Damage but no injuries as U.S. Navy cruiser, submarine collide

Chicago Tribune ^ | October 13, 2012 | Reuters

[JerseyanExile]

A U.S. Navy Aegis cruiser collided with a nuclear-powered submarine during exercises off the East Cost on Saturday, collapsing the sonar dome on the cruiser and possibly causing other damage, but no injuries, U.S. Navy officials said.

The collision between the USS San Jacinto and the nuclear-powered submarine USS Montpelier occurred about 3:30 p.m., the Navy said in a statement. The Navy declined to say where off the East Coast the accident occurred.

A Navy official said the watch team aboard the San Jacinto saw a periscope rise from the water about 100 to 200 yards (meters) ahead of the vessel during the exercise. The cruiser ordered "all back," but the San Jacinto still collided with the submarine.

The collision caused the collapse of the cruiser's sonar dome, a bulbous-shaped device on the bow of the ship beneath the water line, the Navy official said on condition of anonymity.

The rubber dome houses some of the vessel's electronic navigation, detection and ranging equipment.

The Navy said no personnel were injured during the incident and there was no damage to the submarine's nuclear-powered propulsion plant. Both vessels were operating under their own power.

[GreyHoundSailor]

Stealth ship would be more accurate - appears the sub had no idea where the CG was when they went to periscope depth.

[Bottom_Gun]

my question, as a retired Sub Sonarman is how the frack did the Montpelier shack let them get so close before going to PD? Something doesn’t sound right here

[mlstier]

It is sonar’s problem is they didn’t hear it (unlikely).
It is fire controls problem if they didn’t track it (ie Hawaii) and the officer of the deck’s for not keeping the big picture in his head.

In my 8 years as sonar supervisor aboard three SSNs, the closest I got to this was coming to periscope depth along side a large cruise catamaran off Hawaii. Bit of a shock to both the office of the deck, and those on catamaran, when the periscope was broke the surface 100 ft away. Luckily we were on a parallel course. Of course we went deep quickly and retried later.

[Old Sarge]

“Like, omigawd, I didn’t mean to hit that ship, Sir, I was too busy applying my rouge!”

[BykrBayb]

This could have been an all male crew. Unfortunately, you’re comment could still be right on the mark. Ick!

[Bottom_Gun]

I had a similar experience when I was on Shark, coming up to PD off Baha Mexico came through the layer and Boom..hi SNR trace, I grabbed the mic and told the OOD “recommend 150 feet” and they responded. had to poke the nose up through the layer as 90 ft to get the trace back and analyze it. Turns out it was a Fishing trawler about 800 yards away. Our OOD loved us that night! lol

[Old Sarge]

With the policy on homosexuals in the military, that statement could apply to any gender.

[xrmusn]

It is sonar’s problem is they didn’t hear it (unlikely).
It is fire controls problem if they didn’t track it (ie Hawaii) and the officer of the deck’s for not keeping the big picture in his head
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Well, they said it was an exercise. Maybe the SSN ‘purposely’ hit the CG in order to knock out the Sonar - thus helping making the SSN ‘invisible’.
Can’t relieve me, that is my story and I am sticking to it.

Of course that is like swatting flies with a howitzer.
And we should be able to afix blame on Bush...<:

Believe it was the Greeneville that ‘got’ the fishing craft off Hawaii....

[BykrBayb]

Yep. Like I said, ick!

[KantianBurke]

“You seriously think US navy vessels never collided with each other before this administration?”

Bump. The paranoia around here is becoming obnoxious.

[OCCASparky]

Verily I say unto thee, many and varied are the ways that one can step on one’s crank as the Captain...

[OCCASparky]

You're thinking of the USS Greenville, and the fishing vessel in question was the Ehime Maru. And it was in February 2001, so while yes, during "Bush 2" it was hardly Bush's Fault (although you knew that.)

Ask any submariner and if they've been lucky enough to never have been involved in a grounding/collision, they know someone who has, and can rattle some of the better incidents from memory (Bremerton, Jefferson City, San Francisco, to name a few...)

[OCCASparky]

Around this same time, another sub slammed head on into a sea mount in the central Pacific.

USS San Francisco, 2005, south of Guam. Ran into an uncharted seamount while doing a flank bell heading for Australia. The guy that died wasn't in the Torpedo Room, he was in the ERFW Bay down in ERLL.

[zeestephen]

Thanks for the correction, Sparky.

Wild guess...

You handled communications on a sub at one point in your career?

[OCCASparky]

Nope—nuke.