Submarine News And Notes

A quick run through submarine tidbits making news today:

1) USS Connecticut (SSN 22) arrives in her new homeport of Bangor today, meaning all three Seawolf-class subs will now be based in the Puget Sound. Given the known superiority of Seawolf-class boats, this means the Bangor area now indisputably has the world's most powerful submarine fleet when you count the 2 SSGNs, their 8 SSGNs SSBNs, and whichever two Seawolfs can get underway while the 3rd one is used as a spare parts depot for the other two.

2) We don't talk about countermeasure systems very much, for very good reason, which can leave military reporters unsure about how to describe them when they do make the news. This results in them being called part of a "counterattack" system in this article about a man stealing what seem to be domes from a CSA MkII system on USS Hampton (SSN 767).

3) I really don't see Brazil successfully building an SSN within the next 20 years, despite what this article says.

4) This article about the Navy resuming sonar training off SoCal is amusing because it has quotes from skimmer-types about ASW, including this one:

At 2 a.m. Sunday, the target submarine -- a U.S. sub playing the role of the enemy -- surfaced near the carrier and radioed to announce its location. In these games, it was a taunt that prompted a round of urgent, middle-of-the-night phone calls.
"It's very embarrassing that the submarine got in on us," said one Navy captain. "But it shows how a submarine can hide among pinnacles and seamounts, and we'll have to learn from it."

Looks to me like at least one Navy captain has been watching too much "Hunt For Red October" and thinks submarines really do dart in and out among the forest of "pinnacles" that is the SoCal local ops area...

Edited 2024 29 Jan to correct a typo.

Update 0717 30 Jan 2008: The news about submarines just keeps on coming! USS Miami (SSN 755) returned from deployment, the delivery of PCU North Carolina (SSN 777) has been delayed until February because of a problem with a steam valve, and USS Connecticut arrived as planned yesterday, as this photo attests:

Update 0015 31 Jan 2008: Here's another picture of Connecticut's arrival.