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Nuclear Subs 'Collide In Ocean'

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the that's-gonna-look-bad-on-the-resume dept.

Jantastic noted a BBC report saying "A Royal Navy nuclear submarine was involved in a collision with a French nuclear sub in the middle of the Atlantic. It is understood HMS Vanguard and Le Triomphant were badly damaged in the crash earlier this month. Despite being equipped with sonar, it seems neither vessel spotted the other, the BBC's Caroline Wyatt said."

5 of 622 comments (clear)

  1. Nulcear Subs -- my, how the Big Boys love to play by flajann · · Score: 0, Redundant
    Nuclear Subs -- my, how the Big Boys love to play with their little toys. Except these "little toys" each have the capacity to take out many cities, and Nuclear Bombs are indiscriminate little killers.

    From a technological standpoint, I find it rather amusing that the anti-sonar systems on both subs, according to the article, worked "a little too well." Well, duh -- they did as their engineers designed them to do.

    Except, one thing puzzles me -- if your Sonar is switched on, the other sub should pick that up. So the sonar systems of both subs must've been running quiet. So the anti-sonar systems have nothing to do with the collision. So why does the article mentions them? Did I miss something?

    Must be the reporters. They can never seem to get the story right; nor do they seem able to catch the obvious flaws in what they report.

    In short: they're just as incompetent as the Big Boys...

    Gee, I feel so much safer now...

    --
    Ruby Neural Evolution of Augmenting Topologies
  2. Nuclear Subs by Aerynvala · · Score: 0, Redundant

    For when playing "chicken" in cars gets to be boring.

    --
    http://transformativeworks.org/
  3. Re:Whoops by jcwayne · · Score: 0, Redundant

    This is correct - a nuclear missile submarine's whole purpose is to hide. According to this writeup, the Admiralty and the US Navy compare notes on the subs' planned courses to avoid such incidents; we can only assume that the French are not privy to these planning sessions.

    We keep the French out of the loop to prevent a breach of operational security next time they surrender.

    --
    Failure to follow this advice may result in non-deterministic behavior.
  4. Re:Chicken of the sea! by PPH · · Score: 0, Redundant

    There's that. And if you suspect that an unknown sub is in the area, the last thing you want to do is to maneuver violently. That'll give away your position for certain.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  5. Re:Whoops by Falconhell · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Yeh, The nuclear arsenal isnt there to protect against the Russians, its there to defend against the French.