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Pentagon stumped by apparent missile launch off U.S. coast with vid

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bignateyk said:
Sure, but you can only look at a very small amount of area at a time with those methods, and the powerhouse countries all have pretty damn stealthy subs. It would be a pretty big undertaking to constantly monitor thousands of miles of length hundreds of miles out to sea.

It would be pretty easy for the russians or chinese to position a sub off our coast.
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No, it wouldn't. We built massive detection networks during the cold war all the way up to the present day with upgrades. Our sub detection got so good that the soviets decided that the only chance they would have of a sub boomer attack was to sit under the arctic ice and punch through for the launch.

The Soviet-era Alfas, Typhoons, and Charlies are all superior to the Chinese subs, but still easily detectable when faced with either a field of Los Angeles subs or a static defence network such as our entire western shore (particularly thick in the Bering Sea).

The finest adversaries are the Akula 2s, but even they would have a near suicide mission to get very close, and they are not boomers.
 
Arkaign said:
No, it wouldn't. We built massive detection networks during the cold war all the way up to the present day with upgrades. Our sub detection got so good that the soviets decided that the only chance they would have of a sub boomer attack was to sit under the arctic ice and punch through for the launch.

The Soviet-era Alfas, Typhoons, and Charlies are all superior to the Chinese subs, but still easily detectable when faced with either a field of Los Angeles subs or a static defence network such as our entire western shore (particularly thick in the Bering Sea).

The finest adversaries are the Akula 2s, but even they would have a near suicide mission to get very close, and they are not boomers.
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Can't use detection systems because of the "progressives" and their never ending quest to save whales.
 
Patranus said:
Can't use detection systems because of the "progressives" and their never ending quest to save whales.
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Heh, I'm pretty sure the USN would ignore any environmental concerns in the event of a detected threat. The Whale debacles were all with extremely high powered sonar, of which is somewhat overkill. IIRC it gave feedback of somewhere in the range of ~1700nm diameter.
 
This is a pretty big deal. I'm surprised it isn't getting more attention. If it came from sea and the source hasn't already been located, it probably came from a ballistic sub. So who all has ballistic subs? We do. Russians. Chinese. Who else?

I wouldn't be surprised if it came from us and was either a mistake or a test and the Pentagon just isn't sure how to break the news to us yet. Either way, I'm sure they have a really good idea as to who it was but don't want to say it yet.
 
Patranus said:
Can't use detection systems because of the "progressives" and their never ending quest to save whales.
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Sure you can. He's talking about SOSUS. It is a passive system that allows us to listen to the sounds of the ocean. It isn't an active system.

I have no doubt that it is a formidable system but I wouldn't be at all surprised if something managed to get through. It isn't an impenetrable grid. Diesel electrics are all but silent and while I'm not aware of any current diesel electric boomers, they might be out there.
 
Minjin said:
Sure you can. He's talking about SOSUS. It is a passive system that allows us to listen to the sounds of the ocean. It isn't an active system.

I have no doubt that it is a formidable system but I wouldn't be at all surprised if something managed to get through. It isn't an impenetrable grid. Diesel electrics are all but silent and while I'm not aware of any current diesel electric boomers, they might be out there.
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Diesel electrics are only silent when on battery mode, and I can't imagine the batteries can last across the entire Pacific from whatever other country hosted the submarine in question.
 
MotF Bane said:
Diesel electrics are only silent when on battery mode, and I can't imagine the batteries can last across the entire Pacific from whatever other country hosted the submarine in question.
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You think we're tracking the entire ocean? All they need to do is get close enough and then go silent before heading in really close. The whole idea of a diesel electric boomer doesn't make sense for regular deployments but I'm just saying that a one-off could get devastatingly close. A nuke sub must run its coolant pumps at all times. An electric doesn't have that restriction. They have always been dangerous for that reason.
 
Chinese Type 096 Ballistic Missile Submarine (Tang-class) test firing a JL-2... just because they can.
 
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