Great music at chase scene too:
Posted on 10/27/2021 10:01:52 PM PDT by algore
The U.S. Navy still isn’t positive what one of its most powerful attack submarines hit in the South China Sea, as repair assessments continue in Guam, four sources familiar with the results of the preliminary investigations told USNI News this week.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the undersea object that damaged the forward section of USS Connecticut (SSN-22) had not been definitively determined as part of several investigations into the Oct. 2 incident, the sources said.
Early indications were Connecticut hit a seamount in the South China Sea, two defense officials familiar with the Navy’s examination of the submarines told USNI News, but that has not been confirmed by investigators. Politico first reported earlier this month that the boat may have hit an undersea feature.
Cmdr. Cindy Fields, a spokesperson with Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, told USNI News the command had nothing to add to its initial statement on what the submarine hit. She said two investigations – a safety investigation board convened by COMSUBPAC and a command investigation overseen by the Japan-based U.S. 7th Fleet – are currently looking into the incident.
“Connecticut struck an object while submerged on the afternoon of Oct. 2, while operating in international waters in the Indo-Pacific region,” PACFLEET said on Oct. 7.
The impact to the forward part of the attack submarine damaged the submarine’s forward ballast tanks and forced the boat to make a week-long trip on the surface to Guam, two defense officials told USNI News this week.
The four sources confirmed the Navy’s public statement that the reactor compartment of the submarine was undamaged from when the boat hit the object.
Since returning to Guam, the boat is still under evaluation for the scope of repairs by Naval Sea Systems Command, personnel from the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and submarine tender USS Emory S. Land (AS-39), Fields told USNI News on Tuesday.
The teams will first determine what repairs Connecticut needs to leave Guam safely and then follow-on repairs, Fields said. The closest dry dock for major submarine maintenance is in Hawaii. The Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, which is near the attack boat’s homeport in Bremerton, Wash., is the second closest dry dock.
While repairs and several investigations continue, Chinese officials have accused the U.S. of concealing details of the incident from Beijing.
“The Chinese side has repeatedly expressed grave concerns over the matter and asked the U.S. side to make clarifications,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Tuesday.
“We have seen nothing but a brief and vague statement issued by the U.S. military with procrastination, and a confirmation by a so-called informant that the incident did happen in the South China Sea.
Such an irresponsible, cagey practice gives regional countries and the international community every reason to question the truth of the incident and the intention of the U.S.”
The Chinese want to know if it really hit one of their bugs
They hit the wall at the edge of the Earth and the mermaids pushed them back...with whales and dolphins helping. That lazy leviathan just floated and laughed.
Queue the thread about all of the ship containers floating free in the ocean after falling overboard. They don’t all float at the surface.
this is the south china sea area
would not surprise me if china hadn’t changed some topography there, especially if its in an area with very tight spaces
if people have highly detailed charts regularly updated, that they are going off of for manuevers, they could be caught unawares by a deliberate object in their path
I can’t imagine that a freely-drifting shipping container would begin to have enough inertia to do that kind of damage. Would be at most a fender-bender for the sub, if that. And the boat’s speed would be modest that close to the seafloor. Is there evidence to the contrary?
1974
My sub (Boomer) hit something on patrol in the Med (a few hundred miles east of Gibraltar) while we were at about 250 feet.
I was on watch in the torpedo room (most forward compartment on the boat). It was less of a “bang” and more of a “dull thump” and there was the slightest shimmy/vibration for a half sec or less.
Never found out what it was. Could have been a whale, some kind of percussion device, a piece of sea junk of some sort floating around at that depth. People got very excited for about 20 minutes while we checked for damage/leaks. Then back to sleep/card game.
Every now and then we had to go to “ultra-quiet” because a probable Soviet sub was detected within a few hundred yards. Underwater collisions are quite possible.
As we entered and left through the Straits of Gibraltar to the Atlantic we went as fast as we could and tried to get “lost” in the massive amount of shipping traffic noise 200 feet above us. Soviet subs would sit on either side of the strait trying to pick us up and track us.
Gibraltar, reminds me of that scene in Das Boot.
What business is it of the Chicoms?
Unless one of their boats is missing?
Ask the two Navy queens, Admirals Levine and Kirby for their opinions!!
Bad joke coming! How do you address Adm. Rachel Levine? By shopping for her at the Dress Barn.
Thanks for the brief personal narrative on boomer activity - probably the most interesting thing I’ll read all day (or week).
Interesting read....thanks for posting.
Check for paint from a Chinese Sub ,LOL
Godzilla
see :
US Navy Subs Detect Unidentified Speeding Underwater Crafts moving at hundreds of knots.
What U.S. Submariners Actually Say About Detection Of So-Called Unidentified Submerged Objects
Big claims abound about mysterious objects submariners detect below the waves, so we went straight to the source and what we found out was surprising.
By Tyler Rogoway January 3, 2019
Great music at chase scene too:
One of my favorite movies!
China is thinking that we may have some ‘traps’ at their choke points and is trying to get us to own-up.
Lots of folks think it was a pocket of "hard water" - everybody's heard of it...
a container of Prop wash?
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