Two nuclear submarines, one French and the other British, collided in mid-Atlantic earlier this month, reports in the British and French news media said on Monday, quoting sources in the two defense ministries. ... The two submarines [Le Triomphant and H.M.S. Vanguard] are at the core of their countries' nuclear forces, each carrying a battery of intercontinental ballistic missiles equipped with multiple warheads.I don't understand the surprise some people are expressing.
Two points:
First, the planned tracks of boomers are among the most closely guarded secrets a nation has. You do not want anybody who does not absolutely need to know where they are. The whole point of having boomers is that everyone else does not know their location.
Second, boomers on patrol are the quietest of any nation's submarines. They try to stay hidden, they try to avoid detection and that means they do their utmost not to make any detectable noise. "Slow and quiet" is the mantra here. If anything, a really good boomer will look more like a hole in the water. A quiet boomer can get very close to a passive sonar array without being detected.
That two such submarines might run into each other is only a surprise because it is, after all, a pretty damn big ocean.
I wonder if a Magnetic Anomaly Detector could be developed for use on submarines as an anti-collision system. The P-3 Orion and other ASW aircraft already use them to detect subs from the air. I understand MADs have a limited range, but when you're talking something as slow-moving as a submarine running silently, there's time to maneuver.
ReplyDeleteIt could prevent accidents like this one with the two boomers, or the one back in 2001 where an American sub surfaced right underneath a Japanese fishing vessel and killed 9 people.
So, how do you explain a collision between two communications satellites?
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