Officially, the service says it was in Indo-Pacific waters, but US defense officials had previously told CNN it occurred in the South China Sea. The US Navy has not said exactly where the Connecticut hit the seamount. “It’s not surprising that you could run into something,” he said. In the busy South China Sea, through which a third of the world’s maritime trade passes and where China has been building and militarily fortifying man-made islands, less than 50% of the sea bottom has been mapped, David Sandwell, a professor of geophysics at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California, told CNN. Submariners use their compasses and charts.Īccurate charts (with a resolution of 328 feet or 100 meters) of the sea bottom are compiled by sending surface ships over an area and bathing the bottom in sound waves – a method called multi-beam sonar.īut the process is expensive and time consuming, leaving as much as 80% of Earth’s seafloor unmapped. Surface ships or a sub operating at periscope depth can relay on global positioning satellites to give sailors a very accurate location, said Shugart, now an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.īut at depth, the GPS systems are not available. Members of the crew sit at the controls aboard the Seawolf-class attack submarine USS Jimmy Carter in 2005. Not everything goes right all the time,” said Thomas Shugart, who spent more than 11 years on US submarines, including commanding an attack sub. The undersea environment is unforgiving and even small mistakes can have huge consequences. Karl Thomas, commander of US 7th Fleet, determined that “sound judgment, prudent decision-making and adherence to required procedures in navigation planning, watch team execution and risk management could have prevented the incident,” according to a statement about the decision. Patrick Cashin, and the chief of the boat, Master Chief Sonar Technician Cory Rodgers. Cameron Aljilani, was relieved of duty, as were the executive officer, Lt. The Navy on Thursday gave a hint of what might have led to the accident when it relieved the Connecticut’s leadership of their command due to loss of confidence. Not the least of which is, how did this happen? Which leaves US military planners with some big questions to answer in the coming weeks and months. The Pentagon has not released details of the damage the vessel incurred nor how long it might be out of action in a region which, with the rise of the Chinese navy, is seeing growing demands on the US fleet.
The Navy says it got there – more than 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) east of the South China Sea – under its own power and its nuclear reactor was not harmed, although 11 of its crew of suffered minor injuries in the collision. The Connecticut is now pierside at a US Navy base on the Pacific island of Guam. It’s a $3 billion piece of American military hardware that’s fast and outfitted with the latest electronic gadgetry only available when price is not a consideration.īut despite its high cost and sophisticated tech, the United States Navy says the Seawolf-class nuclear-powered attack sub ran smack into an undersea mountain in the Pacific on October 2. Some submariners call the USS Connecticut the luxury sports car of submarines.
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