Free Republic

Vladimir Putin is assembling a secret fleet of super submarines which could topple NATO and plunge the world into war. A report by naval experts warns that Russia already has a small but sophisticated army of subs which are capable of launching missile strikes across the globe. The deadly group of stealthy underwater weapons are currently patrolling the world and have already reportedly breached UK waters having approached the Royal Navy’s base in Faslane, Scotland. Russia is stepping up its secret submarine programme to ‘Cold War’ levels and experts warn NATO members “no longer” have the defences to stop the...

Russia plans to dismantle all of its decommissioned nuclear submarines by 2010 with the help of international aid, an official with the federal nuclear energy agency said on Monday. "We hope to regulate the problem of dismantling the nuclear submarines by 2010 with the help of our international partners," a spokesman for the agency said. Russia has about 100 decommissioned nuclear subs waiting to be dismantled and 70 of these still have nuclear reactors aboard, the spokesman said. The agency estimates it will need nearly four billion dollars to dismantle the subs, which pose an environmental threat to the water...

Waddle meets with survivors of Ehime Maru accident Yomiuri ShimbunScott Waddle, the former skipper of the USS Greeneville, a U.S. Navy submarine involved in a fatal collision with a Japanese fisheries training vessel off Hawaii last year, met four survivors of the accident at a hotel in Uwajima, Ehime Prefecture, on Sunday.Nine people aboard the Ehime Maru, including four students from Uwajima Fisheries High School, were killed in the accident on Feb. 9, 2001.Waddle had expressed a desire to meet all of the nine surviving students. The four students, who have since graduated, agreed.During their 30-minute meeting, Waddle offered a...