British & France nuke subs bump into each other

the_syco

Been unseen is good, until someone that didn't you bumps into you...

THE GOOD news was that it proved the British nuclear missile submarine was virtually undetectable. The bad news was that HMS Vanguard was rather too undetectable, apparently moving so stealthily that it was involved in a collision with a French nuclear sub in the middle of the Atlantic. The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) was under intense pressure last night to explain how the Vanguard, which can carry 48 nuclear warheads on 16 missiles, had crashed into Le Triomphant – payload 16 missiles – in an incident some experts say could have caused a nuclear catastrophe.
The collision earlier this month was at low speed and no injuries were reported. It caused some damage to both craft, which were carrying 240 sailors between them, although officials stressed that no nuclear equipment was damaged. Independent analysts, however, described it as “a very serious incident” and there were widespread calls for a full investigation.
It happened on February 6th, yet it was not until news leaked to the Sun newspaper yesterday that the British public was made aware of it.
The MoD, unsurprisingly, played it down. However, the potential for harm in such an incident forced Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, the first sea lord, to make a statement. Two submerged submarines, one French, one British, were “conducting routine national patrols in the Atlantic Ocean,” he said. They “came into contact at very low speed . . . nuclear safety had not being compromised” and the Vanguard returned to its base in Faslane on the Clyde under its own power on February 14th.
It appears the French did not even realise Le Triomphant, based at L’Île Longue, near Brest, had hit another sub. On February 6th, France’s defence ministry had said that its boat “collided with an immersed object (probably a container)” when coming back from patrolling, and that the vessel’s sonar dome was damaged.
The French submarine is understood to have hit the side of the Vanguard, which returned to its base with what the MoD called “nicks and scrapes”. It might have been much worse. “Friendly submarines should not bump into each other. Unquestionably, it is a very serious incident,” said Cmdr Stephen Saunders, a former senior British Navy officer who is now editor of Jane’s Fighting Ships.
“It was almost a freak occurrence,” said Lee Willett, of the Royal United Service Institute.
Officials and independent analysts explained that the submarines, equipped with passive sonar, were designed to be undetectable. They are also not very manoeuvrable. The incident was described as very bad luck.
However, it raises questions which the urgent inquiries being conducted by the French and British navies will have to address. Nato navies work together to “deconflict”, to ensure that their boats, even those on the most sensitive, secret, missions are not in the same area, according to Cmdr Saunders.
Though President Nicolas Sarkozy wants France to rejoin Nato’s integrated military structure, it is not there yet. Some analysts expressed surprise that the navy liaison officers did not inform each other of their whereabouts.
John Large, a nuclear engineer and independent consultant, said navies often used the same “nesting grounds” for their submarines. However, defence officials said no country would share their country’s ultimate secret, their “independent deterrent”, what one called their “crown jewels”. – (Guardian service)

Loose lips sinks ships.

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