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GROTON, Conn. (NNS) -- With the spray of bubbly from a champagne bottle, PCU Missouri (SSN 780), the Navy's newest Virginia-class attack submarine, was christened during a late morning ceremony at General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton, Conn., Dec. 5.

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...

This week the US Department of “Defense” announced that it was considering adding women to its list of submarine sailors. There is little doubt as to why: it’s politically convenient. But has anyone asked: why? Of course not. Do you really think the “press” cares one iota about why? Do you think anyone in America gives a rat’s ass? Of course not. For those of you not aware of what has gone on in the military of the last two decades, let me let you in on a little info: Combat Readiness has been subordinated for political expediency. In 1993,...

Submariners sleep nine to a bunk room. There are four showers and seven toilets for the roughly 140 enlisted men. The passageways on board the vessel are so narrow that crew members can barely squeeze by each other without touching. And that's on the roomiest submarines. The Navy is considering allowing women to serve aboard submarines for the first time, 16 years after bringing female sailors onto surface combat ships. Some sailors and wives warn that putting men and women together in extremely close quarters underwater for weeks at a time is just asking for sexual harassment cases and wrecked...

Sub order: Israel to ask for German cash Published: Oct. 8, 2009 at 11:48 AM BERLIN, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- Germany has been asked to help fund yet another submarine for the Israeli navy. Jerusalem plans to order another submarine of the Dolphin class from German Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG and has asked the German government to subsidize the order, German news magazine Der Spiegel reports. Berlin has helped Israel pay for five previously ordered submarines. The first two (named Dolphin and Leviathan) were a gift by Germany after it surfaced that German companies were involved with Iraq's chemical weapons program....

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...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 7, 2009 – Navy Secretary Ray Mabus yesterday said women soon will serve on submarines, suggesting a reversal of the long-standing ban by the Navy. Appearing on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” Mabus signaled that the Navy is moving closer to allowing coed personnel on submarines. “It will take a little while because you’ve got to interview people and you’ve got to be nuclear trained,” he said, referring to prerequisite steps before a sailor is assigned to a submarine. Officials previously have cited a lack of privacy and the cost of reconfiguring subs as obstacles...

Female sailors can broaden their role in the Navy by serving on submarines, an activity currently prohibited by the Armed Service, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has advised the Senate Armed Services Committee. According to Defensetech.org, a site run by Military.com, a group boasting a membership of 10 million veterans and active duty forces, Adm. Michael Mullen told senators in a recent survey that he's long been an advocate for improving diversity in the Armed Forces. "I believe we should continue to broaden opportunities for women. One policy I would like to see changed is the one...

Women should be allowed to serve aboard America's fleet of nuclear submarines, the nation's top military officer, Adm. Michael Mullen, quietly has told the Senate Armed Services Committee. If the Navy agrees to it, this would be a huge policy change and potentially a significant expansion of career opportunities for female officers and sailors. Women have been barred by Navy policy from submarines, even as the sea service began 15 years ago to integrate females into other seagoing combat roles including aboard surface warships and in fighter jets. Mullen, former chief of naval operations and a career surface warfare officer,...

The prime minister is to tell the United Nations that he is willing to cut the UK's fleet of Trident missile-carrying submarines from four to three. Gordon Brown will make the offer at a meeting of the UN Security Council over halting the spread of nuclear weapons and reducing existing stockpiles. The proposed cuts come as the government searches for ways to reduce the massive deficit in public finances. However Number 10 said keeping the UK's nuclear deterrent was "non-negotiable". At the UN meeting, Mr Brown will call for all nations to come together to achieve the long-term ambition of...

What to do with your Scandinavian pay check? Why not get yourself a hobby like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WizfFg2Kjnc That was great fun, now let's dig a real Swedish sub, one that Kremlin doesn't fancy that much: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Khaa3y0i87s We can do so much more than ridiculing your cute national ice hockey team in a nice little rink. �то �ерьезно!

A manufacturing problem with the U.S. Navy's new Virginia class SSNs (nuclear attack subs) has delayed the commissioning of a new boat, the USS New Mexico. The ceremony will be delayed from November 21st, to sometime in January or February. The problem has to do with bolts that were not manufactured to specifications. These bolts hold together the track system that is used to move torpedoes and other weapons around the "weapons room". The poorly manufactured bolts will hold the tracks together under peacetime conditions. But in the stress of combat (like depth charges or violent maneuvers) they are likely...

Two Russian attack submarines are considered to have failed their secret mission in international waters after being detected by the United States and Canada, a report said on Thursday. "If the United States and Canada really detected the foreign submarines, that means they unmasked them. This represents the failure of their military mission," the Interfax news agency quoted a source close to the matter as saying. "It's unlikely the submarine crew will be congratulated under the circumstances," the source said. "One of the markers of the crew's successful completion of a military mission on board a nuclear-powered submarine is the...

Defense: President Obama dreams of a world without nuclear weapons. Unless testing and maintenance of our nuclear deterrent is resumed, it will be a world without American nuclear weapons.In his Prague speech this spring, the president spoke of "America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons," ignoring the fact that before 1945 we lived in such a world and it was neither peaceful nor secure. We recently observed the anniversaries of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, actions that brought an abrupt end to the carnage of World War II and arguably...

Energy: As Russian attack submarines patrol our eastern seaboard, Moscow signs a deal to help Castro's Cuba drill for oil off the Florida coast. In Moscow and Havana, the cry is "Drill, Comrade, Drill!"Two Russian nuclear attack submarines have taken up positions along our East Coast in recent days, another sign of renewed assertiveness by the former communist giant. The move comes as Moscow inks a deal with the communist relic of Cuba to drill for oil we refuse to go after. The submarines are of the Akula class, a counterpart to the Los Angeles class attack subs of the...

You know what this calls for? An Obama speech in Red Square about the common humanity that unites us in a struggle for blah blah blah blah. But the collapse of the Soviet Union all but eliminated the ability of the Russian Navy to operate far from home ports, making the current submarine patrols thousands of miles from Russia even more surprising for military officials and defense policy experts. “I don’t think they’ve put two first-line nuclear subs off the U.S. coast in about 15 years,” said Norman Polmar, a naval historian and expert on submarine warfare… The submarine patrols...

The Dolphin emerged from the water in front of the beach-goers come to bathe at Eilat, the Israeli port in the Gulf of Aqabah on the Red Sea. No sea mammal but a Dolphin, one of the Israeli submarines armed with nuclear missiles. Although the news made a sensation, it is actually no mystery that Dolphins crisscross the Red Sea to keep Iran in their sights. The first subs of this class, equipped with sophisticated navigation and combat systems, were supplied to Israel by Germany in the 1990s, two of them as a gift. At Israel's request, besides the six...

MOSCOW, July 14 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has successfully test-launched a Sineva sea-based ballistic missile, a source in the Defense Ministry confirmed on Tuesday. "The launch was conducted on Monday from a Delta IV class strategic nuclear-powered submarine in service with Russia's Northern Fleet," the source said. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday that Russia had successfully test-launched a ballistic missile from a strategic submarine, but did not specify the type of missile or the name of the submarine. "The target was hit and the pieces of the missile landed in the designated area," the president said at a...

Israel, Fighter Jets, Submarines, Satellites and Iran By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem, Israel ---- July 5, 2009 ...... As Israel receives explicit consent from Saudi Arabia to use their airspace to two defend both nations from a nuclear Iran, Israel maintains several other options to defend herself from an Iran nuclear threat. The Sunday Times of London reported today that Israel Mossad director Meir Dagan has held secret talks with Saudi officials to discuss the possibility of using Saudi Arabia airspace for a air strike to take out Iran's nuclear weapon manufacturing facilities. "The Saudis have tacitly agreed...

Singapore Navy Launches Its First Swedish Archer-Class Submarine 12:49 GMT, June 18, 2009 RSS Archer is one of two ex-Swedish Navy Vaastergotland-class submarines acquired by Singapore in 2005 and comprehensively upgraded, to include air-independent propulsion. (Singapore MoD photo) Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Teo Chee Hean officiated at the launch ceremony of the Republic of Singapore Navy's (RSN) first Archer-class submarine, RSS Archer, at the Kockums Shipyard in Karlskrona, Sweden, on 16 Jun 2009. The submarine was launched by Mrs Teo Chee Hean. Sweden's State Secretary for Defence, Håkan Jevrell, State Secretary for Trade and former Commander of...

Blog: Note: The following blog entry is a quote: Blog Details Iranian Navy Gets Three Locally Made Submarines The Iranian army has received three light locally made Ghadir-class submarines. The submarines were handed over at a ceremony at Bandar Abbas port in southern Iran, which was attended by Iranian security officials. Source: Mehr, Iran, June 1, 2009 Posted at: 2009-06-02

"I dragged my gear down to the shore and saw the submariners, the way they stood aloof and silent, watching their pigboat with loving eyes. They are alone in the Navy. I admired the PT boys.And I often wondered how the aviators had the courage to go out day after day, and I forgave their boasting. But the submariners! In the entire fleet they stand apart." James A. Michener, Tales of the South Pacific -- 1946

This is submarine “Typhoon” as it was called in NATO documents or “Shark” as it was called in Russia. It is considered to be the biggest submarine in the world, with over than 170 meters (515 feet) long and 23 meter (70 feet) wide. It can carry 20 ballistic nuclear missiles and there were only six of those built. Only 3 left intact.

WASHINGTON, April 13, 2009 – The Navy’s ability to harness sonar technology has allowed submarines to navigate more safely in the dark depths of the ocean while also allowing other ships to locate and identify them, said a senior Navy submariner. “Sonar is our only window to the world,” said Navy Capt. Jeffrey Currer, head of the Navy’s Undersea Surveillance Branch. He discussed the various uses of sonar during an April 8 “Armed with Science” webcast on Pentagon Web Radio. The word “sonar” originated as an acronym for sound, navigation and ranging technology. Navy submarines most commonly use “passive...

Bogota (AP) - It's a game played out regularly on the high seas off Colombia's Pacific coast: A U.S. Navy helicopter spots a vessel the size of a humpback whale gliding just beneath the water's surface. A Coast Guard ship dispatches an armed team to board the small, submarine-like craft in search of cocaine. Crew members wave and jump into the sea to be rescued, but not before they open flood valves and send the fiberglass hulk and its cargo into the deep. Colombia has yet to make a single arrest in such scuttlings because the evidence sinks with the...

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Chinese navy has a new submarine base on Hainan Island, according to the latest Defense Department report on Chinese military power. The report comes about two weeks after a Military Sealift Command contract surveillance ship was accosted by five Chinese vessels about 75 miles south of Hainan Island. "The base appears large enough to accommodate a mix of attack and ballistic missile submarines and advanced surface combatant ships," the report said. "The port, which has underground facilities, would provide the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) Navy with direct access to vital international sea lanes, and offers the...

Note: The following blog entry is a quote: http://www.thememriblog.org/iran/blog_personal/en/14853.htm Moscow: We Will Not Negotiate with Washington on the Iranian Nuclear Program Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Rybakov has stated that Moscow has no information indicating that the Iranian nuclear program is for military purposes, and that it will not hold negations with Washington on this issue. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterovsky stated that Russia would never jeopardize its warm relations with Iran because of "US political games." Source: IRNA, Iran, March 20-21, 2009 Posted at: 2009-03-22

MOSCOW, March 19 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Navy maintains a fleet of about 60 nuclear-powered and diesel-electric submarines, a senior Navy official said on Thursday. "These 60 vessels include 10 nuclear-powered strategic submarines, over 30 nuclear-powered attack submarines, diesel-electric submarines and special-purpose subs," the source said. Delta-IV and Delta-III class subs form the backbone of Russia's strategic submarine fleet. They each carry 16 ballistic missiles with multiple warheads, and feature advanced electronics and noise reduction. "The world's largest Typhoon-class submarines also remain in service with the Russian Navy," the official said. The Dmitry Donskoy submarine has been modernized as...

An old soldier from out of the past stepped carefully aboard the World War II submarine Pampanito at San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf to relive a day he can never forget.His name is Harold Martin. They used to call him "Curley" after his thick blond hair back when he was an Australian soldier, back when he was a prisoner of the Japanese, working as a slave laborer on the infamous ''railway of death" in the jungles of Thailand.It was his fair hair that saved Martin and 72 of his comrades who had been left to die in the South China Sea...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 25, 2009 – Somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean last week, sailors aboard the Trident strategic missile submarine USS Maryland prepared to start a series of underwater practice maneuvers known as “angles and dangles.” The USS Maryland’s “Gold” crew executive officer, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Louis J. Springer, takes a look through the vessel’s periscope, Feb. 17, 2009. DoD photo by Gerry J. Gilmore  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The Maryland’s captain, Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey M. Grimes, and his chief of the boat and senior enlisted leader, Master Chief Petty Officer Michael C. McLauchlan, intently observed the actions...

British and French submarines armed with ballistic missiles threatened a nuclear disaster after colliding in the Atlantic. The crash is believed to have occurred after state-of-the-art technology fitted in both vessels, which is designed to detect other submarines, apparently failed completely. Each boat is a key part of their respective countries' nuclear deterrent, ready to unleash hugely destructive weapons at a moment’s notice. While both countries claim that security was not threatened by the collision, wide-scale enquiries are currently underway on both sides of the Channel.

French sub unaware it rammed Royal Navy vessel in mid-Atlantic nuclear crash Charles Bremner in Paris, and David Brown A French submarine was unaware it had rammed and damaged a British nuclear sub in a mid-Atlantic collision until it was informed by the Royal Navy. HMS Vanguard and the French submarine Le Triomphant were both carrying nuclear ballistic warheads when they crashed in the Atlantic earlier this month. Both navies said today that the collision had been unavoidable because the vessels were “running silently” to avoid detection by sonar. Official inquiries have started in Britain and France into the incident...

BRITISH and French nuclear submarines which collided deep under the Atlantic could have sunk or released deadly radioactivity, it emerged last night. The Royal Navy’s HMS Vanguard and the French Navy’s Le Triomphant are both nuclear powered and were carrying nuke missiles. Between them they had around 250 sailors on board.

BLOG: Note: The following blog entry is a quote: http://www.thememriblog.org/iran/blog_personal/en/13152.htm Report: New Iranian Remote-Control Mini-Submarine A report was released in Iran about a mini-submarine operated by remote control, with a GSM system or onboard computer, that can reach a depth of eight meters and carry eight kg of explosives. The submarine's planners say that the sub is invisible to radar, and that the robot on board will sense when a diver approaches the sub and will release hormones to attract schools of fish, thereby concealing it from diver. Source: Fars, Iran, January 21, 2009 Posted at: 2009-01-23

Russian engineers are working on a diesel submarine “Lada”, which is almost stuffed with innovations. Construction of first submarines of the new type started about ten years ago. Leading ships of the projects are non-atomic diesel submarines with diesel-electric plants, new weapons, mechanisms and equipment. “Lada” submarine is able to perform independently on naval communications against enemy submarines and ships and to protect coastal regions and straight zones from submarines. “Lada” is almost invisible due to reduction of all physical fields. Here Russian engineers introduced innovative mechanisms and power sources – diesel generators of alternating current and low-speed variable propulsion...

Expanding Afghan War Awaits New President An expanded U.S. military involvement awaits a new U.S. president in Afghanistan where the unfinished business of September 11 has flared over the past three years into a major insurgency. A raft of assessments and reviews now underway in Washington point to a fundamental rethinking of the Afghan war. But whoever is elected Tuesday will face choices on the size of the military buildup, how to strengthen the central government, how far to go in dealing with insurgent sanctuaries across the border, how to help stabilize Pakistan, and whether and how to reconcile...

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has announced plans to create an upgraded nuclear deterrence system for Russia by 2020, including a space defence system and new nuclear submarines. Mr Medvedev said the need for the upgrade was demonstrated by the conflict with Georgia last month. "A guaranteed nuclear deterrent system for various military and political circumstances must be provided by 2020," Mr Medvedev told Russian military chiefs after a military exercise in the southern Urals region of Orenburg. "Large-scale construction of new types of warships is planned, primarily of nuclear submarines armed with cruise missiles, and multi-purpose submarines. A system of...

RUSSIAN submarines armed with intercontinental ballistic missiles will test-fire their rockets in the Pacific Ocean between September 15 and 20, a military official was quoted as saying today. "Some missile launches will be carried out in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea" and will hit targets on the Kamchatka peninsula in eastern Russia, said the unidentified official, RIA Novosti news agency reported.

The waters in the Caribbean and around Latin America for a long time have provided a path for illicit drugs to flow into the United States, but the U.S. Navy has increased its patrols in the region now looking for something else – Hezbollah terrorists, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. The Navy, in trolling for mini-submarines sometimes used to transport drugs, has discovered that some of them apparently are being operated by Hezbollah. The mini-subs are small semi-submersibles, made of fiberglass and capable of carrying up to four people plus a payload. They are popular with...

The Canadian military is sending a long-range Aurora aircraft to investigate reports of a mysterious explosion along Canada's Northwest Passage that may have killed several whales. The drama apparently began in the early-morning hours of July 31, when an Inuit hunting party at an outpost camp at Borden Peninsula on northeastern Baffin Island was alerted to the sound of an explosion, followed by a cloud of black smoke. An Inuit member of the Canadian Rangers, a military reservist unit stationed in the far North, reported the incident, and said a hunter at the camp saw several dead whales on shore...

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

Chinese nuclear submarines prompt 'new Cold War' warning By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent Last Updated: 5:30PM BST 02/05/2008 Tensions in the Far East could reach "Cold War levels" defence analysts warned, following evidence that China had secretly developed a major nuclear submarine base. Satellite photographs passed to The Daily Telegraph this week showed that the secret base at Sanya on Hainan island will house up to 20 of the latest 094 Jin-class nuclear ballistic submarines that could be capable of firing anti-satellite missiles and nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. The construction showed that China was “ramping up its operational capability” and developing...

HAIFA, Israel, April 17 (Reuters) - Anticipating a showdown with Iran, Israel decides secretly to deploy a submarine off its arch-foe's coast. But how? The quickest route from Israel's Mediterranean coast is via the Suez Canal, which runs through Egypt and which the classified vessels shun. So the submarine is hidden in the belly of a commercial tanker, which delivers it to the Gulf. Such is the plot of an Israeli thriller, "Undersea Diplomacy". Does it hold water? Perhaps not. Then again, the author, Shlomo Erell, is no mere novelist. He's an ex-admiral with experience in Israel's most sensitive military...

Afghanistan to Ask NATO for Bigger Army Afghan officials will go to the NATO summit in Romania Thursday with a request: pay to increase our national Army by 40 percent. A bigger Army, Afghan officials argue, will allow the US and other coalition members to scale back in the coming years. This appeal comes amid pleas from the US and Canada for other NATO members to commit more to the Afghanistan mission, which many analysts say has floundered over the past year for lack of resources and a coherent strategy. France is expected to contribute another 1,000 forces and...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez may sign a contract for four Russian diesel submarines on a visit to Moscow next month, the Kommersant daily has reported, citing unidentified officials. Chavez has been invited to the May inauguration of Dmitry Medvedev as Russian president. If he takes up the invitation, the Venezuelan leader may use the opportunity to sign a contract to buy four Kilo-class diesel submarines agreed to at the start of this year, the paper said. Kommersant said the submarine contract, worth about $1 billion ($1.27 billion), had been set to be signed in February. Venezuela is seeking a loan...

New US Submarines Trade Nukes for SEALs Published: 2/27/08, 8:25 AM EDT By ERIC TALMADGE ABOARD THE USS OHIO (AP) - Capt. Andy Hale has just worked out and is still in a sweaty T-shirt and shorts as he stands in the battle command center. He is watching a flat screen display that shows what's happening outside on the bow and the aft. His billion-dollar submarine - the U.S. Navy's newest twist on underwater warfare - is hovering just below the surface off the Pacific island of Guam as a submersible disappears into the dark waters, carrying a team of...

Is the U.S. Failing in Afghanistan? It was malice in wonderland at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday as Bush Administration envoys insisted things are getting better in Afghanistan, while angry lawmakers from both parties cited facts and figures showing just the opposite. Even the senior Republican on the panel, Senator Richard Lugar, found the Administration's claims wanting. "I'm not sure that we have a plan for Afghanistan," he said. Long seen as the "forgotten war" eclipsed by Iraq in U.S. priorities, Afghanistan is in the Washington spotlight this week with the release of three independent reports concluding...

BEIJING: For a procession of senior U.S. military commanders who have visited China in recent years, the complaint has become almost routine. As part of a sustained military buildup, they say, China is investing heavily in so-called area-denial weapons without explaining why it needs them. The term area-denial weapons refers to a combination of armaments, technology and tactics that could be used to dominate a specific area or keep opposing forces at bay in a conflict. And one of the most formidable examples U.S. commanders identify is the Chinese Navy's rapidly expanding fleet of nuclear and conventional submarines. "I would...

Adolf Hitler's 'lost fleet' found in Black Sea By Jasper Copping  Last Updated: 2:36am GMT 03/02/2008     The final resting place of three German U-boats, nicknamed "Hitler's lost fleet", has been found at the bottom of the Black Sea. The submarines had been carried 2,000 miles overland from Germany to attack Russian shipping during the Second World War, but were scuttled as the war neared its end. Now, more than 60 years on, explorers have located the flotilla of three submarines off the coast of Turkey.   On the road: One of the U-boats being taken to Ingolstadt  ...

Story Number: NNS080131-05 WASHINGTON (NNS) -- Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) Donald C. Winter announced Jan. 30 the names of three Virginia class submarines -- the Missouri, California and Mississippi. The selection of Missouri honors the continuous support of the military by the people of the "Show Me State," and its leaders. Designated SSN 780, Missouri is the fifth ship of the United States Navy to be named in honor of the U.S. state. The last Missouri (BB 63), a U.S. Navy battleship, saw action in World War II, Korean War and the 1991 Gulf War. Missouri was also the...