Unthinkable [British and French Nuke Subs Collide]

UK SUN ^ | 2/15/2009 | TOM NEWTON DUNN

[Velveeta]

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.

[Kickass Conservative]

One other thing, the car will usually have a Kerry / Edwards sticker next to the Obama sticker. LOL

[SunkenCiv]

Explosion Reports May Be From Satellite Collision
KTVT - CBS Fort Worth | 2/15/2009
Posted on 02/15/2009 3:16:13 PM PST by PAR35
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2186374/posts

[Enterprise]

LOL!!!

[MonicaG]

It’s terrorism to me that he has that power, seriously.

[Kickass Conservative]

It goes without saying that EVERYONE who posts here respects and appreciates the service of those brave Sailors.

If you want to see who DISRESPECTS the Military, you need go no farther than those in Congress who wrote the Obama Stimulus Bill. A Trillion Dollars spent and pennies for our Military Men and Women and no funds for the Weapons they use to protect us.

SHAMEFUL...

[Gondring]

He wrote NUCLEAR deterrent, not “Trident deterrent”.

It was "Trident nuclear deterrent."

[xrmusn]

While we can be thankful the Brits & Frenchies survived, let’s have a ‘moment of silence’ for the USS Thresher (SSN-593) and USS Scorpion (SSN-589) both still on their final descent and also manned by volunteers.

[Velveeta]

Quite a few collisions these days...

[the OlLine Rebel]

Nope.

“this amounts to 25% of the UK’s nuclear deterrent”

He meant that the 16 missiles - which happen to be Tridents in this story - are 25% of the UK’s TOTAL deterrent of the nuclear type, not Trident type specifically. When he mentioned land-based he again wrote nothing about any of them being Trident.

[the OlLine Rebel]

The shipyard never let us forget that. Hence the SUBSAFE program.

[Charles Martel]

Given the Chinese and Russian espionage efforts, is it possible an operative managed to get those two subs tasked to the same location at the same time?

That is no less likely than both boats arriving at the same latitude, longitude and submerged depth independently.

I've seen comments from the E.U. concerning "collective defense" but thought both the U.K. and France were wary of putting their nuclear deterrent assets under any sort of "regional" control. So at this point, any espionage would've involved deep penetration of both nations' military structures, not just one combined headquarters a~la NORAD.

Who knows... perhaps there are features of the sea bottom that submariners like to use to some benefit, and that serves to funnel subsurface "traffic" into areas where these collisions are more likely than they'd first seem. Add to that the passive sonar limitations caused by thermal gradients at certain depths, and the probability of a collision may climb a bit higher yet.

[Doohickey]

A 0dB ping to the Steely-Eyed Killers of the Deep.

As an aside, the jokes on this thread a beneath contempt. I had a shipmate that was involved in a submerged collision. He wouldn't talk about it except to say that if he hadn't have gone straight to another boat, he would have never been able to set foot on one again.

[the OlLine Rebel]

No.

Just that 24 is that much more than 16, if you want powerful...

[Gondring]

You’re going back to the OP and missing the point.

In any case, the UK has never fielded a land-based nuclear force.

[farlander]

Noq that sounds highly probable. Helluva more probable than two subs colliding in the middle of the Atlantic as a pure accident. As a matter of fact, the probability of that is NEAR ZERO. Underwater is a three dimensional space. Atlantic is HUGE compared to the size of the boats. There is almost no chance this is just out of the blue accident.

This is fishy, and, we may never know what really happened. But it was no ‘accident’. You may have better odds of winning the lottery three times in a row.

[Patton@Bastogne]

.


Fred H


Another thought ... this accident allegedly happened two weeks ago ... in the Atlantic ... between friendly subs ...


The Brits and French could be falsifying all pieces of "information" ...


Location possibility ? Almost anywhere, especially the Persian Gulf ...

Time Frame: Anytime in the last 30 days ...

Accident "damage" ?

Easy to fake some "alleged" sonar dome damage to the French sub ... while the subs were later surfaced at a far-away location ... such as Diego Garcia ... or else alongside a USN Sub Tender ...


The point is that both the Brit and French navies have announced that an accident happened, will probably never release "accurate" photos of the damage ... and No One will ever know when it exactly happened ...


Who knows ?

Maybe they helped sink an Iranian Diesel Boat 30 days ago in the Indian Ocean ... or the Mediterrian ... perhaps (Tom Clancy time) as the Iranian Diesel Boat was attempting to unload terrorists-weapons-ordinance somwwhere in either England or France ...

Boomers ... do in fact ... carry torpeodoes ...

All that -- in fact -- sounds like the "perfect explantion" ...


Patton-at-Bastogne



.

[Just Lori]

If you click on the link in the header, it will take you to the article. There it mentioned “about 250 souls”.

No, it isn’t funny at all.

[SmithL]

[Thrownatbirth]

naval sources said it was a millions-to-one unlucky chance both subs were in the same patch of sea

I guess the the French and UK OPCONS picked the same stovepipe - not the first time that's happened. Collisions with uncharted sea mounts are still greatest threat to a submarine's safety.

[Stonewall Jackson]

Over the years, there have been a number of collisions between submarines.

During World War Two, three German U-boats (U-254 and U-718) were lost in collisions with other U-boats.

During the Cold War, there were a number of collisions between NATO and Warsaw Pact subs. For example: USS Augusta, an American Los Angeles-class SSN, struck and damaged K-279, a Soviet Delta I-class SSBN and USS Grayling, an American Sturgeon-class SSN, struck and damaged K-407, a Soviet Delta III-class SSBN.

In March, 1998, the USS San Juan, an American Los Angeles-class SSN, collided with the USS Kentucky, an American Ohio-class SSBN, causing minor damage to the Kentucky and moderate damage to the San Juan.