China sub collides with array towed by U.S. ship: report [USS John McCain]

Reuter ^ | 2009-06-12

[rabscuttle385]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Chinese submarine accidentally collided with an underwater sonar array being towed by a U.S. military ship, CNN reported on Friday, quoting an unnamed military official.

The incident occurred on Thursday near Subic Bay off the coast of the Philippines, according to the CNN report.

The destroyer USS John McCain was reportedly towing the array, deployed to track underwater sounds.

[rabscuttle385]

[rabscuttle385]

Well, at least they didn't cut the towline...

The Juan McCain Truth File. "I have great respect for Al Gore." —John McCain, October 2, 2008 FR Keywords: mccaintruthfile, mcqueeg, mcbama Please tag all relevant threads with the aforementioned keywords. This can be a very high-volume ping list at times. To join the ping list: FReepmail rabscuttle385 with the subject line add  mccaintruthfile. (Stop getting pings by sending the subject line drop mccaintruthfile.)   Republican Commissar’s Warning: By joining this ping list, you may be subjected to the delusional rants and ramblings of McCainiacs, of "moderate" Republicans, of pragmatic conservatives resigned to voting for the lesser of two Democrats, and of countless RNC shills who simply want to meet a new overlord.

[rahbert]

I wonder if the Chinese skippers career is over?

[webschooner]

Yeah, and Monica “accidentally” polished Bubba’s knob.

[rabscuttle385]

Humor ping.

[Oldexpat]

The old VDS sonar would really ring the bell of any sub it hit. In the old Navy we could only use it on special occasions, because the Sub guys were scared to death of hitting it. I think the new arrays are a big lighter and not like a 4000# wrecking ball.

[NavVet]

If the U.S. Ship towing a deployed a towed array (whose purpose is to detect subs) only detected the submarine after it ran into his array, then he may be the one getting fired.

[Zhang Fei]

This is the interesting part.

The incident occurred on Thursday near Subic Bay off the coast of the Philippines

[Radagast the Fool]

“I think the new arrays are a big lighter and not like a 4000# wrecking ball.”

You know, that’s sorta too bad. Think about it!!

[stboz]

"Accident? So....there ain't no such thing as an accident. Everything's planned by a Higher and Wiser Power and it's always for a Good Purpose."

-----Mark Twain

[webschooner]

Oy vey ... Well you know ... sh!t happens sometimes when you’re gettin’ tailgated. Where the hell is the submarine police when ya need em?

[Non-Sequitur]

Wrong McCain. It’s named after his father and grandfather.

[Larry Lucido]

Maybe it was meant to act as “flypaper.”

[webschooner]

Yes, but now doubt Juan thinks it’s named after him.

[Darksheare]

Navy: “He’s not really stupid enough to..”

Chicom sub: “I Chilee guy! Victoly!!” *crunch*

Navy: “Umm.. let me rephrase that..”

[skeeter]

The Chinese sure do like colliding their military hardware with our’s.

[Habibi]

“The old VDS sonar would really ring the bell of any sub it hit. “

So, you are saying that hitting one of the towed arrays would be a “bad thing” for the sub. I can’t help but remember that Chicom fighter pilot (Wong Way (sp?) snicker) that got ground up by a couple of Allisons on a P3. Colliding with other countries defense assets is not usually considered to be a wise maneuver. I would assume it would be true in this case as well. Am I wrong?

[Big_Monkey]

"The old VDS sonar would really ring the bell of any sub it hit."

You'd think that something hitting the towed array would tear the davits (or whatever it's called that does the towing) right off the deck of the Destroyer. I wonder what damage was done to the US ship and how expensive it's going to be to fix.

[doc1019]

If the U.S. Ship towing a deployed a towed array (whose purpose is to detect subs) only detected the submarine after it ran into his array, then he may be the one getting fired.

Nothing in the article indicates that the ship towing the array didn’t detect the sub … up to the sub to avoid the array IMHO. ;-)

[stboz]

How does a Chinese sub-driver call “Crazy Ivan?”