Russian general confirms sub patrols near U.S.

[bobdina]

Russian general confirms sub patrols near U.S.

Wire reports
Posted : Wednesday Aug 5, 2009 11:11:50 EDT

A top Russian general shrugged off two nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines that have been spotted off the U.S. East Coast, saying that they are part of regular patrols and in line with normal international practice.

Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the deputy chief of staff of Russia’s armed forces, says the patrols are not newsworthy.

Nogovitsyn said Wednesday that Russia resumed the submarine patrols after restarting strategic bomber patrol flights in 2007.

U.S. defense officials said Tuesday that the Russian submarines had been patrolling in international waters for several days. While the activity was reminiscent of the Cold War, the U.S. officials said the submarines had done nothing to provoke concern.

Nogovitsyn said the patrols were “a normal thing” and suggested the U.S. also has submarines patrolling near Russia.

The New York Times first reported that the two Russian nuclear-powered submarines had been patrolling off the east coast in recent days, the first such move in several years and causing worry among U.S. officials.

Russia regularly makes its position on international issues known through unnamed sources quoted by state media, and all three main news agencies ran nearly identical reactions to the New York Times report, quoting a military-diplomatic source.

“The Russian navy systematically pinpoints the location of NATO submarines, including U.S. Navy submarines, in direct proximity to the territorial waters of the Russian Federation,” Interfax news agency quoted the source as saying.

“This, however, has never been a reason to make a lot of noise in the press,” the source said, adding: “Consequently, any hysteria in such a case is inappropriate.”



http://armytimes.com/news/2009/08/navy_russiansub_080509w/

[Cruelbreed]

Still makes me pretty uneasy, pesky little annoying flies :P

[bobdina]

One good thing though is they did not go back to Russia undetected, the Navy obviously knew they were there tracked them for awhile and then made the announcement.

[Cruelbreed]

One good thing though is they did not go back to Russia undetected, the Navy obviously knew they were there tracked them for awhile and then made the announcement.

Yup that's true, it was like a training exercise lol.

[Cruelbreed]

U.S. eyes two Russian submarines near American territory (http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2009/08/05/u-s-eyes-two-russian-submarines-near-american-territory-2/)
Posted: 01:53 PM ET
From Chris Lawrence
CNN Pentagon Correspondent
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Two Russian attack submarines have been cruising in the Atlantic, off the east coast of the United States, a senior defense official told CNN Wednesday.
Asked about the submarines, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said their presence is not causing alarms to go off.
“So long as they are operating in international waters, as frankly we do around the world, and are behaving in a responsible way, they are certainly free to do so and it doesn’t cause any alarm within this building,” said Geoff Morrell.
The Akula-class nuclear-powered submarines, which are normally equipped with surface-loaded cruise missiles and surface-to-air missiles, have stayed in international waters, the source said. These are not the class of submarines that can launch intercontinental nuclear missiles.
The U.S. Navy has the capability to locate, identify and track submarine activity through satellites, ships, aircraft and classified systems.
“NORAD and U.S. Northern Command are aware of Russian submarine activity off the East coast operating in international waters. We have been monitoring them during transit and recognize the right of all nations to exercise freedom of navigation in international waters according to international law,” Lt. Desmond James at the North American Aerospace Defense Command told CNN.
A Russian military spokesman told reporters at a news conference in Moscow that the submarine’s activities were “part of the normal process.”
It has been years since Russia operated near the U.S. seaboard, thousands of miles from Russian home ports.
“What’s interesting is they haven’t been able to do this in some time, and now they are. It indicates a return to their ability to do this,” the senior defense official said.
He viewed the patrol as an example of Russia showing the United States and the world its expeditionary forces, part of a continuing trend. He said the Russians have recently been a partner in anti-piracy operations around the world. And last year the Russian Navy conducted a “tour around the world,” pulling into ports throughout Latin America.

[Reactor-Axe-Man]

This is nothing new. We do it to them, and they do it to us. The collapse of the Soviet Union has only limited their ability to actually do it of late, which is why everyone is concerned that it's happening again.

In fact I had a shipmate regale me with a sea story of his time on the Ustafish.

Said friend was down in the hole in Engine Room Lower Level. Now on a 637 class SSN like the Ustafish, the freshwater evaporator was down there in the hole with him. One of the log readings you take on it is the Brine Density. This is a general indicator of how efficiently the evaporator is working. It's basically a hygrometer (anyone who home brews will know what that is) calibrated to pounds of sea-salt per 32 pounds of seawater. Normal seawater is about 1 pound salts per 32 pounds of water. Brine from the evaporator in good working order is about 1.5 pounds of salt to 32 pounds of water.

My shipmate is taking logs one watch, and gets a brine density of zero... This is of course an Out of Spec condition, which requires him to circle the reading in red and report it to Maneuvering (the engine room control room). No dummy he, he quickly reasons out an explanation for why his brine has no salt in it, and asks Maneuvering a question.

"Are we in a river or something?"

Within ten minutes, the Engineer (a Lieutenant Commander) comes down into the hole, looks at the logs, scratches out that part of them, and instructs him and his reliefs not to take that particular log again until further notice.

He never did get an answer to his question!

[bobdina]

Thanks for sharing that axe man