US Nuclear Sub strikes vessel with periscope

WASHINGTON — A US submarine's periscope struck a vessel in the Gulf on Thursday but apparently caused no major damage or injuries, the US Navy's Fifth Fleet said in a statement. The USS Jacksonville, a Los Angeles-class sub, "struck a vessel while operating in the Persian Gulf" at about 5:00 am local time (0200 GMT), the statement said.

www.google.com...

I wonder how mistakes like this can happen in the US military. China must think this is very funny. Could the bumbling US military start WW3 with an accidental collision at sea? Heads should roll over this international embarrassment.

I love how the US navy doesnt even seem to be sure about what happened and that even though they hit this unsuspecting vessel, the vessal is still "unidentified" and the search of the area spotted no debris or vessels in distress. Sounds like the US navy has no idea what it is doing.

reply to post by HenryNorris


no it doesn't... The Sub was hoping not to be noticed after the collision... They can't just pop up and say hi..

But this other incident was a bit worse..

Anger After U.S. Sub Sinks Japanese Boat

As rescuers continue to search for nine Japanese still missing after their fishing boat was sunk by a surfacing U.S. Navy submarine, officials are trying to understand how the accident could have happened.

Nine Japanese are still missing — four 17-year-old students, two teachers, and three crew members.

reply to post by HenryNorris


en.wikipedia.org... were doing a sight better then the Russians/soviets and en.wikipedia.org... the Chinese have problems with their own submarines with a loss of 70 people so ill take a us sub bumping its periscope over one with lots of loss of life any day.www.dailymail.co.uk...

An accident on board a Chinese conventional submarine has killed all of its 70 officers and crew, the official Xinhua news agency said today. The accident, which occurred in Chinese territorial waters in recent days, was caused by mechanical problems during training, Xinhua said but gave no further details or a date. It was one of the worst naval accidents in Communist China's history, a military source said. "Unfortunately, all 70 men and officers aboard the submarine died," Xinhua said. The submarine has been towed to an unidentified port, Xinhua added. Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk... Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

reply to post by Dustytoad


haha yeah good point its not like a traffic accident where you have to exchange information. one of their main missions is to remain undetected (more so the boomers then the attack subs) so like you said its not like they are gonna pop up immediately and check on things

reply to post by HenryNorris


Have you ever seen a sub. before ? Ah no windows ! They see with sonar , so if a fast moving boat blast over the top while surfacing they stand no chance . As your luck would have it I work on subs for a living , If you only knew how big these things really are and how many people it takes to run one . With a post like this you are bound to come accross a old submariner and I am sure he will set you straight . As far as the rest of the world and their subs , yah no comparison . Best regards From Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and IMF ! P.S. it could not have been that much damage as we havent heard of this boat coming in for any repairs .

Originally posted by RalagaNarHallas
reply to post by HenryNorris

 

en.wikipedia.org... were doing a sight better then the Russians/soviets and en.wikipedia.org... the Chinese have problems with their own submarines with a loss of 70 people so ill take a us sub bumping its periscope over one with lots of loss of life any day.www.dailymail.co.uk...

An accident on board a Chinese conventional submarine has killed all of its 70 officers and crew, the official Xinhua news agency said today. The accident, which occurred in Chinese territorial waters in recent days, was caused by mechanical problems during training, Xinhua said but gave no further details or a date. It was one of the worst naval accidents in Communist China's history, a military source said. "Unfortunately, all 70 men and officers aboard the submarine died," Xinhua said. The submarine has been towed to an unidentified port, Xinhua added. Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk... Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Yeah but those are in the past.

In the present it is the US navy making mistakes. And yeah, Im glad there was no loss of life. Lucky.

Subs don't actively ping for surface targets. If the other vessel is running sail or drifting with the current, it's really tough to hear them. So you can get these things where you've got a mast up and bump into something.

If they were underway on the surface, then there's not much excuse. I suspect whoever was OOD and the captain, possibly the hydrophone guy are in trouble.

Originally posted by letseeit7
reply to post by HenryNorris

 

Have you ever seen a sub. before ? Ah no windows ! They see with sonar , so if a fast moving boat blast over the top while surfacing they stand no chance . As your luck would have it I work on subs for a living , If you only knew how big these things really are and how many people it takes to run one . With a post like this you are bound to come accross a old submariner and I am sure he will set you straight . As far as the rest of the world and their subs , yah no comparison . Best regards From Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and IMF ! P.S. it could not have been that much damage as we havent heard of this boat coming in for any repairs .

Maybe it sank. Its not like the US military has any real idea.

reply to post by letseeit7


Very Big... From that mostly unrelated article I posted (origin 2001)

" ...6,900-ton U.S. Navy attack sub about nine miles from Honolulu's Pearl Harbor... "

reply to post by HenryNorris


It is a really big deal if these things sink , And kind of hard to hide when all boats have scheduled repairs and mods. Most likely the case its a overblown report . These guys go to the arctic circle and break through ice that is feet thick , so I doubt its really much of anything . I am not so sure of whatever it hit though . The 688 is being phased out so I am sure in the next couple of years she will be in for cut ups . I will ask tomorrow at work and see what anyone knows . Like I said I havent heard anything and stories like this are great rumors to talk about at work until they decide to brief us . Take care

reply to post by Dustytoad


That is Bangor , Delta pier , And that's all I will say about that picture . The boat I think you are refering to is the San fransisco and the honolulu . We cut the nose off and repaired it . First ever repair of this type . Took a couple years , we nicknamed it the Honnafrisco .

reply to post by Dustytoad


That dry dock in the picture is in Washington state .

reply to post by HenryNorris


Its more likely they thought it was a whale.

Chasing it aroud trying to harpoon it.

Well it is not as if submarines can see. The only way to allow the captain to actually see the surface is to utilize the periscope. Everyone knows this from the movies, if not from personal experience. So while they are rising to periscope depth, they have no way to know what is above them, and just assume it is water. I did not read the article, so I do not know if the sub was trying to surface, but that is unlikely. What most likely happened is that the captain sent up the periscope, which rammed the bottom of a surface vessel.

In shallower gulf waters like that, especially if the surface vessel has a has a very high draft, which is basically the distance from the waterline to bottom of the keel, then this would have happened at a deeper depth. I say all this because if a sub were to rise on top of any moderately size ship, damage would be done. But the periscope ramming the hull is not going to really do any damage, unless the boat was like a very small fishing boat or something, and had a weak hull. I do not know the exact force a rising periscope has, but it is not all that much.

Subs don't actively ping for surface targets. If the other vessel is running sail or drifting with the current, it's really tough to hear them. So you can get these things where you've got a mast up and bump into something.

lol, maybe in the 1970s, submarine tech has gotten a bit better since then

Originally posted by jazzguy

Subs don't actively ping for surface targets. If the other vessel is running sail or drifting with the current, it's really tough to hear them. So you can get these things where you've got a mast up and bump into something.

lol, maybe in the 1970s, submarine tech has gotten a bit better since then

In what way, do tell? Can't wait.

USN, Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy & Marine Nationale (France) officer training is really different.

I remember seeing a tv documentary a few years ago about the notoriously difficult Royal Navy Perisher officer training. A USN commander was being trained. The RN submarine he was commanding snagged a fishing boat net and the US commander instinctively ordered the submarine dive deeper ... his order was immediately countermanded by the training officers and the submarine immediately surfaced.

The explained that in peacetime, a collision or net snagging will send a USN commander to take his boat down a little bit further & assess the damage, only surfacing if that is deemed unavoidable, But British, Canadian & French doctrine instructs the commander to surface and make his boat known, assuming that action doesn't threaten his submarine or the vessel interfered with. That's quite an important distinction. I wonder why the USN dives and the others surface ?
.

reply to post by NorthernThird


If you look at my first post it's just an instinct.. Americans are more like that? and Europeans are more proper? I assume they are surfacing for the other boats benefit? So they know what's going on? Or is it just in case the sub is in danger of sinking you want the top maybe damaged part above the water line?

Originally posted by NorthernThird
I wonder why the USN dives and the others surface ?

I have no Navy tactical knowledge - however, I'd suspect that Navy values secrecy in the location of its sub fleet above all. If your nets are suddenly pulled to pieces or your boat heaves and you end up with a hole, you really don't know exactly why.

If the sub surfaces, you do. Not only that, you know where they are, and who they are. I suspect that's a no-no.

Why that's not the same for other countries, I couldn't say.

Well, that poor captain. He's going to be getting this treatment later:


It's not like he can freaking see the surface without the periscope to know that ship was up there. They may be able to use radar but those signals are easy to catch along with active sonar from what I understand. He's going to get a bit of a tongue lashing for that. I can't be mad at him though. It could have been a lot worse, I mean he could have torpedoed the boat.