Posted on 11/06/2012 2:04:52 AM PST by Libloather
Russian attack sub discovered just 200 miles from the East Coast and given safe harbor from Hurricane Sandy
By Daily Mail Reporter
UPDATED: 00:15 EST, 6 November 2012
U.S. defense officials are downplaying the potential threat of a Russian attack sub detected just 200 miles from the East Coast and given safe harbor in Florida during Hurricane Sandy.
The Russian Seirra-2 class submarine was believed to be part of the country's Northern Fleet, outfitted with SS-N-21 anti-submarine warfare missiles, SS-N-16 anti-submarine warfare missiles, and torpedos.
**SNIP**
Officials said the submarine was likely conducting anti-submarine warfare efforts against U.S. ballistic and cruise missile submarines at Kings Bay, Georgia.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
There’s flexibility and there’s accommodation. Maybe Obama wants to offer the Soviets a base in Florida. Much more convenient than Cuba.
Strange, because I heard that the U.S. Navy sent the fleet in Norfolk out to sea to avoid Sandy. Ships at anchorage bang into things.
Absurd and silly election time exageration. We are not at war with Russia. 200 miles is international waters. It was a friendly gesture and would be expected to be reciprocated. If a US sub was off the coast of Russia and they refused safe harbor and there was an accident what would we say? By calling it an “attack sub” it is made to sound incendiary, but it isn’t.
I'd expect that the last place you'd go in a nuc boat is into ANY harbor during a storm and especially a harbor full of potential adversaries with cameras and other surveillance equipment. Assuming this isn't a wholesale fabrication, was it possible to get a hotel room in Jacksonville, or did the intelligence agencies have them booked solid?
I imagine it sailing away again covered in everything from graffiti to hull-attached transponders and trailing a bunch of tin cans on strings- the naval equivalent of falling asleep drunk at a rowdy frat party. :-)
Nuclear subs travel so far beneath the sea’s storm surges that they do not have to “port” in any storm.
This article is CRAP. If the sub ported, it certainly was not because of hurrican Sandy.
Nuclear subs travel so far beneath the sea’s storm surges that they do not have to “port” in any storm.
This article is CRAP. If the sub ported, it certainly was not because of hurricane Sandy.
Exactly. Since when do subs, which can DIVE, need to be protected from hurricanes?
Nuclear powered attack submarines have no need to surface into the middle of a hurricane, unless thunseaworthy about them. So, why would a Russian nuclear powered attack submarine need a safe harbor in a U.S. port unless the boat was in distress?
Subs go way down in the ocean, and again I imagine there's not that much hurricane activity (I'm sure there's some .. ) a thousand or more feet below the surface, soooo .. why does it need a safe harbor ?
By what method did we deem it 'safe' and allow it safe harbor ?
So now we have a Russian attack sub, tricked out for war .. invited into the house after they rang the bell and said, "trick or treat"
?????
It is an attack sub, meant to attack other subs and ships, as opposed to a missile boomer. It’s not intended to be incendiary, just descriptive. Attacking things is what warships do and submarines are definitely at the pointy end of the spear.
There are protocols about the distance missile boomers are supposed to keep off shore, a gentleman’s agreement. Their isn’t any evidence that they were in distress. When a Russian freighter was in Boston Harbor, we were not allowed to test certain waveforms for a Navy radar at a land site twenty five miles away. Every Russian ship is an intelligence platform.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2955363/posts
http://freebeacon.com/russian-subs-skirt-coast/
for cross reference
Ridiculous! Subs go under the water for safe refuge in storm. What a bunch of socially promoted, naive, pretenders in DC to allow this move.
Really, in a world of suicide bombings what exactly stops the sub from launching on DC to achieve victory by mugging. MAD? I wouldn’t trust that doctrine anymore with this commie sympathizing Potemkin President and his czars pulling strings.
‘Hunt for Red October’ or Target Practice?
We have an Islamic radical in the White House and Russia can’t trust him!
>>Nuclear subs travel so far beneath the seas storm surges that they do not have to port in any storm.
I sailed very smoothly under quite a few storms in my submarining days. Since subs have round bottom, the last place they want be in a storm is on the surface or in port. There is definitely more to this.
Election monitors. Everyone else seems to think it’s OK to stick their nose into our elections.
Maybe Putin wanted to see what he was getting for his money to support Hussein’s re-election.
The search function doesn’t work for me right now. I gave it an honest shot.
Any thoughts about what it could be?
I have a bad feeling about Obama’s lame-duck period. The Clintons trashed the White House before leaving, but I’m afraid Obama will trash a lot more.
If you read the other articles, the claim is that a Russian AGI (Intelligence ship)
was given safe harbor, NOT the submarine.
Just Russia needing to pick up its spies prior to the administration change!
“The weather is getting bad here in the USA for them.
Uh...a Sierra-2 IS an attack sub.
The Russians have figured out that they can cruise the U.S. coastline with impunity.
You did fine :)
The other thread has a different source.
Two things:
1. The grammar of my sentence makes it seems like I am not aware that the sub is an attack sub due to the placement of “but it isn’t”. What I meant was that it was not incendiary because we are not in a state of conflict with Russia.
2. What would you suggest that the US do when those subs approach the US coast? Should we sink down some depth charges and start a war? Also, isn’t 200 miles the extended economic zone. Anything beyond it - and the article does not indicate that it was closer than this - would still be completely international waters.
Exactly.
Your general point is correct, but It's perfectly legal for a warship of any country to be within 200 nautical miles of any other countries' coast. Territorial waters are only 12 nm from the coast.
The entire Russian Navy could be 15 nm from the US coast and it would be perfectly legal, and we certainly wouldn't be sinking anyone.
Soviet vessels (and aircraft) were routinely within 200 nm of the US during the Reagan administration, and we didn't sink a single one of them. And throughout most of the cold war there were Soviet SSBNs with short range missiles on continuous patrol near Bermuda and Hawaii. Indeed, people need to calm down a bit.
If you read the replies and the other links, The Daily Mail embarassingly botched what they copied from the Free Beacon - the claim in the orginal story is that a Russian AGI was in Jacksonville, not a submarine.
And embarassingly and amusingly, both stories managed to misspell “Sierra.”
Well, that’s a world of difference.
It was given safe harbor?? Baloney.........
Still don’t believe it. All it had to do was travel away from the storm.
I agree, this article is crap.
Well, I’m not endorsing the veracity of any of the story - Bill Gertz is not reliable.
However it’s more plausible that an AGI would seek port than an SSN.
The Russians would let an SSN sink before they requested safe harbor in the US.
Safe harbor, a nice warm meal and the democrats sent a bus to drive them all to the nearest voting location.
Yes, it was an AGI. Still, there is going to be a lot of spooks running around Jacksonville Harbor. As soon as the ship is out of harbor they are going to send divers down to check the hull for all bugs we attached to it, LOL.
Makes no sense. There is something they are not telling us.
Perhaps there is a really good BBQ joint in Jacksonville.
A submarine seeking safe harbor from a storm at sea? This is BS ... a submarine simply dives to say 450 ft. and cruises along with little or no disturbance from wave action above.
it was a good gesture. And we get to take lots of close-up pictures. The ocean is not particularly clam under a the surface in a hurricane. Even subs need to get out of the way of big storms. A Soviet captain would have faced loss of command and worse, faced charges of being a spy at home for going into an American port like that.
I went through a hurricane in a US Submarine at > 400 feet. You slight roll slowly at that depth.
OK, you win for best quip!
Heh...keep on beliving that.
What would you suggest that the US do when those subs approach the US coast?
Back in the good ol' days of the Cold War, U.S. Navy ASW crews would be pinging the heck out of it and herding it back out to the deep blue ocean, with a Los Angeles-class 688 attack sub in close, quiet pursuit.
That is interesting. I’m actually a bit surprised that the sea is affected at all at 400 ft.
We were deeper but I can not say.
I understand. I find it amazing even for 400 ft. Obviously not a threatening situation for the sub. It makes me wonder about the physics of it. Would it just be a mechanical disturbance from the churning going on above reverberating into the depths or is convection involved from the storm pulling heat from the water? I’m not expecting you to answer that just a rhetorical question.
“Russian attack sub...”
If it was French would it be a “retreat sub?”
Sacrebleu! That’s going to leave a marque.
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