Experts: New Sub Can Tap Undersea Cables

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[Sub-Driver]

Experts: New Sub Can Tap Undersea Cables

* USS Jimmy Carter Will Be Based In Washington State

Feb 18, 2005 4:55 pm US/Eastern WASHINGTON (AP) The USS Jimmy Carter, set to join the nation’s submarine fleet on Saturday, will have some special capabilities, intelligence experts say: It will be able to tap undersea cables and eavesdrop on the communications passing through them.

The Navy does not acknowledge the $3.2 billion submarine, the third and last of the Seawolf class of attack subs, has this capability.

“That’s going to be classified in nature,” said Kevin Sykes, a Navy spokesman. “You’re not going to get anybody to talk to you about that.”

But intelligence community watchdogs have little doubt: The previous submarine that performed the mission, the USS Parche, was retired last fall. That would only happen if a new one was on the way.

Like the Parche, the Carter was extensively modified from its basic design, given a $923 million hull extension that allows it to house technicians and gear to perform the cable-tapping and other secret missions, experts say. The Carter’s hull, at 453 feet, is 100 feet longer than the other two subs in the Seawolf class.

“The submarine is basically going to have as its major function intelligence gathering,” said James Bamford, author of two books on the National Security Agency.

Navy public information touts some of the Carter’s special abilities: In the extended hull section, the boat can provide berths for up to 50 special operations troops, like Navy SEALs. It has an “ocean interface” that serves as a sort of hangar bay for smaller vehicles and drones to launch and return.

[Tail Gunner John]

Brother Billy got all the brains.

[cynwoody]

Read Blind Man's Bluff and read all about the cable tapping by the US Subs. One sub would actually leave California, go around Tierra Del Fuego (the extreme tip of South America for you readers from Rio Lindo)and go north around Scandinavia to Murmansk to do their thing.

I think I read they sent two subs on those missions. The job of the second boat was to lead a merry chase in the event the Soviets turned up in the area during the mission.

Also, I think there was a plan (never carried out) to lay a cable from the tap over to Greenland, thereby solving the timeliness problem mentioned in the article. There must have been a hell of a lot of good stuff on that cable to justify such an effort!

[killjoy]

(or 'nucular' as the ex-pres would say)

Or our current President... grrrr....

[michaelt]

I agree with you. It's also ironic that this sub will probably undertake missions that Carter probably wouldn't appreciate - tapping undersea cables, getting special operations forces into the countries of his closest friends....

[Sub-Driver]

nope, only 4 I believe......

[Alberta's Child]

I believe the U.S. had been doing this at least 20 years ago in the Sea of Okhotsk -- it was called "Operation Ivy Bells," if my memory serves me correctly.

[leprechaun9]

The book "Blind Man's Bluff" is a must read for more than the submarine cable tapping. The fact that one of our subs went into a Soviet Top Secret Naval base on a periodic basis, changed the monitoring pod and was not detected for fifteen years, gives me comfort that part of our government is working well.

Unfortunately the Spy, John Walker, told the soviets about this tapping for $15,000 and today that cable pod is on display in a Moscow Museum!

The book also discusses the Glomar Explorer and its impact on the Reagan/Gorbachor meeting!

[Whispering Smith]

When/Who changed the Navy's policy of "We do not discuss the operations of U.S. submarines"

The "Big Dolphin" (OP-02) when he saw his budget base go poof.

[buccaneer81]

Tapping of undersea cables was never that big of a secret.... Speaking from the pervue of a 30+ year Telecom Engineer....

Yup. I read "Blind Man's Bluff." Very enlightening.

[ProudVet77]

Thank you. I was surprised at the nasty tone towards the ship and crew. The Carter is in all likelyhood the most advanced sub we have and will no doubt be going in harms way very frequently.
PV77 - who spent the summer of '72 cruising the Barents Sea.

[buccaneer81]

And WHO THE F*** would name a ship after one of the WORST presidents in history!?

Well, there are no ships named after Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. And I feel confident saying that Clinton will join those two as the only president not to have a ship named for him since Franklin Roosevelt.

[Rebelbase]

" The book also discusses the Glomar Explorer and its impact on the Reagan/Gorbachor meeting!"

I still think we got more of that Sub than we let on we did.

[miele man]

I was thinking the same, especially the damage done to the CIA and US intelligence gathering by Carter's appointee to run the CIA, Adm. Turner

[finnman69]

Old news. We have been doing this since the 70s.

Read:Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/006103004X/qid=1108781783/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-2089751-5402328

[Paulus Invictus]

Can it chase and destroy ferocious, man-eating rabbits?

[Bald Eagle777]

But the main story should really read that the very naming of this great sub is itself completely and totally "Tapped" to use a different phrase.

[razorback-bert]

or 'nucular' as the ex-pres would say

That he does and the MSM gives him a pass.

[meyer]

How ironic - a Carter gathering intelligence.

[SaltyJoe]

"WORST" president? You mean there's a USS Clinton in the making?

[Never2baCrat]

<<< was a naval officer and a submariner who served honorably. >>>.

Not according to a neighbour of mine. Didn't he get out of serving by going to look after the peanut farm?