an SSBN, SSGNs will have two crews (each with 159 personnel, not including commandoes), which will switch places in the boat every 3-4 months, flying out to far off locations like Guam for the swap. The four SSGNs will apparently spend most of their time on intelligence collecting missions. As such, it may be a while before you hear any details. Two of these boats are based in the Pacific, and two in the Atlantic.

Submarine Information Useful To The Enemy.

August 18, 2009: The word around Moscow is that the crew of the two Akula class subs recently detected off the coast of North America, will not be hailed as heroes when they return home. While this is the first time Russian subs have operated in the western Atlantic in over a decade. Apparently, they were supposed to go there, and return, undetected. That's how it's done in the submarine business. This is particularly true if you are sending two of Russia's latest, and most difficult to detect, boats.

But the Americans detected the Akulas, using an underwater detection system built during the Cold War, when revealing what it found was not done (lest the Russians use that knowledge to develop better ways not to be detected). Why was that not done this time? Well, for one thing, the Cold War is over. Then there's the need to convince Congress and the taxpayers that all the billions spent on tracking foreign subs, is still worthwhile. These two subs are now being tracked by Canadian anti-submarine aircraft, who haven't had this kind of training opportunity since the early 1990s. A similar tracking system is operating in the Pacific, but you rarely get reports of Chinese subs being detected. In the Pacific, that's considered information useful to the enemy.

Underwater Lasers Change Everything.

September 10, 2009: Finally, there are lasers that can be used communicating underwater. This is done by using a laser pulse tuned to ionize water, and generate an acoustic pulse. Thus surface ships or aircraft could communicate with suitably equipped subs. This stuff is still in the lab, but given the need for underwater communications, there's lots of incentive to get it into service. If this survives development and testing, it will revolutionize submarine operations.

For years, researchers have been trying to find ways to use lasers to detect submarines, or to enable underwater communications. So far, it's been found that blue-green lasers can reach some ten meters beneath the surface, and be used for detection and communication. Not terribly useful for subs (which typically stay farther down than ten meters), although work continues on using this capability to search for bottom mines in shallow waters.

Two years ago, the U.S. Navy completed development of this system, which enabled nuclear subs to communicate with the rest of the world that, normally, could not be done until the boat came close to the surface and poked a radio antenna above the surface. The Deep Siren, or "tactical paging system", provided a practical solution to the problem of communicating with a submerged sub. The system consists of a disposable buoy, that is dropped in the water, by an aircraft or over the side of a ship, in the general area (within about 90 kilometers) where the sub is believed to be. The buoy sends out an acoustic signal that U.S. subs are equipped to automatically pick up. This coded message either orders the sub to get a radio antenna above water and call home, or simply delivers a brief message. The buoy also has a satellite telephone capability, so that additional messages can be sent from anywhere, to the sub. The sub cannot send messages to the buoy (because powerful sensors are required to pick up the signals). In the past, the only way to "page" submerged subs was via a large, shore based, low frequency, transmission system. This system was less reliable than the new one, although it had a much longer range.

The navy recently successfully tested the other end of the system. To do this, the sub releases a similar buoy through its garbage chute. The buoy hovers for a while (so the sub can move away), then rises to the surface and sends its messages. Thus the buoy signal will not give away the exact location of the boat. The buoy then receives messages (short ones) and uses a sonar type device to send the data acoustically, for up to 90 kilometers, to the sub. Outgoing messages, which are sent via satellite, can be longer, and even include outgoing email from the crew to family. But the acoustically transmitted messages are much shorter, and include orders from the surface ships, or anyone in the chain of command, to the sub commander.

Deep Siren can also be useful for American carrier task forces, which are usually accompanied by at least one SSN (nuclear attack sub.) Because thermal layers make underwater transmissions vary a great deal in range, the buoy sends the command messages several times to insure at least one gets through. The buoy from the sub can stay active for several days, if the sub is remaining in the area. But eventually, the buoy sinks itself. The U.S. Navy has spent about $10 million on Deep Siren so far, mainly to install it in some subs and test it. These tests continue, to see how reliable it would be under realistic conditions.

Dismantling The Soviet Submarine Fleet.

October 7, 2009: Russia, with financial and technical assistance from America, Britain, Canada, Japan, Italy and Norway, has been dismantling about 20 retired nuclear submarines a year, and plans to have 191 dismantled by next year. Up through the early 1990s, Russia had built nearly 260 nuclear ships (nearly all submarines). The end of the Cold War in 1991, left the Russians unable to keep most of those subs in service. Russian nukes were expensive to maintain, and many were not worth keeping in service (too noisy, too old, too many other flaws).

Most of the submarine dismantling was paid for by the U.S., which spent over $15 billion to implement the 1993 Strategic Offense Arms Elimination Implementing Agreement with Russia. Britain, Canada, Japan, Italy and Norway also contributed cash and technical assistance to this effort.

Throughout the 1990s, Russia only decommissioned 2-4 nuclear subs a year. Many nuclear subs were taken out of service in the early 1990s, although lots of older boats were being decommissioned in the late 1980s, before the Cold War even ended. That's because Russians tend to keep old weapons in service long beyond the time it's worth it. By the end of the 1990s, Russia had 150 decommissioned nuclear subs waiting to be dismantled. Russia hoped to complete dismantling these submarines by 2007, but things went much slower than expected, because there was no money. However, by 2000, things really began to pick, as 18 subs were dismantled in that year.

It costs about $7 million to dismantle one submarine. The primary task is to safely take apart the nuclear reactor, and get the radioactive components to a secure storage facility. The foreign nations contributing to this effort are all maritime nations that were concerned about the old Soviet subs falling apart while still in the water. What got this aid program going was the discovery that the Soviets were just dumping some radioactive components into Arctic waters. Russia was more willing, than the Soviets, to do the right thing and is determined to safely dispose of all these old nuclear subs.

Subs That Fear Going To Sea.

October 21, 2009: China recently announced the decommissioning of "Submarine 303." This was a Type 33 boat (a copy of the Russian Romeo class). Romeo was the successor to the Russian Whiskey class boats, which were, in turn, based on the German Type XXI. The German design first showed up in 1943, and was the first modern submarine, in that it was designed to spend most of its time underwater (with just the snorkel device and periscope above water, to bring in air for the diesel engine and crew). The Type XXI was a 1,600 ton (on the surface) sub, compared to the 1,500 ton Romeos. Russia built over 500 Romeos, while China built over 80. Only about 7-8 of the Type 33s are still in service, used mainly for training. They rarely go to sea.

What was most interesting about this retirement was the official comment that the sub had steamed 38,000 kilometers at sea over its 20 year career. That comes out to less than a week at sea a year. This was not unusual. Chinese subs are not built well, and there have been many breakdowns and accidents at sea. The Chinese have preferred to keep their subs tied up at dock, and have the crew practice there. Not very good training, but it does reduce the risk of losing the boat at sea. And it is good for crew morale.

China has been trying to improve the quality of its subs, and warships in general. They stopped building Type 33s in the 1980s, and began producing 21 boats of an improved design (the Type 35), which they built until the end of the century. These were more reliable boats, and spent somewhat more time at sea than the Type 33s. During the last decade, the Chinese were still having problems with producing reliable diesel-electric boats, and even more problems with nuclear subs. But eventually, the Chinese will solve the quality problems, which is exactly what they planned to do all along.

Women in submarines.

November 28, 2009: The U.S. Navy is planning to allow women to serve on submarines. To that end, the Naval Academy was asked to survey its female midshipmen and see how many would want to join the submarine service. About two dozen said they were interested for one of the seven slots the academy has been told will be available. The navy is planning to initially allow women on the SSBNs (ballistic missile carrying nuclear subs), mainly because they have sufficient room to provide separate quarters for women. The Ohio class SSBNs also have hatches large enough to easily get in the equipment needed to build the separate quarters. SSBNs also have two crews, which alternate running this boats on their 77 day cruises. In between each cruise, the boats are in port for about 35 days for maintenance and resupply.

One compelling reason for allowing women to serve is a growing shortage of men willing to do so. Last September, the Naval Academy produced only 92 male officers for submarine duty that required 120. Submariners must be volunteers, and satisfy strict physical, psychological and academic qualifications.

This would not be the first time female naval officers have serviced on American subs. There are twelve submarine qualified female officers in the navy. That is, they have taken all the training required for someone to serve on a submarine. There is a lot more training on the boat before you become part of a crew, but these women are qualified to serve for short periods. These women are technical specialists, and do serve for short periods on submarines, sharing a two person stateroom. Other navies (Australia, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Spain and Norway) allow women to serve on subs, but not all of these countries have had many, if any, women actually volunteer for the service.

The U.S. Navy has a unique situation, however, mainly the length of the cruises (even the SSNs, or attack boats, go out for a month or more per cruise). The nations that already allow women on subs, have non-nuclear boats that spend far less time at sea, each time they go out. The women on these sub crews have got used to the lack of privacy, and both genders have adapted, as has been the case with mixed crews on surface warships.

But the wives of American submariners have been openly hostile to the idea of mixed male/female crews, and have not been reluctant to make their concerns known. What the wives worry about is, well, sex. They know that this takes place on surface ships with mixed crews, and it has caused a few marriages to break up. Service on subs is even more claustrophobic and stressful. And there are far fewer places, compared to surface ships, for a couple to have some clandestine sex. But this sexual activity, even though banned on all USN warships, does happen.

The berthing problem seems to be overrated, as other navies have simply put a curtain or two up to separate the male and female berthing. The officers and senior NCOs have shared rooms, and if women are allowed to serve on American subs, it will be women officers at first, because that's where the greatest shortage is. Not a lot of men are willing to go through all the training and tests to qualify for a job as an enlisted sailor on a nuclear sub, and probably fewer women are interested

Collisions And The Curse Of The 1930s.

November 23, 2009: More details, of how the American submarine USS Hartford managed to collide with an American amphibious ship earlier this year, have leaked out. Nothing particularly surprising, because the captain and chief of the boat (senior NCO) were dismissed shortly after the March 20 collision. The 24,000 ton amphibious ship (the USS New Orleans, LPD 18) collided with the submerged Hartford (a 7,000 ton Lost Angeles class boat), in the narrow Straits of Hormuz. Fifteen sailors aboard the sub were injured, while a fuel tank on the LPD was torn open, and 25,000 gallons of fuel oil got into the water. The Hartford rolled 85 degrees right after the collision, and substantial damage was done to the sail, including a leak. The Hartford went to a Persian Gulf shipyard for emergency repairs (a metal brace for the sail, which was twisted so that it leaned to the right). Temporary decking, railing and antennas were added to the topside of the sub, to make it easier for the surface ride home. Nuclear subs rarely spend this much time on the surface. The accident happened at 1 AM, local time.

Initially, the accident was blamed on sloppy leadership by the captain, and the senior chief petty officer. The subsequent investigation found that lax discipline was tolerated on throughout the ship. This led to sloppiness. In particular, the crew did not take all the precautions mandated for passing through a narrow waterway like the Straits of Hormuz. The investigation found many specific errors the crew made, that contributed to the collision. This included supervisors not staying with the sonar operator, who, it turned out, was chatting with someone when the collision (that the sonar would have provided warning about) occurred. The navigator was doing something else, while listening to his iPod, while the officer in charge did not, as he was supposed to do, check the surface with the periscope. The list went on, and ultimately amounted to 30 errors in procedure.

It was an expensive accident, which has cost the U.S. Navy over $100 million for repairs. This included a hull patch, plus extensive repairs to the sail (that structure on top of the hull) and one of the retractable bow planes (a wing like device). It will take about a year to complete all the work. The damage to the amphibious ship (the USS New Orleans) was minor and repairs cost $2.3 million. The Hartford arrived back in Groton, Connecticut, from the Persian Gulf on May 21st. The Hartford took over a month to make the trip, because it has to do it all on the surface (SSNs move faster underwater, than on the surface.) This was because of the damage to the subs sail. The Hartford repairs are more than what it cost to replace the front end of the SSN San Francisco, which ran into a sea mount four years ago and stove in its sonar space (the front of the boat). A front end from a retiring SSN was taken and fitted on the San Francisco, costing about $80 million.

This is not the first time the Hartford has had an underwater misadventure. Six years ago the Hartford grounded itself while training off the Spanish coast. It was only after the sub was dry docked, that it was discovered how serious the damage was. The bottom half of the rudder was torn off, and the gouges in the hull were deeper than first thought. Although the sub was able to steam back to dry dock facilities at Groton, Connecticut, it had to do so at half speed, taking a month for a trip that normally is made in two weeks. The cause of that accident was sloppiness by the six sailors in the navigation team. Too much time was allowed to elapse between position updates and the sub went aground while navigating shallow coastal waters. All six sailors in the "navigation party" were punished for dereliction of duty. The captain of the sub, and his boss (the commander of Submarine Squadron 22, based in Spain), were both relieved of duty. The implication here is that the training and discipline of the navigation party were not up to standard, and the ship's captain and the squadron commander are responsible for training and discipline. The damage to the Hartford required expensive repairs to the hull and kept the sub out of service for nearly a year. The same thing is happening again.

All these accidents are part of a larger problem in the navy; finding and retaining sailors capable of running a nuclear submarine. Sub commanders are under a lot of pressure to keep their sailors from leaving the navy. But the long periods submarine sailors spend away from their families, creates pressure to get out and take a civilian job close to home. The submarine sailors are very capable, and highly trained, people. Getting a better paying civilian job is not a problem. So sub captains try to keep the crews happy. That often leads to lax discipline. And that often leads to these collisions. Many sub captains see this as a calculated risk, as they know that, in wartime, their highly skilled crews would snap together and do the job. But a sub commanders first priority, at least in peacetime, is the safety of his boat. In wartime, the mission comes first.

There's precedent for this. During the early days of World War II, the U.S. Navy had to replace most of its sub captains. These men had risen to their positions in the peacetime navy by doing things by the book and always adhering to procedure. But in combat, you needed much more flexible commanders, and these were the ones who came in and won the American submarine war in the Pacific.

In Pursuit Of Silence And Superiority

December 3, 2009: The U.S. Navy has revealed that the Chinese Navy has turned its attention to making its submarines quieter. For decades, the Chinese concentrated on just building subs (no easy feat, as few nations can do it) that were reliable enough for wartime use. In the last decade, China has sought to make its subs safe for peacetime use. There have been several bad failures of Chinese subs. In one recent case, the entire crew of one boat was asphyxiated when the diesel engines did not shut down as the sub dived. There have been numerous breakdowns while at sea, and many subs that don't leave port much because of reliability problems.

Diesel electric subs are intrinsically very quiet when underwater, operating on battery power. But the Chinese did not train their crews to be quiet when "running silent." This included tweaking the mechanical items, that run off battery power underwater, to be quiet. Thus U.S. ships, and especially nuclear subs, had an easy time detecting Chinese subs, even the diesel-electric ones running underwater.

This is all changing. Chinese dockyard workers and engineers are silencing noise making components. Crews are trained to operate silently when the ship is running under water. New nuclear boats are also being refurbished to increase quietness.

Despite all this, the U.S. Navy has found that Chinese subs are still noisier than Russian boats were 20-30 years ago. But if past performance is any guide, in 10-20 years, Chinese subs will be very quiet, and much more dangerous. China is in the process of expanding its sub fleet from about 60 boats to, over the next decade, 75 more modern ones.

Iran's submarines equipped with special weapons.

TEHRAN, Dec. 12 (MNA) -- Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari has said Iran's light submarines are equipped with special weapons and have special forces as part of their crews.Pointing to the country's significant progress in manufacturing submarines, Sayyari said that the Nuh, Yunus, and Tariq submarines as well as the light submarines of the Ghadir class are all produced in Iran. Elsewhere in his remarks, he said the country's warships deployed in the northern Indian Ocean carry helicopters on board that can be used whenever necessary, the Fars News Agency reported on Saturday.

Piracy has flourished over the past year in the busy Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean shipping lanes. Pirate gangs have seized several cargo ships and collected tens of millions of dollars in ransom for the safe release of crews and cargoes. The Iranian Navy has been conducting anti-piracy patrols in these areas for almost two years.

The Gulf of Aden - which links the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea - is an important energy corridor, particularly because Persian Gulf oil is shipped to the West through the Suez Canal.

Iran Buys North Korean Midget Submarines.

November 2, 2009 · Posted in Defence, Industry News.

The US Congressional Research Service suggests that Iran has purchased several midget submarines from North Korea. In June, the Iranian Navy commissioned its fourth, fifth and sixth units in its Qadi (also written Ghadir), r-class program, an indigenous midget submarine program which first became known in the west five years ago.

Military sources report that the North Korean miniature subs are capable of dropping small teams of commando forces on enemy shores, damaging large warships and mining the approaches of naval bases and harbours. They are capable of sowing EM-52 "rising mines" originally developed by China, which lurk on deep sea beds until triggered by a passing ship to release a missile which shoots up to strike its hull. This weapon substantially enhances the Iranian navies' menace, a development Israel will have take into account in the defense of its Mediterranean naval bases and commercial ports.

In 2005 Iran announced it would start production of its first indigenous submarine. In May 2005, Iran officially launched the production of its first locally built submarine, a craft capable of operating stealthily, state-run television reported. Defence Ministry spokesman Mohammad Imani was quoted as saying "the enemy would not be able to detect the submarine." He did not elaborate. One submarine had already been built and was shown on television, cruising at sea level. The Defence Ministry had commissioned an unspecified number of the craft that's been dubbed "Ghadir." The hull was launched in 2006. In 2007 the Iranian navy unveiled a submarine, named the Qadir (also written Ghadir), first of a number of planned midget submarines of the Yono class. Some observers suggested that the Qadir was otherwise similar to the North Korean Yugo boats, leading observers to suggest that this was an Iranian design based heavy on that class. But the Ghadir was 50% longer than the Yugo, and in fact resembled the North Korean Sang-O Class coastal submarines.

Iranian authorities asserted that the Qadir was an entirely Iranian design, and that the vessel could launch anti-ship missiles. Such a capability would have required the installation of more advanced systems into the submarine or the operation in concert with other vessels capable of guiding any such missiles. The Qadir does have provisions for mounting a Swimmer Delivery Vehicle (SDV), a type of craft that Iran has also developed.

Iran described the Ghadir as a "light" submarine, meaning it is smaller than the attack subs used by the United States. Iran has provided very little information about the craft, including its dimensions or the size of its crew.

The submarine, which is capable of operating in the Persian Gulf and Oman seawaters, can launch both missiles and torpedoes at the same time, the television reported, without specifying the range of the projectiles. In December 2004, Iran announced the production of a line of stealth torpedoes that could be launched from helicopters, ships or submarines. Iranian officials have repeatedly said the Islamic Republic will defend itself should the United States or archrival Israel initiate any aggression. Pressure has mounted on Iran recently with suspicion over its nuclear program which Washington suspects is aimed at building unconventional weapons, a charge Iranian officials vehemently deny.

In November 2007 Iran claimed to have built a small submarine equipped with sonar-evading technology, saying the craft had been launched in the Persian Gulf. The navy chief, Adm. Habibollah Sayyari, was quoted by state television as saying the new Ghadir-class submarine is the second Iranian-built underwater craft outfitted with "state-of-the-art electronic equipment." He said it took 10 years to build.

Iran's Naval Submarine fleet will be equipped with a new domestically manufactured submarine, the senior Iranian navy commander said in August 2008. Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said that Iranian technicians have used indigenous technology to build the new submarine. He did not specify the class of the new submarine. Iran's Navy currently operates Ghadir and Nahang (meaning whale in Persian) submarines. According to Rear Adm. Sayyari, the Ghadir submarine is equipped with the latest military and technological equipments.

On 26 November 2008 the Commander of the Islamic Republic Army's Navy Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said that in next 15 days another Ghadir class submarine would be delivered to the Navy. Sayyari told reporters after touring IRNA head office that the submarine has been designed and built by Marine Industries Organization. He said moreover, a light submarine will join the Navy's fleet on the Navy Day. He added that once the submarines join the Navy, its deterrent power deep inside the sea will increase dramatically. This would mark possibly the fourth submarine in this class.

Reportedly being mass produced [supposedly at a cost of $18 million each], the first of this class, Ghadir, has been paraded for the press. Although generally described as a mini-submarine, it is rather larger that Iran's other mini-subs. The Ghadir, with an estimated displacement estimated at between 120 tons and 500 tons, is probably better described as a littoral submarine, similar in concept to the Italian Sauro class though significantly smaller. Photographs indicate it has a pair of bow torpedo tubes which appear to be 21" allowing them to fire typical heavyweight torpedoes. It could thus serve as a launch platform for the infamous Shkval rocket torpedo, which has been transferred to Iran.

Iran subs get boost from North Korea

The U.S. Navy, worried by Iran's increasing underwater capability, has revealed for the first time that the rogue nation has acquired its submarine technology largely from North Korea, which has provided both mini-submarines and manufacturing know-how, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

The revelation comes as the Office of Naval Intelligence, or ONI, recently released its latest report on Iran's conventional navy, with the observation that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, is working on programs to achieve an underwater stealth capability.

"Submarines will probably remain a key feature of Iran's naval order of battle," the ONI report said. "Iran is the only country in the Persian Gulf region with submarines, and Iranian naval leaders have stated publicly that they believe submarines are a better value than other weapons systems." ONI made its disclosures in a report titled, "Iran's Naval Forces: From Guerrilla Warfare to a Modern Naval Strategy." For undisclosed reasons, however, that report later was removed from the ONI website.

For some two decades, North Korea has been known to be involved in developing midget submarines primarily for special operations purposes.

Indeed, the Department of Defense in the late 1980s was involved in halting the export of a mini-submarine from Germany to North Korea. North Korean sailors were in Germany at the time testing the craft on the Rhein River when the export and testing was halted at high political levels at U.S. initiative.

It is possible that North Korea developed its indigenous production know-how from Germany. Today, North Korea not only indigenously produces mini-submarines but is known to have exported its know-how - as it has done with its missile technology - to certain countries, such as Iran.

Iran itself is known to have been looking for a long time for mini-submarine technology and in the 1980s initially had gone to an Italian firm which also was assisting Iraq's Saddam Hussein at the time in developing a production capability.

Iran and Pakistan similarly have been involved in acquiring and sharing the Italian technology to produce their own mini-submarines.

The ONI report said that Iran had acquired the Kajami and Gahjae-class semi-submersible from North Korea. The North Koreans refer to the Kajami class as the Taedong-B and call the Gahjae-class semi-submersible the Taedong-C.

Iran reportedly has a small number of the Taedong-Bs and Taedong-Cs. Both are said to be equipped with lightweight torpedoes which have a range of between 3.7 miles to 6.2 miles.

These boats are designed to wait, partially submerged, for a target, then attack at high speed on the surface, or approach at high speed and then submerge for the final stage of the attack.

Japanese Mini Sub found.

The remains of a Japanese mini-submarine that participated in the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor have been discovered, researchers are to report today, offering strong evidence that the sub fired its torpedoes at Battleship Row. That could settle a long-standing argument among historians.

Five mini-subs were to participate in the strike, but four were scuttled, destroyed or run aground without being a factor in the attack. The fate of the fifth has remained a mystery. But a variety of new evidence suggests that the fifth fired its two 800-pound torpedoes, most likely at the battleships West Virginia and Oklahoma, capsizing the latter. A day later, researchers think, the mini-sub's crew scuttled it in nearby West Loch.

The loch was also the site of a 1944 disaster in which six tank landing ships preparing for the secret invasion of Saipan were destroyed in an ammunition explosion that killed 200 sailors and wounded hundreds more.

When the Navy scooped up the remains of the so-called LSTs and dumped them outside the harbor to protect the secrecy of the invasion, it apparently also dumped the mini-sub's remains, which were mingled with the damaged U.S. ships.

The two-man, 80-foot-long sub in question [of the Ko-hyoteki class] does not have a name of its own. Each of the five subs in the attack was carried by a conventional submarine and took its name from the mother boat. It is thus called the I-16-tou -- tou being Japanese for boat. Powered by a 600-horsepower electric motor, the sub could reach underwater speeds of 19 knots, twice as fast as many of the U.S. subs of the day.

The Japanese navy modified net cutters on the subs for specific missions, and the one on the wreck was identical to those on the other mini-subs.No torpedoes were found on the wreck, and evidence suggests that they were not present when the boat was sunk. A newly declassified photograph taken by a Japanese plane during the attack appeared to show a mini-sub firing a torpedo into Battleship Row. A report to Congress in 1942 by Adm. Chester W. Nimitz describes an unexploded 800-pound torpedo recovered after the battle. That's twice the size carried by the torpedo bombers.

That torpedo was apparently a dud that missed the West Virginia.

But an examination of the remains of the Oklahoma shows that it apparently had underwater damage much larger than that associated with aerial torpedoes. An underwater blast would have caused it to capsize, Stephenson said. "Otherwise it would have settled to the bottom upright," like the other sunken ships.

Five of the Ko-hyoteki midget submarines were used to attack Pearl Harbor. Some were captured in wrecked condition shortly after the attack, like this one, washed up on the beach at Oahu. Others were discovered many years later, like this one salvaged by USS Current in 1960 from Keehi Lagoon, Hawaii. One midget submarine was claimed as sunk by the destroyer USS Ward on the morning of the Pearl Harbor attack. Long dismissed, her claim was ultimately verified by the discovery of the wreck of the submarine she attacked, with shell holes precisely where the Ward claimed to have hit her. The photograph below shows the Ward's victim on the seabed. The Ko-hyoteki class midget submarines were also used to attack the harbor in Sydney, Australia, in 1942.

Ballard.

The man who located the wreck of the Titanic has revealed that the discovery was a cover story to camouflage the real mission of inspecting the wrecks of two Cold War nuclear submarines. When Bob Ballard led a team that pinpointed the wreckage of the liner in 1985 he had already completed his main task of finding out what happened to USS Thresher and USS Scorpion.

Both of the United States Navy vessels sank during the 1960s, killing more than 200 men and giving rise to fears that at least one of them, Scorpion, had been sunk by the USSR. Dr Ballard, an oceanographer, has admitted that he located and inspected the wrecks for the US Navy in top secret missions before he was allowed to search for the Titanic. Only once he had used his new underwater robot craft to map the submarine wreck sites was he able to use it to crisscross the North Atlantic seabed to pinpoint the last resting place of the luxury liner. It meant he had only 12 days to find the Titanic.

Dr Ballard said what he had seen during the inspection of the wrecks gave him the idea of finding a trail of debris that would lead to the main sections of the Titanic. Thresher, had imploded deep beneath the surface and had broken up into thousands of pieces and Scorpion was almost as completely destroyed. "It was as though it had been put through a shredding machine. There was a long debris trail." Dr Ballard developed a robotic submarine craft in the early 1980s and approached the US Navy in 1982 for funding to search for the Titanic, which sank in 1912 with the loss of 1,500 lives after hitting an iceberg.

He was told that the military were not willing to spend a fortune on locating the liner, but they did want to know what had happened to their submarines.The military were anxious to know how the nuclear reactors had been affected by being submerged for so long.

During the 1980s the nuclear submarine fleet was reduced after the Salt II (strategic arms limitation talks) agreement and one option was to sink unwanted reactors at sea. Dr Ballard said that samples taken from the reactor sections of both submarines showed that there was little risk to the environment from radioactivity. The oceanographer was given the funding to embark on two expeditions, one to find the wreck of Thresher in 1984 off the eastern coast of the US and another to find Scorpion in the eastern Atlantic.

Thresher, the US Navy's most advanced attack submarine at the time, sank with all her 129 crew in April 1963 while undergoing seaworthiness tests after dockyard repairs. A surface ship, Skylark, was in contact when the submarine's crew reported that a high-pressure pipe supplying the nuclear reactor with cooling water had blown. The accident 1,000ft down, caused the vessel to lose power. It then sank so deep that the pressure hull imploded.

Scorpion disappeared with 99 crew in 1968, and there had been speculation that it was sunk by Soviet forces. Dr Ballard's visual examination of the wreck site showed that the most likely cause of its destruction was being hit by a rogue torpedo that it had fired itself.

Britain’s special forces to get mini-sub.

The combat divers of Britain’s Special Boat Service (SBS) will soon be getting some new transport. The “shallow water combat submersible” (SWCS) will be able to carry six frogmen for 100 miles at depths of up to 300ft. Studded with sonar sensors, the lightweight mini-sub is designed to detect and evade an enemy, before landing special forces under its nose.

swcs

Brought to a war zone by a larger submarine, a surface vessel or even an aircraft, the stealth-equipped mini-sub will take specialists in reconnaissance, assassination or demolition close to a hostile coast or vessel. It is being designed for America’s equivalent of the SBS, the Navy Seals. This unit will replace the Seals’ and the SBS’s US-made “swimmer delivery system”, known as the Mk VIII boat. The 22ft, electrically powered Mk VIII is ridden by a crew exposed to the sea and owes a design debt to the midget submarines developed by Britain and Japan during the second world war. Sadly, its electronics are nearly as old, dating back to its conception in the mid-1970s. Its replacement, which will also doubtless be shared by the two forces, also “runs wet” — that is, floods with water once launched, saving the trouble of fitting an airlock. It will benefit from recent developments in electronic warfare, possessing a miniaturised Doppler sonar, the sonic equivalent of radar, able to provide a three-dimensional image of the sub’s surroundings. Coupled with data provided by motion sensors, it will allow the boat’s powerful computers to navigate underwater in zero visibility and with unprecedented accuracy, without the need to surface to obtain visual references or a sat nav fix. Unlike the Mk VIII, the submersible will have the ability to raise a periscope — but this won’t be an old-school optical version. Instead it will use video imaging technology. Before the main part of this sensor mast even breaks the surface, a whisker-like antenna attached to the top will poke above the waves and sniff for radar activity. If it detects an enemy sweep, the boat dives and moves somewhere safer before repeating the process. Passive sonar sensors on the exterior and a sound-absorbing fibreglass hull help it to evade detection underwater, and battery-powered electric motors allow it to run almost silent. The mini-sub will be equipped with a pair of smart, torpedo-like probes. Using side-scanning sonar, they can scout the waters on each side of the boat, returning either to the mini-sub or its host vessel at the end of a mission.

The stealthiest way of launching the mini-sub will be underwater, via another submarine. Like the Mk VIII boat, it will emerge from a dry deck station, an airtight cylinder that can be fitted onto a larger submarine in hours, or even dropped directly into the ocean from a cargo plane. Two such stations will be piggy-backed on the US Navy’s new SSGN boats — Ohio-class nuclear missile submarines that have been fitted for Seal operations. “SSGNs are a brilliant idea,” says Lewis Page, defence correspondent for The Register, a technology news website. “The Navy had these four boats lying around after the Salt arms reduction talks made them redundant, so they stripped out their ballistic missiles and replaced them with 154 non-nuclear Tomahawk cruise missiles. This also left enough space to accommodate more than 100 Seal frogmen and mission specialists.”

Britain, meanwhile, will be launching its first SBS stealth sub by 2013 from the Royal Navy’s latest Astute-class nuclear submarines, the first of which is expected to go into service in 2009.

Atlantis submarines to cease operations in USVI.

ST THOMAS, USVI -- Atlantis Adventures, which operates Atlantis Submarine and catamaran excursions from St Thomas, has confirmed to the government of the US Virgin Islands their plans to discontinue its submarine excursion operations in St Thomas on May 31. 2009. “We’re disappointed to learn that Atlantis has decided to discontinue its St Thomas operation after 24 years,” said Beverly Nicholson-Doty “We remain committed to supporting this very important sector of our tourism product and will continue to provide broad based destination marketing initiatives for the territory. According to Atlantis Adventures, it is discontinuing its submarine operations in St Thomas only, not the catamaran excursions.

STEVE DROGIN

Steve Drogin suffered a fatal heart attack on April 14. After building his own submersible, a three-person yellow submarine, Deep See, he provided funding to enable three Scripps students to travel and spend 10 days around Cocos Island, Costa Rica, exploring the wonders of the sea. in his submarine. In summer 2008, Steve brought his submarine to the Sea of Cortez, where he participated in a research expedition that revealed the Gulf of California's Deep Sea secrets as well as human impacts. The DeepSee submersible allowed scientists to survey marine life with its 360-degree glass dome at depths as extensive as 475 meters (1,500 feet).

Point Loma scientists on team taking vehicle to the deepest place on Earth

June 3, 2009

The unmanned submersible Nereus could be sent on its deepest dive today, the conclusion of a two-week mission made possible in part by Navy engineers in Point Loma. (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) -

A team of researchers are taking the unmanned submersible Nereus to the lowest point on Earth. That spot is the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench southwest of Guam, which has been explored only twice before. At nearly 36,000 feet, it's a mile deeper than Mount Everest is tall. Navy engineers created a fiber-optic tether 25 miles long and scarcely thicker than a human hair to stream computerized instructions to Nereus and receive data and high-definition video feeds in return. The new fiber-optic line is 10 times as strong as steel, weighs almost nothing and fits inside a canister the size of two coffee cans. It is adapted from technology the Navy has been developing at the Point Loma facility since the late 1970s for uses such as communicating with submarines and aiming torpedoes. To control Nereus, operators use a conventional cable to drop the submersible and the fiber-optic canister to a depth of nearly 20,000 feet. The fiber-optic tether spools out from there, dropping with the twin-hulled vehicle to the ocean floor. Those sites have been unreachable in recent years because the Trieste was retired in 1966 (it is now on display at the Smithsonian Institution) and the Kaiko was lost in a storm in 2003 because of a broken tether. NEREUS AUV.is an Unmanned, deep-sea submersible. Length: 14 feet. Width: 8 feet. Height: 4 feet. Weight: 3 tons. Speed: 3.5 mph. Power: lithium ion rechargeable batteries. Operation: 24 hours on each 12-hour battery charge.

Submarine rescue system delivered to Australia.

A submarine rescue system that will cut response time for underwater emergencies was delivered to Australia. The LR5 submarine rescue system from Britain had previously been "on-call" but was on the other side of the world if needed. The LR5 is a manned submersible in operation with the British Royal Navy. It is designed for retrieving sailors from stranded submarines and is capable of rescuing 16 at a time. The system will be used as part of the RAN's yearly submarine escape and rescue drill known as "Black Carillon" later this year. The arrival of LR5 comes as the government begins to consider the make-up of its fleet ahead of the decommissioning of the Collins Class submarines. The Australian government has foreshadowed the purchase of 12 new conventionally powered submarines. While having the LR5 submarine rescue system on call in the United Kingdom met the Navy’s requirements for responding to Submarine emergencies, the relocation improves response times and allows the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) to exercise the capability with Collins Class Submarines. The ancillary equipment for the LR5 suite arrived in Australia by a chartered 747 last week and the LR5 rescue vehicle by RAAF C17 Heavy Air Lift this week. The current Navy support vessels have already been modified to deploy the LR5 rescue system.
The LR5 has mated safely on many occasions with submarines fitted with the standard NATO rescue seat, which is fitted to most submarines, including Collins Class.

DRUG SUBS.

In the last three years, U.S., and other navy and coast guard ships off the coast between Mexico and Colombia, have detected over 120 of these subs. Between 2000 and 2007, only 23 of these boats were spotted. But last year, nearly 70 were detected or captured. The numbers are up these year as well, with 37 caught so far this year, with six caught so far this month. Many of the captures are the result of intelligence information at the source, not air and naval patrols out there just looking for them. These boats are hard to spot (by aircraft or ships), which is why they are being used more often. It's estimated that about 75 of these subs are being built in northwest Colombia each year, and sent on one-way trips north. Each of these boats carries a four-man crew and about seven tons of cocaine (worth nearly $200 million on the street). The loss of each boat and its cargo cost the Colombian drug cartels over $10 million in costs (of building the boat and producing the drugs). Running these boats is not as dangerous as they used to be, but the crews are still paid well if they succeed, often over $100,000 each. Because of the risks with the early designs (about ten percent were believed lost at sea), the boats were nicknamed "coffins." The crews are told to pull the plug (literally) and sink the boat (and its cargo) if spotted and about to be boarded. Even with the boarding party on the way, jumping off a sinking boat, usually at night, is dangerous. U.S. laws have been changed so that the crews escaping from their sinking boats, can still be charged with drug smuggling (despite the loss of the evidence). This, plus the new Colombian laws, is why the drug gangs are looking into automating the boats, so that no crew is needed at all.

These are not submarines in the true sense of the word, but "semi-submersibles". They are 60 foot long and 12 feet wide, fiberglass boats, powered by a diesel engine, with a very low freeboard, and a small "conning tower", providing the crew (usually of four), and engine, with fresh air, and enabling the crew to navigate. A boat of this type is the only practical kind of submarine for drug smuggling. A real submarine, capable of carrying five tons of cocaine, would cost a lot more, and require a highly trained crew. Moreover, a conventional sub actually spends most of its time running on the surface anyway, or just beneath it using a snorkel device to obtain air for the diesel engine crew. So the drug subs get the most benefit of a real submarine (which cost about $300 million these days) at a fraction of the cost. The semi-submersibles are built, often using specially made components brought in from foreign countries, in areas along the Colombian coast, or other drug gang controlled territory nearby. Early on, Russian naval architects and engineers were discovered among those designing and building these boats. But that did not last, as the Russian designs were too complex and expensive. Instead, local boat builders created and refined the current design. Some foreign experts have been seen in the area, apparently to help the boat builders with some technical problem. These subs cost over $700,000 to construct, and carry up to ten tons of cocaine. The boat builders are getting rich, constructing the boats in well-hidden locations up the rivers that empty into the Pacific. Colombian security forces are bringing more troops into this coastal areas, and in one recent week, found five of these subs (completed or under construction.) Troops and police are also going after the materials (fiberglass) needed to build the boats, and the suppliers who are getting the building materials for the gangs. This could force the gangs down the coast, to Ecuador, but the coast there, and local conditions, are not as conducive to sub building. So the gangs are fighting hard to keep the army away from the dozens of hidden submarine building "yards" along the Colombian coast.

The one trip these craft undertake, will usually be for about a thousand kilometers, with the boat moving at a speed of 15-25 kilometers an hour. The average trip will take about two weeks, because the boats have learned to go very slowly during the day, to avoid leaving a wake that U.S. airborne sensors can detect. In the past, some subs making long-range trips were caught while being towed by a larger ship. Apparently the plan was to tow a semi-submersible, loaded with a ten-ton cocaine cargo, long distances, and then is cut it loose for the final approach to the shore of California or some area in Europe or on the east coast of North America. While the subs are most frequently used from the Pacific coast of Colombia, they are showing up elsewhere as well. The technology has already spread. One of these boats was discovered under construction in Spain four years ago, by a local drug gang, to bring cocaine ashore from a seagoing ship far out at sea in international waters. GPS makes these kinds of operations possible.

But the stealthy boats are a concern to counter-terror officials. Bombs and terrorists can be transported in these vessels, and the technology for building them can be, and perhaps already has, spread to terrorist groups. The technology is improving as well. Recently captured boats had a system installed that cooled the engine exhaust, making it more difficult for infrared (heat) sensors to spot it. Thus the U.S. Navy is putting a lot of effort into improving its sensors and search techniques, for finding these boats.

Ictineu Submarines.

In1859 Spanish inventor Narcis Monturiol launched the first submarine in Barcelona harbour. Called the Ictineo, it was an olive wood and copper ellipsoid enclosed in an outer hull. Length 7m, ten-ton displacement and accommodated six people. Diving depth 50m. The submarine performed 68 dives without incident.

In 1864 a second submarine was built. 17m long, 72 tons displacement, with anaerobic engine that was able to produce steam for propulsion and breathable oxygen. Today (150 years later) the firm Ictineu Submarines (based in Barcelona) is developing a modern submarine for scientific research that will be launched in 2009.

Mysteries of the Deep.

This is an interesting book from Progress Publishers (Moscow), 1989. Book code for ordering ISBN5-01-001150-6.

Two Nuclear Submarines collide in the Atlantic.

A Royal Navy nuclear submarine was involved in a collision in the middle of the Atlantic, it was reported. The crash between HMS Vanguard and French submarine Le Triomphant, which was also carrying nuclear warheads, is believed to have occurred on 3rd February 2009. Despite being equipped with sonar to detect other vessels, neither submarine apparently realised the other was in the same part of the ocean. HMS Vanguard and Le Triomphant are understood to have both been severely damaged in the underwater accident earlier this month. Both are fitted with state-of-the-art technology aimed at detecting other submarines, but it apparently failed completely. Each boat is a key part of their respective county's nuclear deterrent, ready to unleash their destructive weapons at a moment's notice. French Navy sources confirm that Le Triomphant, one of four strategic nuclear submarines of the so-called "Force de Frappe", was returning from a 70 day tour of duty when the incident occurred. It happened in heavy seas, and in the middle of the night and left Le Triomphant's sonar dome all but destroyed. The sonar dome should have detected the Vanguard but Le Triomphant's crew of 101 claimed to have "neither saw nor heard anything". Le Triomphant took at least three days to limp back to her home port, while HMS Vanguard returned to her home base in Faslane, in Scotland. With a complement of 135 crew, she is the lead boat of the Vanguard class of submarines which carry Trident ballistic missiles around the world. Le Triomphant is also the lead ship in her own class of Triomphant nuclear submarines. Each carries 16 M45 ballistic missiles, weighs 35 tons each, carries six warheads and has a range of around 5,000 miles. France's Atlantic coast is notorious for being a "submarine graveyard" because of the number of underwater craft, mainly German U-boats, sunk in the area during the Second World War.

HMS Vanguard: Two British and French nuclear submarines collided in heavy seas in the Atlantic.

Both navies want quiet areas, deep areas, roughly the same distance from their home ports. So you find these station grounds have got quite a few submarines, not only French and Royal Navy but also from Russia and the United States.

In 1992, the US nuclear submarine USS Baton Rouge was struck by a surfacing Russian nuclear sub in the Barents Sea.

When the nuclear submarine HMS Trafalgar ran aground during a training exercise off the coast of Skye in 2002, the damage was estimated at £5m ($7m).

HMS Vanguard completed a two-year refit completed in 2007 as part of a £5bn contract, and is not due to be replaced until 2024.

HMS Vanguard and Le Triomphant

HMS VANGUARD

Launched in 1992

One of four British submarines carrying Trident nuclear missiles

Displacement (submerged) 16,000 tonnes, 150m (492ft) long

Can carry 48 nuclear warheads on a maximum of 16 missiles

Full crew is 145, including 14 officers

Submerged speed of 25 knots

LE TRIOMPHANT

Launched in 1994

One of four French ballistic missile nuclear-powered subs

Displacement (submerged) 14,000 tonnes, 138m (452ft) long

Can carry 16 ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads

Full crew is 110, including 15 officers

Submerged speed over 25 knots

Jacques Piccard (Scientist Who Explored the Deep) Dies at 86.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (Published: November 1, 2008). GENEVA (AP) - Jacques Piccard, a scientist and underwater explorer who plunged deeper beneath the ocean than any other man, died Saturday. He was 86. Exploration ran in the Piccard family. Mr. Piccard's father, Auguste, a physicist, was the first man to take a balloon into the stratosphere. His son, Bertrand, was the first man to fly a balloon non-stop around the world. Jacques Piccard helped his father invent the bathyscaphe, a vessel that allows people to descend to great depths. On Jan. 23, 1960, he and Lt. Don Walsh of the United States Navy took the vessel, named the Trieste, into the Mariana Trench in the Pacific to a depth of 35,800 feet, nearly seven miles below sea level. It remains the deepest human dive ever. "By far the most interesting find was the fish that came floating by our porthole," Mr. Piccard said. "We were astounded to find higher marine life forms down there at all." After the dive, Mr. Piccard continued to research the deep seas and worked for NASA. He also built four mid-depth submarines, mesoscaphes, including the first tourist submarine. During the Swiss National Exhibition in 1964, he took 33,000 passengers into the depths of Lake Geneva.

Brazil to buy five submarines from France. These will include four conventional attack Scorpene submarines, and one nuclear powered submarine. The submarines will be used to patrol territorial waters offshore Brazil.

Explosion onboard the USN SEAL delivery vehicle. This adds to the long list of problems for the mini-sub. A battery fire on 9/11/08 while charging the lithium batteries burnt for six hours. The ASDA programme was cancelled in 2006, but this existing mini-sub was kept and to be deployed onboard the guided missile submarine Michigan. The mini - sub was conditionally accepted by the USN after the cost ballooned from the original US$70m to US$880m in 2007………….

Pakistan Submarine. In the autumn of 2008, Pakistan commissioned its latest submarine Hamza. This sub is their third Agosta-90B class boat, designed by the French, but built in Pakistan.

Iran Navy Submarines. Iran is to build a new class of 1000-ton submarine called the Qaeem Class. These subs will be capable of firing missiles and Shkval rocket torpedoes. The first unit will be delivered in 2011, with four more units by 2018.

Drug Subs. Drug smugglers using semi-subs have become more common, as they can enter US waters virtually undetected. A 2008 craft captured by the Mexican Navy carried four crew and six tons of cocaine.

S. Korean Navy DSRV. A new DSRV has been delivered to the S. Korean Navy (ROK). Built to Lloyds rules by James Fisher Defence, and dive tested to 507m. This unit can lock onto a distressed submarine and transfer 16 crew members under pressure, and recover them to the surface. The mothership will be the Chung-Hae-Jin.

Singapore launches Sub Rescue vessel. Singapore launched their submarine rescue mothership “Swift Rescue” on 28 November 2008. The vessel is 85m long, DP2, heli pad, and will have a DSRV with an operational depth of 500m.

NATO Submarine Rescue System. The new NSRS has completed diving trials of France and Norway as part of a NATO exercise. Dives were carried out to a depth of 600m in Hardanger Fjord, to mate with an underwater target.

The Deep Voyage. This is a book written by Will Forman. A story about an international submarine race that takes the hero into a world of undersea adventure, sabotage, intrigue and danger. Publisher Author House. ISBN 1-4208-9329-7.

Drug Running Semi-sub Captured. The US Navy intercepted a self-propelled semi-submersible carrying seven tons of cocaine. The unit was intercepted at night, 350 miles off the coast of Guatemala. Four smugglers from Columbia were captured by the navy. The semi-submersible was 60ft in length, had a speed of 13 knots and a 2500 mile range.

Russia - More submarines to be built. Russia has announced that it intends to build more nuclear powered submarines. Vladimir Putin will increase the military budget for 2009 by 28%.

Chinese DSRV completes diving trials at Fort William. A DSRV (LR7) built by Perry Slingsby for the Chinese Navy has completed diving trials at Fort William. Operating depth is 300m plus. Length 25 feet. Capable of rescuing 18 personnel. Powered by Zebra Batteries that have a longer duration and mission profile than normal lead-acid batteries.

AUV surveys the Deep. Scientists from Woods Hole (WHOI) completed their first mission with the AUV Sentry, a newly developed robot capable of dives to 5000m. The unit is a free-swimming robot that operates without a tether, and is programmed for deep-water surveys. The Auv can also hover over the seafloor for close up inspections when required. Funding for the vehicle was provided by NSF.

Internet Control of Rov. Internet users can now reach under the sea to pilot a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) docked at an unmanned experimental laboratory based off Vancouver Island. Conceived by the Ocean Technology Laboratory team at the University of Victoria, the subsea hub platform is the first undersea laboratory with its own resident ROV. Real-time access over the Internet will allow researchers to monitor or conduct tests on equipment from anywhere in the world. The subsea laboratory − called an Ocean Technology Test Bed (OTTB) − is designed to exploit the potential of the Internet in accessing subsea research projects relating to the development of ocean technologies. Linked to the VENUS Observatory Node in Patricia Bay off Vancouver Island, the OTTB consists of a recoverable platform with connection points for power and communication; a service buoy for raising and lowering the platform; and an integrated acoustic system (IAS) for wireless communication and 3D tracking. The OTTB is located in 100m of water and has an operating area that spans 2.5 square kilometres, within which the IAS provides precision 3D tracking via a number of cabled acoustic monitoring satellites. The OTTB was designed and built by a team at the Ocean Technology Laboratory. This group develops undersea technology including underwater structural design, autonomous underwater vehicles and underwater acoustics. Contact: Alison Proctor, University of Victoria, proctora@me.uvic.ca

Twenty die on Russian submarine.

At least 20 people have died in an accident on a Russian nuclear submarine when a fire extinguishing system was activated by mistake. Russian Pacific Fleet spokesman Igor Dygalo said both sailors and shipyard workers died in the accident, which occurred during sea trials. The dead were suffocated by freon gas, which is used to put out fires as it removes oxygen from the air. The vessel was not damaged and there was no radiation leak, Mr. Dygalo said. It is the worst incident for the navy since the sinking of the Kursk submarine in 2000, which left 118 dead.

There were 208 people on board at the time, 81 of which were servicemen. The dead are reported to be six sailors and 14 civilians. Twenty-one injured people, reported to be suffering from various degrees of poisoning, were transferred from the submarine to the destroyer Admiral Tributs and taken to hospitals near Vladivostok. The dead were transferred to morgues nearby after the vessel, which had been undergoing sea trials in the Sea of Japan, returned to port at Bolshoi Kamen, near Vladivostok, in the far eastern Primorsky territory. Capt Dygalo said the incident happened after the fire extinguishing system "went off unsanctioned". The gas removes oxygen from the air - to put out the fire - but if anyone is still trapped inside that area, they face suffocation. Vladimir Markin, an official from Russia's top investigative agency, later said forensic tests had confirmed that freon was the cause of death. Reports say the incident occurred in the nose of the submarine. The nuclear reactor, which is in the stern, was not affected. A shipyard source told the RIA Novosti news agency the vessel was the K-152 Nerpa, an Akula-class submarine, but this has not been confirmed. The Nerpa is due to be leased to the Indian navy, and Indian naval personnel were due to travel to Vladivostok earlier this month to train on board the submarine ahead of its transfer, according to the website Indian Defence. Russia's worst submarine disaster happened in August 2000, when the nuclear-powered Kursk sank in the Barents Sea. All 118 people on board died. The then president, Vladimir Putin, was criticised for being slow to react to the incident and reluctant to call in foreign assistance.

RUSSIAN SUBMARINE DISASTERS.

6 Sept 2006: Two die after fire in Viktor-III class Daniil Moskovsky.

28 Aug 2003: Nine die after decommissioned November class K-159 sinks.

12 Aug 2000: 118 die in sinking of Oscar-II class Kursk.

7 Apr 1989: 42 die after fire in Soviet-era Komsomolets.

US Navy Special Ops Mini-Subs to be Built. The US Navy has a US$320 million tender going out for the build of four mini special operation subs. These units will carry divers and their equipment from a mother craft to the attack target.

Italian Navy. The Italian Navy has approval for two Type 212A submarines, the second batch of submarines that are part of a US$1.45 billion contract for four submarines. The first two have already been delivered, the next two are expected in 2016.

SEAL Delivery Vehicle. The US Navy has commenced sea trials of the first new ASDS vehicle. Operating with the USS Michigan (SSN-727) a converted Ohio class cruise missile submarine, designed to carry SEAL teams on covert operations.

US Navy Rescue System. Oceanworks states that it has recently completed certification of the new US navy submarine rescue system, for manned operations to 2000ft. Following a seven-year development programme. The rescue system was also recently used on a NATO rescue exercise (Bold Monarch) off Norway. The rescue system conducted thirteen dives and mated with submarines from three nations.

South Korean Subs. South Korea will exchange two Type 209 Chanbogo attack submarines for aircraft from Indonesia.

US Navy Donates Research Sub. The US Navy has donated the decommissioned research submarine USS Dolphin (AGSS 555) to the San Diego maritime museum. The 65-foot diesel electric submarine served for thirty years supporting naval research operations, and was one of the world's deepest diving military submarines operating to 3000ft.

Sir Richard Branson is Voyaging to the Bottom of the Sea.

Last week Virgin revealed they had set up a "Skunk Works" division similar to Lockheed Martin's cutting edge research lab, with secret plans to build a submarine capable of exploring the lowest depths of the oceans. Alex Tai, a former pilot who was chief operating officer of Virgin Galactic, Branson's space-tourism business, heads the division. A Virgin insider said the ocean venture was one of several launches being considered and was in its early planning stage. Only a handful of submersibles are capable of reaching the lower ocean depths. They include America's Alvin, Japan's Shinkai, France's Nautile and Finland's MIR submersibles, which can dive to a maximum of 20,000ft. Oceans cover three-quarters of our planet, more than half are over 10,000ft deep and, according to a US government report, 95% remain unexplored. Among the many things that subs could discover are vast mineral deposits and unknown life forms. .

NATO Submarine Rescue System (NSRS).

Rolls-Royce has conducted the first open water trial of the groundbreaking new NATO Submarine Rescue System (NSRS) at the Underwater Centre in Fort William, UK. Scheduled for service in 2008 and jointly developed and funded by the NATO countries of France, Norway and the UK, NSRS comprises of a remotely operated submersible or ROV that locates and establishes underwater communications with the distressed submarine. A larger manned Submarine Rescue Vehicle (SRV) then docks with the submarine and rescues the crew, and finally aboard the mothership, a decompression system is used to treat up to 72 rescues simultaneously. The development of the new Submarine Rescue System follows a number of high profile incidents involving stricken submarines, most notably the Kursk disaster in 2000 that resulted in the tragic death of 118 Russian Navy crew.

Military Submarine News.
The building of the first French Navy 5,300 ton, 99m long, Barracuda class
nuclear powered attack submarine (named Suffren) is underway at Cherbourg in
France. The navy as an option for six submarines, at a cost of US$1.86 billion
each. Sea trials are scheduled for 2016.

China will soon commission two new Shang-class (Type 093) nuclear powered attack
submarines. Also one Jin-class (type 094) ballistic missile nuclear powered
submarine. This is China's first step towards establishing a sea-based nuclear
retaliatory capability.

Northrup has delivered the forth Virginia class submarine to the US. Navy. A
total of thirty submarines are planned to be built.

VESSELS FOR SALE.

Fast Landing Craft / Dive vessel. Ex navy. Speed up to 18 knots. Can carry 40
passengers under deck as a crew boat, carry 9 metric tons of cargo on deck, or
be used as a small re-supply vessel. Will make an excellent general purpose /
dive boat, subject to new owner requirements and internal arrangement. Port and
starboard forward landing platforms, for beach access or water entry/exit for
divers. Heads and wash hand basin. The vessel is under the 24m-workboat code and
is therefore very easy to operate as no special crew is required. Dimensions
LOA: 21m, Beam: 4m, Draft: 1m, Displacement: 31 ton. The vessel is powered by
twin Volvo Penta Diesel engines (Type TAMD-122A, 294kw, 394HP). Range: 2000
miles. Fuel capacity is 2x1750 liters. The vessel is in good condition and has
few running hours.

Dive/Rov support vessel. Converted navy mine sweeper. Recently refurbished to an
extremely high standard. LOA: 45m. Breadth 8.4m. Draft: 1.8m. Gross tonnage 436
tons. Twin Mirrlees JVSS V12 diesel engines. Combined 2500Bhp. 18-ton bollard
pull. Fuel capacity 54 tons. Range 3500nm. Full navigation and communications
equipment. 9-ton knuckle crane. Cargo deck area 155sq.m for containers and
diving equipment. Accommodation for 36 passengers and 12 crew. Please contact us
for details.

SUBMARINE SUPPORT EQUIPMENT.
Silvercrest can supply a range of submarine and Rov support equipment. For example: Submarine Escape Jerkins, Submersible Motors, Sonars, Underwater Communications, Underwater cameras, Submarine parts and consumables, plus a wide range of other items.

Silvercrest/SME manufacture high quality submersible motors and thruster units for Rovs, underwater trenchers, ploughs and submarines. Output from 1Kw to 1500Kw, with voltages to 6000vac. Operational depth to 4000m available.

SUBMERSIBLE MOTOR for IMMEDIATE SALE.

New 100Hp submersible Rov motor for sale. The motor is a direct drop in replacement for the Curvetech 100HP unit, and is set up to receive a Rexroth A10VSO140 pump, but can be modified to accept other pump models if required. The motor is brand new, direct from our factory and has been constructed specifically for this purpose. Specification. ROV124-100HP, 4-pole, 3000v, 60Hz. Mil Spec hard-anodised T6 hardened 6061 grade Aluminium construction, with all 316 hardware. Rotor dynamically balanced. Oil filled externally compensated. Fully performance tested on Dynamometer at rated voltage and frequency. Subsea connectors for power and instrumentation. Designed for maximum electrical efficiencies to reduce full load currents. Motor designed for low operating temperatures to extend reliable lifespan. Specialised winding insulation system to ensure long operating life even under the most arduous of duties. On Deck operation generally allowable.

Power 100 HP
Volts 3000V
Frequency 60 Hz
Poles 4
RPM 1770 RPM
Shaft Woodruff keyed (see attached
drawing for detail)
Construction Hard Anodized Aluminium 6061-T6
Compensation Oil filled - external-not supplied
Power Connector Burton 5757-1236-002
Sensor Connector SubConn BH-4-M

COM-SUB Submarine for Sale.

A lightweight two-man submarine built in Europe to a very high technical standard that offers a relatively spacious interior, and a full range of safety features. Ideal for yacht-based activities, underwater filming, scientific research, wreck hunting, and for private buyers. Operating depth: 200m (600ft). Dry weight: 4 tons. Viewports: 4 x flat acrylic (340mm) forward looking, 4 x conning tower (120mm), 1 x hatch viewport (90mm). External Lights, Compass, Sonar, Echo sounder, and communications. Free pilot training course included. A great buy.

SUB-SCOOTER.A two-man Sub-scooter, that is easy to use and operate. Ideal for super-yachts, tourist resorts and underwater leisure activities. No experience required for the passenger. Comfortable seats. Air is breathed from inside an acrylic dome that offers panoramic viewing. Maximum speed of two knots. Roller skids for ease of launch and recovery. Low operating costs. Length: 2m. Width: 680mm. Height: 1600mm. Weight: 330Kg.

Nuclear Research Submarine NR-1.

Towed by submarine support vessel Carolyn Chouest, NR-1 is to take part in an expedition to survey the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary and other sites of interest in the Gulf of Mexico. "This mission is going to be exciting and full of new challenges for the Submarine NR-1, and the crew of SSV Carolyn Chouest". www.marinelink.com/Story/ShowStory.aspx?StoryID=206176

RUSSIAN POLAR EXPEDITION RETURNS TO MOSCOW.
The Russian ITAR-TASS News agency displayed photos of the Russian polar expedition leader, State Duma Deputy Chairman Artur Chilingarov arriving at Moscows Vnukovo carrying with him a photo of the Russian flag placed on the seafloor under the North Pole. Last week the Russians dispatched two mini-submarines some 2.5 miles under the North Pole and symbolically, planted their flag on the sea floor. The expedition was prepared by the Artic and Antarctic Research Institute and consisted of the Akademik Fyodorov research ship, a nuclear-powered ice-breaker and two submersibles and 135 research scientists. As well as some scientific goals including the study of Artic plants and animals it also has been viewed as a politically charged symbolic gesture to claim the rights to the sea bed which could be rich in oil and gas.

Saab acquires UK underwater vehicle company Seaeye. With the acquisition of Seaeye Holdings Ltd and its subsidiary Seaeye Marine, Saab is strengthening its position in the underwater area and in the offshore market. The deal complements and reinforces Saab Underwater's unmanned underwater vehicle product portfolio. The purchase price is £13m GBP. Seaeye, with approximately 50 employees and annual sales of approximately £12M GBP, is located in Fareham, Hampshire on the south coast of England. The company develops and manufactures a complete range of electric powered ROV systems. The range extends from the portable Seaeye Falcon to the medium work class Panther Plus. The operation started in 1987 and Seaeye is the leading supplier of electrical ROVs to the offshore oil and gas industry. During the latest years, Seaeye has also further developed its products and now also delivers vehicles for security, salvage and coastal observation tasks.

Japan to Finance Dismantling of Subs.
Novosti reported that Japan will finance the scrapping of three Russian nuclear submarines decommissioned from the Pacific Fleet under a joint project with Russia, a senior Japanese diplomat said Friday. The three Victor class vessels will be dismantled under the Star of Hope program for the dismantlement of decommissioned nuclear submarines in Russia's Far East, which was adopted in 2003 during a visit by former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to Russia. During the dismantlement process, spent nuclear fuel is removed from the submarine's reactors and sent to storage, the hull is cut into three sections, and the bow and stern sections are removed and destroyed. The reactor section is sealed and transferred to storage. Source: Novosti

An Artist and His Sub Surrender in Brooklyn - New York.

At slack tide off Red Hook, Brooklyn, there are usually lots of things floating in the water, most of which you would not want to touch without the help of a good hazmat suit. But just after sunrise yesterday, something truly strange was bobbing there in the shallows near Pier 41: a submarine fashioned almost completely from wood, and inside it a man with an obsession. The man, Duke Riley, a heavily tattooed Brooklyn artist whose waterborne performance projects around New York have frequently landed him in trouble with the authorities, spent the last five months building the vessel as a rough replica of what is believed to have been Americas first submarine, an oak sphere called the Turtle, said to have seen action in New York Harbor during the Revolutionary War. Mr. Riley plan was also military, in a sense though mostly metaphorical, given that he is an artist. He wanted to float north in the Buttermilk Channel to stage an incursion against the Queen Mary 2, which had just docked in Red Hook, the mission objective mostly just to get close enough to the ship to videotape himself against its immensity for a coming gallery show.But when his sub was stopped by a New York City police boat around 10 a.m., the outcome was not metaphorical at all: Mr. Riley, 35, and two friends who had helped tow him were taken into custody by a phalanx of law enforcement officials, and their excursion briefly raised fears that a terrorist attack might have been under way. The flurry of attention that followed, on television and untold numbers of urban blogs, was the kind of publicity that most artists would pay good money for. Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly issued a statement later calling the incident marine mischief the creative craft of three adventuresome individuals and saying nothing suspicious had been recovered other than the vessel itself. He played down the possibility that the cruise ship could have been endangered had the intent been more malicious than artful, suggesting that the sub had been detected in plenty of time.Mr. Kelly said a New York police detective assigned to the departments intelligence division who was aboard the Queen Mary 2 yesterday morning first spotted what looked like a hobby-shop submarine towed by a flimsy rubber raft manned by Mr. Rileys two friends. He called the departments harbor patrol, which dispatched three boats to the scene along with a helicopter, joined later by the Coast Guard and a hazardous-materials truck.Still, Mr. Riley, who emerged from his rusty hatch without the tall-boy can of beer he had taken into his vessel when it launched about 9:15, managed to make it to within about 200 feet of the bow of the ship, at a time when officials say harbor security is a critical factor in guarding against terrorism. From a nearby pier, several of his friends and his art dealers shouted congratulations through a chain-link fence.But the police impounded the sub, and the Coast Guard issued Mr. Riley a citation for violating the ships 100-yard security zone. The police issued two more, for unsafe boating. (Mr. Riley had no means of propulsion and was relying mainly on the kindness of the tide to take him toward his objective.) In an interview at Pier 41 on Thursday afternoon, after Mr. Riley called a reporter to alert him to the planned excursion, the artist said he first became interested in building the submarine after reading about the Turtle in history books. (By some accounts, the original submarines attempt to attach an explosive to the bottom of a British warship failed, but the device detonated near the ship and caused the British to move their vessels. Other accounts say the sub never even launched.) Mr. Riley built his eight-foot-tall submersible not from oak but from cheap plywood, coated with fiberglass and topped off with portholes and a hatch bought from a marine salvage company. Pumps in the bottom allowed him to add water for ballast or remove it. On Thursday evening, he and the two friends, Jesse Bushnell and Mike Cushing, scrambled around in the murky Red Hook water avoiding the occasional condom or dead rat to make sure that the sub, called the Acorn, was seaworthy and would submerge. (It never did so completely.) They had loaded several thousand pounds of lead into the bottom and were adding rocks to further lower the moss-coated vessel, which resembled something out of Jules Verne by way of Huck Finn. We start arguing with each other and saying, Hey, you are doing that wrong,said Mr. Bushnell, who owns a bicycle shop in Providence, R.I. And then we realize there is no right way to do this. He added grumpily, I have basically been wading around in this water for three days in my underwear.Mr. Rileys last big artwork was an illegal makeshift tavern built last summer on a spit of land near Rockaway Inlet in Queens that in the early 1900s was a kind of Wild West territory, with saloons and prizefights. That project was also brought to a premature end by the police, who arrived at night with guard dogs and scattered most of Mr. Rileys friends. With the submarine, which he launched on a short-lived test run to the Queen Mary 2 in July, Mr. Riley said he accepted early on that the real performance would probably end with an arrest. Or with him sinking. I am not really a very technical kind of guy, he said, sitting shirtless on the pier Thursday with various green things still clinging to his arms from the water. I just guessed a lot on this. Asked how he planned to get back to shore after the tide carried him out to the cruise ship, he grinned. I havent really thought about that yet,he said.Yesterday afternoon, as he, Mr. Bushnell and Mr. Cushing were being taken into custody, still dripping wet, Mr. Rileys dealers, Alberto Magnan and Dara Metz, said they planned to display the submarine in a show soon at their Chelsea gallery. And to post Mr. Rileys bail, if needed.As they spoke, a beefy police officer standing on the bow of a harbor patrol boat laughed and, pointing at the wooden submarine below him, said: What are we going to do with this thing? It looks like the Turtle.

ROV'S FOR IMMEDIATE SALE.

Videoray Pro 3-XE Rov for sale. This Videoray Pro 3-XE Rov has only 42 hours on the clock and is in "as new condition" and dive ready. Total System Size and Weight is 60 kgs, packed in two water-tight Pelican cases. Rov dimensions: 30.5 x 22.5 x 21 cm. Rov weight: 3.8 kgs. Rov depth rating: 152m. The Pro 3-XE incorporates an integrated 15-inch display monitor that will display both video and a computer screen simultaneously in PAL. Forward facing wide angle color camera PAL (570 lines of resolution and 0.3 lux. Variable control tilt with 180 degree vertical field of view. Wide focus range). Rear facing black & white camera - 430 lines 0.1 lux. Two forward 20 watt high efficiency halogen lights. Rear ultra high-intensity LED light array. Two horizontal thrusters with 60 mm propellers and guards. One vertical thruster. Control console with 15 inch integrated video display. Video display tilt adjustment for optimal viewing angle. LCD depth gauge display. LCD compass with heading display. LCD cumulative hour meter display. Composite video output. Option to superimpose date, time, depth and heading information on video display. Audio annotation microphone for simultaneous recording - hard wired into console (Recording directly on to VHS cassette or DVD). User supplied PC or laptop also records data simultaneously and can capture stills. Joystick controls for horizontal movement and third axis controls. Third axis joystick control (selectable for depth, camera tilt, lights and manipulator). Vertical depth control with Auto Depth. Lighting control. Camera tilt and focus controls. Front and rear camera toggle. Tether Deployment System with 152 m negative tether, with an extension of 40 m Professional Performance Tether (total 192 m). Maximum voltage in tether is 48 volts DC. Owners Manual. Operations and Maintenance Log Book. Brass Ballast Weight Set. Calibration Tool. Spare Parts (O-rings, thruster blocks, screws, nuts, globes). Basic Tool Kit.

ORION ROV. A new build 45kW (60 HP), Light Work Class vehicle with superb
technical specification. Depth Rating: 1000m, 2000m & 3000m options. Delivery
six months from order.

Hyball Offshore ROV System for sale. Dive ready and in good condition. Complete
with vehicle, Surface control unit and surface monitor, and colour camera. 200m
umbilical and Hydrovision technical manuals. Spare parts. Training course
available.

25 HP and 150 HP WORK CLASS ROVs (New). This Rov is a new build and comes as a
complete operational package with vehicle, control cabin, and LARS. Operational
depth 1000m (2000m and 3000m option). Length 2500mm. Width 1450mm. Height
1800mm. Weight In-air 2400 kgs. Speed 3.5 knots. Standard Power Pack 125hp
(150HP and 175HP available). 94kw/125hp shaft output power, 3 phase, 4 pole, 3KV
motor, oil filled and compensated. Vickers piston pump, output 220lpm @ 200bar.
Video & Telemetry System. Underwater Lights. FluxGate Compass and Integrated
Gyro System. Tritech SeaKing DFS Sonar. Tritech SeaKing PA200-20. Depth
Transducer. Auto Heading, Depth, Altitude & Turn Rate. 7-Function Manipulator.
5-Function Grabber Arm. Hydraulic Tooling Manifold. Hydraulic Pan & Tilt. CCD
Colour Camera. CCD Monochrome Camera. Aramid umbilical 41mm, length 1300m.
Control Cabin.

Heavy Duty TMS for sale. Subsea deployment cage (TMS) side entry, with
electro-optic umbilical cable coiled and stored on a electro-hydraulic winch. At
operating depth a powered drum feeds the tether out as the Rov exits the cage.
TMS/cage dimensions: Length 3m. Width 2m. Height 3.6m. Weight in air 3.5 tons.
Structure: aluminium and titanium. Installed hydraulic power unit 10HP. Flying
tether: length 100m (11 power conductors, 3 twisted pairs, 3 coaxial cables, 7
low voltage conductors). Pan and tilt mounted video camera: -1 x CCD monochrome
video camera (not fitted). Lights: 2 x 250 W, halogen type (not fitted). Depth
sensor. Paid out tether length counter. A refit programme will be required to
restore the TMS to working order.

AC-ROV (Model SP-50). The smallest inspection class Rov in the market place
(190mm fly through). The AC-ROV is more powerful, more robust and a more cost
effective solution than all other Rovs in its class. This Rov can hover, circle,
rotate on its axis, and move in any direction the target requires. Operating
depth of 75-100m. A total system carry-case weight of under 15kg. The unit has
been designed for inspection in hazardous and confined areas. Rov Size: 203mm x
152mm x 146mm. Weight: 3kg. Camera: Colour CCD. Thrusters: 6 thrusters (4 x
horizontal vectored, 2 x vertical). Lights: 4 cluster leds (variable intensity).
System Power: 300 watt (0.4hp). Payload: 300g. Inputs: 90/260vac (47/63Hz) or
124/370vdc. System includes : AC-ROV, Control Unit, Tether Reel with 80m tether,
Monitor, Spacemouse control, Depth Sensor, Video Grabber cable - plugs into
Laptop/PC for recording, Storm Case, Instruction Manual. Purchased November 2006
and still under warranty. System has been used five times and is in perfect
condition having been completely flushed with fresh water after each use. System
is dive ready. Spare parts are readily available direct from Aberdeen.

Hyball Spares Package for sale. A large package of spare parts including Field
Maintenance Kit, 'O' Ring Kit, manual, Thruster Re-Build Kit, PCB Spares Kit -
Vehicle, PCB Spares Kit - Surface Unit, Hand Controller assembly with Cable,
Thruster Assembly Power Module Assembly, Vacuum Valve Assembly, Pressure
Transducer Assembly, Motor Gearbox Camera Rotate Assembly, Compass Assembly,
Vacuum Pump & Weights, Topside Control Unit, Umbilical 300m. Plus lots more.
Contact us for a complete list.

BS -ROV (400). This Rov has an operational depth of 400m (1200ft), and was
manufactured by Comex. Three thrusters 0.5Hp each (one vertical and two
horizontal). Video camera hi-sensitive 10 to 100000 Lux. 2 x lights each 250w.
Sounder. Compass. Depth meter. Dimensions: length 76cm, width 67cm, height 51cm.
Total weight: 60kg. Umbilical cable simple coaxial type KX4 (length 300m),
diameter 11mm, weight: 17kg/100 m. Surface control system includes electronic
control box, joystick, camera focus, water intake alarm, auto-altitude button,
auto-cap button. Colour monitor 9" (PAL and SECAM).

New Rov Umbilical (100m length). This new / unused Rov umbilical is in storage,
and in excellent condition. The length is approximately 100m. This tether is
wound onto a storage drum. Umbilical length 100m. O.D. 31mm. 11 x power
conductors. 3 x twisted pairs. 3 x coaxial cables. 7 x low voltage conductors.

Sprint 101 Rov for sale. Good condition and dive ready. Operational depth 300m.
Manufactured in Norway. Includes vehicle, surface control unit, umbilical and
spares parts. 5 x thrusters (0.45Hp each). Maximum speed 2.5kts. 2 x video
cameras. 1 x still camera. 2 x strobe lights. 3 x subsea lights (250w each).
Recorded data onto video. Power requirements 193-480vac/47-63Hz/three phase.

SLIM Rov for sale. Good condition and dive ready. Complete with vehicle, 300m
umbilical, surface control station, container and spare parts. Recently upgraded
electronics. 8 x 0.5hp oil filled thrusters. Length 107cm, width 60cm, height
65cm, weight in air 100kg. Speed 2.5kts. Maximum operational depth 720m. Auto
depth, auto heading, auto pilot. SIT camera, colour camera, manipulator/grab.

OLYMPIAN Workclass Rov / Trencher. Depth rating 3000m. The system is in good
condition and dive ready. Package includes Rov, self-contained control cabin,
transformer cabin, heave compensated umbilical winch, landing platform, and
A-frame LARS. Vehicle weight in air 10 tons.

India Set to Launch First Nuclear Sub.
India is set to launch its first nuclear submarine later this year which if successful will put the country in an extremely exclusive club. The project codenamed the Advanced Technology Vessel has been crawling along since the 1970s. Reports now indicate that India has overcome the biggest problem, the miniaturization of a nuclear power plant. www.marinelink.com/Story/ShowStory.aspx?StoryID=206362

WHOI Awards Lockheed Martin $2.8m Contract To Design RHOV.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has awarded Lockheed Martin a $2.8 million contract for the initial design of the Replacement Human Occupied Vehicle (RHOV), a next generation three-person Deep Submergence Vehicle (DSV) that will be used by the U.S. scientific community. The contract has an option for subsequent construction of the RHOV once the initial design is completed and the project is approved to move forward. Funded through the National Science Foundation, the RHOV is intended to replace the DSV Alvin, the human-occupied deep submergence vehicle currently operated by WHOI. In more than four decades of operation, the Alvin has made headlines for locating a hydrogen bomb lost in the Mediterranean Sea in 1966, discovering deep-sea hydrothermal vents in the late 1970s and exploring the sunken ocean liner Titanic in 1986. The enhanced design of the RHOV will provide additional space in the vehicle's personnel sphere for its complement of two scientists and a pilot; the design also will accommodate greater science payload and provide improved visibility. RHOV will operate in depths of 6,500 meters (about 4 miles) and will be able to reach nearly 99 percent of the global ocean floor, with each dive lasting up to ten hours. By comparison, Alvin can reach 4,500 meters (almost 3 miles) giving it access to about 63 percent of the ocean floor. The RHOV will be capable of hovering in the water column at any depth, maneuvering in rugged topography or resting on the sea floor while exploring and surveying the ocean's geology and biology. The RHOV will ultimately be a part of the National Deep Submergence Facility, fleet of underwater vehicles operated by WHOI for the U.S. oceanographic community.

India to acquire six more Submarines.

According to reports, Indian navy will acquire six new submarines.The reports indicated that it would take about six years for the navy to acquire the six new submarines. It currently has 16 submarines, some of which are aging. India has been seeking to bolster its rise as an economic power by reshaping its armed forces into a modern military capable of projecting power well beyond its shores.

Russia in Talks with Venezuela on Selling Diesel Subs.
The Rosoboronexport Company is in talks with Venezuela on a delivery of five Russian diesel-electric submarines of the Kilo class with missile systems to that country. According to a Rosoboron xport representative, Venezuela already requested a feasibility report on Kilo submarines and displayed interest in a number of other development studies of Russian submarine shipbuilding, displayed at the show, including small submarines of the Malakhit design office. Diesel submarines of the Kilo class, developed by the Rubin central design office and built by the Admiralteiskie Shipyards were supplied for export since 1986. The last big batch eight submarines of this class was delivered to the Chinese navy.

DSRV for Singapore.

The Singapore Navy has awarded a contract to ST Marine and James Fisher to supply a new submarine rescue spread that includes a dedicated support vessel. Fisher will build the DSRV, operate and maintain it for a twenty-year contract. The DSRV will be based on the LR5 design. Construction to commence third quarter of 2007. Delivery mid 2009. Value of contract stated as being $400 million.

Russia to Launch Nuclear Submarine.
A fourth-generation strategic nuclear submarine will be launched during a special ceremony at a shipbuilding yard in northern Russia, according to Novosti. The Yury Dolgoruky, a Borey-class nuclear missile submarine, was built at the Sevmash plant in the northern Arkhangelsk Region. It will be equipped with the Bulava ballistic missile, which is adapted from the Topol-M (SS-27). The submarine is 580 feet, a body diameter around 42 feet, and a submerged speed of about 29 knots. It can carry up to 16 ballistic missiles. Two other Borey-class nuclear submarines, the Alexander Nevsky and the Vladimir Monomakh, are currently under construction at the Sevmash plant, with a fourth submarine on the future production schedule list.

Royal Navy to Get New Sub.

The MoD has placed a contract with British industry for the construction of a new nuclear powered attack submarine, to be named HMS Audacious. The 7,800 ton boat, which will be equipped with the latest cruise missiles, is the fourth of the Astute class, the largest and most powerful attack submarines ever built in Britain for the Royal Navy. "It's a mean looking beast. I think it looks like the alien," remarks Chris Nelson of BAE Systems, as we walk round the front of the Royal Navy's new Astute submarine in Barrow. Looming above is a construction shed 12 storeys high. Within it are three nuclear-powered submarines at different stages of construction. Astute is a technological phenomenon. Its nuclear reactor means it'll never need refuelling in the whole of its 25-year life. Since it makes its own air and water, it can circumnavigate the globe without needing to surface. Its weapons systems are so accurate that were it positioned in the English Channel, its cruise missiles could pinpoint targets as far away as North Africa It may be one of the most sophisticated submarines ever built, but the project has been beset with problems. The three submarines are £900m ($1.8bn) over budget and four years behind the original schedule.

ASTUTE FACTS : Cost: £3.5bn for three subs. Weight: 7,800 tons. Length: 97m. Time to build: 6 years 4 months. Power: pressurised water reactor, fuelled for life. Crew: 98

Sub to Probe Sunken Ship.
Greek rescuers will deploy a robot submarine to search for the bodies of two French tourists believed to have drowned when a cruise ship sank off a resort island in the Aegean Sea. The ship's captain blamed the accident on sea currents that swept the Sea Diamond onto a charted reef off the island of Santorini, tearing a hole in the ship's hull. According to reports, more than 50 tons of ship fuel leaked after the sinking, some of which has washed ashore. An oceanographic vessel is expected to arrive on the island to deploy an Rov in an attempt to locate the missing passengers and the ship's voyage data recorder, the Merchant Marine Ministry said. Most of the hull is 320 feet below the water's surface inside a sea-filled crater caused by a volcanic eruption 3,500 years ago. But officials fear the ship's position is not yet stable. The rest of the passengers reached safety after scrambling onto lifeboats, crossing narrow gangways and climbing down rope ladders. The Sea Diamond sunk some 15 hours later, causing an oil slick that experts tried to contain. Plans were also made to seal off or remove the remaining 400 tons from the wreckage.

Silvercrest supply 260kW submersible motors to CTC Marine Projects Ltd.

Silvercrest Marine has manufactured and delivered in just six weeks from order, ten 260Kw submersible motors to CTC Marine Projects based in Teeside, England. The motors will be used by CTC on their subsea plough and trenching vehicles worldwide.

The 260kW/ 3000V / 60Hz / 2 pole pump motors (designed specifically for use in the horizontal axis) were fitted with shafts at both ends, in order to mate with three tandem mounted hydraulic pumps on one end and a Hayward Tyler M6 single stage water pump-set on the opposite end. In this 260kW model, rather than using the pivot shoe arrangement, typical of vertically oriented pump-sets, heavy duty tapered roller bearings were fitted to the rotor to manage the water pump induced end-loads. Thus giving a calculated bearing life in excess of 11,000 hours, even when used in the horizontal axis. Depth rating on each motor is 10,000 meters, with oil filled compensation. Motor housings are 316 stainless steel, with Mylar coated windings (the ultimate in winding coating technology) being used in each motor at the request of CTC, giving an insulation rating of >16kV at a temperature of 140 degrees C. Silvercrest Marine will bespoke manufacture virtually any shape and size of submersible motor required for subsea operations.

Canadian Ferry Sinking.

Nuytco reports that the 350ft vessel 'Queen of the North' is sitting upright and intact in 1400 feet of water. She 'skied' in, with the result that the bottom mud/silt ( actually, glacial flour-type sediment) is up to her car-deck . . .about 30-35 feet above her keel. She must have produced an enormous dust-cloud that followed her down slope and drifted over the top of her. Viz is about 30 feet, but lots of back-scatter in the HMI lights, because of dense crystal critter life in the water column (tentaphores,siphonophores,etc.). Video recording has gone well.The DeepWorker 2000 subs performed perfectly. Using a precision wireless tracking system coupled with a Racal-designed position plotting system the submarine crew were able to plot the subs position to the surface-mounted DGPS, and get a precise GPS coordinate for every significant part of the wreck.

Chilean Navy sub on Sea Trials.

The submarine "Carrera" second of the Scorpene Class, built by the French-Spanish consortium, has carried out initial sea trials. The submarine was assembled in Cartegena shipyard and floated in 2004. The first submarine of this class was delivered to the navy in 2005.

SEAL Delivery System.

The US navy special operations command has cancelled plans to build a fleet of advanced swimmer delivery vehicles (ASDS). Owing to technical problems associated with ASDS-1 delivered in June 2003. Funding for future vehicles has been diverted to continue the development of the first vehicle.

Indian Navy Nuclear submarines.

This programme is progressing after the recent testing of three major components of the ATV nuclear powered submarine. Russian scientists are helping to develop the small nuclear reactor.

General Dynamics.

General Dynamics Electric Boat shipyards are laying off 2000 workers, owing to a slow down in submarine activity. The company recently lost the contract to conduct maintenance work on the US attack submarines.

Navy's Swimming Spy Plane
Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works, famed for the U-2 and Blackbird spy planes that flew higher than anything else in the world in their day, is trying for a different altitude record - an airplane that starts and ends its mission 150 feet underwater. The Cormorant, a stealthy, jjet-powered, autonomous aircraft that could be outfitted with either short-range weapons or surveillance equipment, is designed to launch out of the Trident missile tubes in some of the U.S. Navy's Ohio-class submarines. Subs survive by stealth, and an airplane flying back to the boat could give its position away. The Skunk Works's answer is a four-ton airplane with gull wings that hinge around its body to fit inside the missile tube. The tubes are as long as a semi trailer but about seven feet wide, not exactly airplane-shaped. The Cormorant has to be strong enough to withstand the pressure 150 feet underwater, enough to cave in hatches on a normal aircraft, but light enough to fly. The craft is made of titanium to resist corrosion, and any empty spaces are filled with plastic foam to resist crushing. The rest of the body is pressurized with inert gas. Inflatable seals keep the weapon-bay doors, engine inlet and exhaust covers watertight. The Cormorant does not shoot out of its tube like a missile. Instead an arm-like docking "saddle" guides the craft out, sending it floating to the surface while the sub slips away. As the drone pops out of the water, the rocket boosters fire and the Cormorant takes off. After completing its mission, the plane flies to the rendezvous coordinates it receives from the sub and lands in the sea. The sub then launches a robotic underwater vehicle to fetch the floating drone.

US Navy diver - 2000ft in Hardsuit 2000
The recently announced "US Navy 2,000 foot record dive in ADS" is not any sort of an international record - the Oceaneering 'WASP' ADS is Lloyds certed to 2000 feet and has made lots of routine dives in that depth range - (design collapse is in excess of 4000 feet) The USN 2000 foot suit was a contract that we entered into in 1996, while I was head of Hard Suits Inc. The 2000 foot joint is simply the original Newtsuit joint (the patented principle of the Newt Suit joint is that it , in theory, depth independant - since it is automatically depth/pressure compensated . At some point , though, the pressure loads do cause physical distortion for a given housing thickness) with a slightly beefed up housing to accept the higher internal joint pressure. It's kind of astonishing that it took a decade for the USNto finally take delivery of this model! Hard Suits changed ownership a number of mes - and became 'Ceanics', then 'Oceanworks' during that ten year period. The 1000 foot and 1250 foot Newtsuits have been standard with the major Navies of the world since 1987, suits were sold to the Canadian Navy.

Drug smugglers may be using submarines.

MADRID - Cocaine traffickers may be using submarines to smuggle drugs into Europe, Spanish police said on Monday after finding a 35-foot-long submarine drifting off the northwestern coast.The empty blue-gray craft was found in an inlet near the Atlantic on Sunday
following a telephone tip-off in the Galicia region, a spokesman for the Civil Guard police said. The main theory is that it belonged to drug traffickers. He said that while no drugs were found on board, police suspected the craft might have been used by smugglers who made a run for it when the authorities arrived on their boat. Spains rugged northwestern coast, with difficult-to-patrol coves and bays, is a major entry point for Colombian cocaine into Europe. Although the Galicia Civil Guard have never seized a smugglers submarine before, traffickers have been known to use submersible craft elsewhere to ferry cocaine between shore and mother ship. In 2000, Colombian police found a 100-foot-long submarine with the capacity to carry up to 200 tons of cocaine worth billions of dollars still under construction in the Andes mountains near Bogota.

Silvercrest Submarines are the UK's premier Submarine & Rov sales company with contracts performed worldwide.