Randy Depuniet is now...

[smileyman]

driving nuclear submarines for the French Navy!

I guess that stealth stuff really works well.



http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...hub=TopStories

British, French nuclear subs collide in Atlantic
Updated Mon. Feb. 16 2009 8:05 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

Two nuclear-powered submarines from Britain and France, both carrying nuclear missiles, collided deep under the Atlantic Ocean earlier this month, authorities are now acknowledging.

The British newspaper, The Sun, was the first to report the collision Monday. Now, both countries are confirming the report while insisting the crash posed no risk to the safety of the subs' nuclear reactors and missiles.

"The two submarines came into contact at very low speed," Britain's most senior sailor, First Sea Lord, Admiral Jonathon Band said in a statement. "Both submarines remained safe."

France's defence ministry said the subs had been carrying out routine patrols on separate missions when they collided underwater.

"They briefly came into contact at a very low speed while submerged. There were no injuries. Neither their nuclear deterrence missions nor their safety were affected," France's defence ministry said Monday in a statement.

No one was injured in either vessel.

The collision is believed to have taken place on Feb. 3 or 4, in the mid-Atlantic, but neither France nor Britain would confirm the exact date.

Observers say the chances of two submarines colliding were a million-to-one. But it's possible that both warships were using anti-sonar technology, so that neither vessel could detect the other with the sound wave technology.

Retired British Royal Navy commodore Stephen Saunders, who now serves as the editor of Jane's Fighting Ships, called the collision "a very serious incident."

"This really shouldn't have happened at all," he said. "It's a very serious incident and I find it quite extraordinary."

Author and nuclear weapons expert John Clearwater said it is unlikely that the respective governments would let the public know what caused the collision, at least in the near future.

"We will likely never know, or at least not know for another 20 years, exactly the mechanics of the incident," he told CTV Newsnet on Monday.

"It's an extremely rare accident to have two ballistic missile submarines collide with each other," he added.

"There's a long history of ballistic missile submarines hitting things or being hit by other things, but to have two from two different countries collide is a rare accident."

The incident has sparked outrage among nuclear activists, who have long warned that nuclear submarines carrying ballistic missiles pose risks of radioactive leaks into the world's waters.

Kate Hudson, chair of Britain's Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, called the reported collision "a nuclear nightmare of the highest order," since the crash could have released vast amounts of radiation into the ocean and scattered nuclear warheads across the seabed.

Hudson said the collision was "the most severe incident involving a nuclear submarine since the sinking of the Kursk in 2000 and the first time since the Cold War that two nuclear-armed subs are known to have collided."

Stephane Lhomme, a spokesman for the French anti-nuclear group Sortir du Nucleaire, said the incident "reminds us that we could have a new catastrophe with a nuclear submarine at any moment."

HMS Vanguard, which went into operation in 1993, is one of Britain's four nuclear-powered submarines. It has a crew of around 140 and typically carries 16 nuclear-armed Trident missiles.

British media outlets report that the damaged sub was towed into Faslane, Scotland, Sunday night, with dents and scrapes visible on her hull. Le Triomphant, which typically has a crew of 111 and carries 15 nuclear missiles, reportedly returned to Brest with extensive damage to its sonar dome.

Opposition MPs in the British parliament demanded an explanation of how the accident could have happened.

The government "needs to explain how it is possible for a submarine carrying weapons of mass destruction to collide with another submarine carrying weapons of mass destruction in the middle of the world's second-largest ocean," Angus Robertson of the opposition Scottish National Party said.

With files from The Associated Press