Posted on 11/20/2023 3:04:49 AM PST by dynachrome
A Royal Navy nuclear submarine equipped with Trident missiles suffered a huge malfunction that sent it into an endless dive before the vessel was righted moments before the crew faced being crushed by underwater pressure, it was claimed today.
The Vanguard class sub had been carrying 140 crew when its depth gauge suddenly failed while on a mission in the Atlantic.
It caused a frantic scrabble with engineers managing to stop the submarine and its nuclear reactor from plunging further just moments before disaster struck.
The deep sea vessel, carrying Trident 2 missiles, was on patrol when the depth indicators stopped working, with its crew falsely believing it was level when in fact it was diving deeper into the ocean.
It was only when engineers at the back of the sub found a second gauge indicating they were headed towards the 'danger zone' that they sounded the alarm.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Isn’t computerized “fly by wire” great? One bad sensor and the vehicle is history. In this case going into “limp mode” was a really bad thing...
It’s even better if an enemy manages to sneak in a few lines of code.
Ask Michael Hastings...
“Isn’t computerized ‘fly by wire’ great?”
If humans lose direct control, they might disappear.
Not getting the true story, whatever it is. No critical system like that would have less than three independent sensors, so a single failure would be over-ruled by the other two. Maybe more, distributed the whole length of the hull.
Software malfunction seems a lot more likely. Or enemy action.
This would never happen before modern computers.
Oh wait...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Thresher_(SSN-593)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Scorpion_(SSN-589)
Also these things must HAVE inertial navigation platforms that would have given warning. Maybe THAT is what failed. But they’d also be triple redundant.
Not from just an electronic depth sensor going bad.
Lucas electrics...
I agree, you would think it would have redundancy.
The Prince of Darkness.
Different things.
USS Thresher was a physical failure due to a faulty weld in the lead class of a submarine type that was revolutionary.
USS Scorpion was lost to one of two things: An enemy torpedo (possibly a retaliation for the K-129 lost in a collision with a US sub out in the Pacific, and later partially salvaged by the Glomar Explorer) or a hot running torpedo inside her own hull that detonated by accident while maintenance was being performed.
In either case, neither of these was due to a primary error of human interpretation or instrumentation failure.
This near catastrophe was more akin to the loss of a billion dollar B-2 that crashed in Guam due to the failure of a sensor that gave faulty instrumentation readings, causing the computer controlled fly-by-wire to crash the plane.
I personally feel we are not getting the true story. I sense this is going to be less a failure of equipment than it will turn out to be poor training or poor execution of duties due to the woke status of the Royal Navy, a weakness much like the US Navy.
Agreed.
We will likely never find out, but I have a strong suspicion that this failure is due to human error as a result of poor training exacerbated by a woke military service and personnel shortages.
Wow.
When the USS Scorpion was lost in 1968, when she reached crush depth, her reactor and propeller shaft imploded into her bow like a collapsable telescope in about 10-30 milliseconds (I think it was closer to 10 milliseconds)
It was less time than it takes for the human brain to process input from the senses which I believe is about 150 milliseconds tops.
Mercifully, which means they had no idea.
“found a second gauge…….”
What did someone have a towel over it. Seems like redundancy fault training would have made it apparent that there was a second gauge.
Redundancy saves the day!
I cannot imagine the sheer terror those guys went through in the moments before they got it controlled.
Exactly. Which is why I think this explanation is BS. “Found a second gauge” my ass.
I strongly suspect subpar performance by sailors due to low recruiting standards, ineffective training, poor morale and team cohesiveness, and poor leadership in the Royal Navy from top to bottom.
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