Russian submarine sailed in Gulf of Mexico undetected for weeks

[rudder]

There is absolutely no reason to not have a SOSUS line from Florida to the Yucatan.

If exists; there was a breakdown in the line or we became to complacent.
We can detect the Akula with another sub and as it comes through the GIUK gap.

Either way, it is a wakeup call that a condition exists that needs to be addressed and quickly.

As for intelligence gathering, a sub in the gulf is useless. The Russians get more from their hilltop Embassy in D.C.. As for military strikes from a sub... you could do just as much damage with less firepower.

I am more concerned about the hacking being done by the Chinese government. Fix that problem and you will fix the problem of subs being able to slip past sensors. That wake up call has been repeatedly sent... but continually ignored.

 

[Steeplerot]

Cold War contractors looking for more big socialist teat to suck off of? Some thing never change.


Uh oh...and right on cue -incoming transmission from secret commie Moscow HQ!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Zm6HzN5YVI
"it looks like tiny sausage against the vast, colossal size of mother Russia!"

 

[Dari]

I would say this is a good answer.

One has to think is Putin wanting to start a new cold war to solidify his position of control and potential to do away with the term limits in Russia.

Nah, he's just looking for attention given that no one takes his country seriously anymore. Now it is all about China. THey restarted a long range flight program 2 years ago where they went up and down the Pacific. Russia is starved of attention is all.

 

[Jhhnn]

Military getting wary about budget cuts = military starts leaking ginned up news to the press about suddenly not being able to detect 20-year-old submarines in coastal waters.

Nonsense. You're all getting played.

Winnar!

Next- Blame Obama!

 

[JKing106]

Defense contractors - "I don't give a fuck what you have to say, scare the shit out of them! Tell them Martians are invading! Keep the money flowing!"

 

[CitizenKain]

A submarine did what it was supposed to do, how amazing.

 

[Darwin333]

They are very ineffective at catching a sub even when they know one is in the area, too.

We brought some ASW specialists onboard my sub for some anti sub exercises. I was manning the geo plot (yep, they secured the Aux Electrician for the plot, as usual) during that time. An officer was watching me to learn what we do so he could become more effective at hunting us.

When the first sonobouy splashed into the water and the sonar operator announced it, I put a mark on the geo plot showing its location and a circle showing its effective range of detection. The officer asked me why I did that, I told him "so we know where to avoid". "That is all you do, you just avoid it?" "Yep" He just shook his head and muttered about feeling completely useless.

WTF did he think yall would do, surface next to it and use the buoy to play horseshoes with???

 

[zanejohnson]

yeah that whole story sounds like BS...


german attack ship in our water??? what?

 

[Darwin333]

The gulf of mexico is a major weak spot in national defenses.

If I remember right, something like 20% of the nations fuel supply comes from refineries along the gulf of mexico. Or was that 20% just from the houston / beaumont region?

A single sub with a couple of dozen missiles could destroy a major part of our refining capability.

We have no missile defense shield anywhere along the gulf of mexico to protect us from attack.

A full 20% of the nations oil and gas comes through Port Fourchon in Southern Louisiana. It services 75% of the nations deepwater rigs and a very large portion of the rest of the rigs in the gulf. Additionally Port Fourchon is the land base for the LOOP (Louisiana Offshore Oil Port) which is the only facility in the entire United States that is able to handle Very Large Crude Carriers and Ultra Large Crude Carriers. Houston is also a huge energy hub but if Port Fourchon ever gets taken out, either by terrorist or by natural disaster, we will be wild and truly fucked in this country. It won't be a question of how much gas costs it will be a question of where in the hell do you find it for any price.

I couldn't even begin to tell you how many refineries it services but its a fuckton and even the pipelines are completely interconnected with Houston. Perhaps those can be isolated but I am not sure we even have the capability to reroute around them. I do know that we don't have the capability to reroute even a fraction of the imports that come in through the Port and the offshore lines that bring in our domestic production don't have anywhere else to be rerouted to.

The worst part is there is virtually no protection from either attack or mother nature. A direct hit by a good cat 3 and we can be in some serious trouble. Hell, when the water goes up a few feet the only road in and out of the Port is underwater (they were doing some work on Hwy 1 but I am not sure what or if it was anything substantial).

With that said, the Ruskies are the last people I am concerned about.

 

[hal2kilo]

Winnar!

Next- Blame Obama!

Russia must be making some kind of a show. When they start maintaining a presence of just 1 fast attack submarine on a regular basis in the gulf again wake me up.

 

[Jhhnn]

Additionally Port Fourchon is the land base for the LOOP (Louisiana Offshore Oil Port) which is the only facility in the entire United States that is able to handle Very Large Crude Carriers and Ultra Large Crude Carriers.

Do they bring oil or take it away?

 

[blankslate]

Kinda like the U.S. having missiles in Poland?

Turn about is fair play. If the U.S. can have missiles on the borders of Russia, why cant Russia do the same thing to us?

THisis 'Merica!

No one makes us bleed our own blood!

*edit*

On a serious note Putin may be reacting to statements said about Russia during this year's election season as well as U.S. missile placements.

Interestingly enough

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/...---avoid-cuts-even-if-it-means-more-taxes.php

it seems the U.S. Military would rather see tax increases than any cuts to their budget. It's interesting how this sequestration may turn out unexpected political allies.

As for this sub well aren't quiet subs one reason why the U.S. Navy specifically trained in exercises against diesel subs from allies like Sweden?

I've read that diesel subs have the potential to be quieter than any current nuclear powered submarine.

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

Guess the Navy wants it budget increased, so leaked this to get more money.

 

[Darwin333]

Do they bring oil or take it away?

They bring oil. Its where the vast majority of our imported oil from overseas
(like the ME) is brought in due to its ability to be able to offload the insanely huge supertankers.

I will have to ask if we actually export much from the port because frankly I am not sure. Losing our ability to export something isn't nearly as devastating as losing a large percentage of our imported oil and not having the ability to simply reroute them. There are some games you could potentially play at other ports to offload the tankers but it would be an absurdly slow process and it would require some sort of pipeline to transport it to the refineries back down here. As I said earlier, the area in question (along with Houston) are like the pipeline "hubs" so I am not even sure we would have the pipelines to feed the refineries even if we could miraculously figure out how to offload the sheer quantity of oil at some other port. No way in the world Houston could handle that kind of increase in traffic either so they are out.

 

[diesbudt]

They bring oil. Its where the vast majority of our imported oil from overseas
(like the ME) is brought in due to its ability to be able to offload the insanely huge supertankers.

I will have to ask if we actually export much from the port because frankly I am not sure. Losing our ability to export something isn't nearly as devastating as losing a large percentage of our imported oil and not having the ability to simply reroute them. There are some games you could potentially play at other ports to offload the tankers but it would be an absurdly slow process and it would require some sort of pipeline to transport it to the refineries back down here. As I said earlier, the area in question (along with Houston) are like the pipeline "hubs" so I am not even sure we would have the pipelines to feed the refineries even if we could miraculously figure out how to offload the sheer quantity of oil at some other port. No way in the world Houston could handle that kind of increase in traffic either so they are out.

We have a large stockpile of oil across the nation. Enough to survive 10years or 4-5 year war time worth. So if something was to happen to that port, we would have plenty of time to get it back up and running or a new way of achieveing what it does.

Also, maybe this was a secret game of battleship that the americans were wanting to test their detecting abilities and asked Russia to help. Who knows what goes on in our government behind doors.

 

[Brovane]

They bring oil. Its where the vast majority of our imported oil from overseas
(like the ME) is brought in due to its ability to be able to offload the insanely huge supertankers.

I will have to ask if we actually export much from the port because frankly I am not sure. Losing our ability to export something isn't nearly as devastating as losing a large percentage of our imported oil and not having the ability to simply reroute them. There are some games you could potentially play at other ports to offload the tankers but it would be an absurdly slow process and it would require some sort of pipeline to transport it to the refineries back down here. As I said earlier, the area in question (along with Houston) are like the pipeline "hubs" so I am not even sure we would have the pipelines to feed the refineries even if we could miraculously figure out how to offload the sheer quantity of oil at some other port. No way in the world Houston could handle that kind of increase in traffic either so they are out.

Couldn't Oil from the US Strategic Petroleum reserve be released to make up defeciences until the port is restorted?

 

[Brovane]

The US regulary sends Submarines near Russia we just don't talk about it.

 

[hal2kilo]

Winnar!

Next- Blame Obama!

Seems like they are building plenty of Virginia class subs at the moment. Must be Northrup Grumman wants to build some anti-sub boats in Pascagula.

 

[Dunkman04]

At the end of the day what does it matter? What is the sub going to do, just randomly start blowing U.S. ships up? If they want to fire nukes at us they hardly need to send in a sub.

 

[Atreus21]

Kinda like the U.S. having missiles in Poland?

Turn about is fair play. If the U.S. can have missiles on the borders of Russia, why cant Russia do the same thing to us?

Which Obama cancelled a long time ago.

 

[Atreus21]

FWIW, I've no problem with defense cuts in the interest of balancing the budget, provided they're not excessive.

 

[OnePingOnly]

The real question here was whether or not Sean Connery was at the helm.

My favorite scene from the film - including this quote:

Captain Ramius: Re-verify our range to target... one ping only.

Capt. Vasili Borodin: Captain, I - I - I just...

Captain Ramius: Give me a ping, Vasili. One ping only, please.

Capt. Vasili Borodin: Aye, Captain.

 

[K1052]

They bring oil. Its where the vast majority of our imported oil from overseas
(like the ME) is brought in due to its ability to be able to offload the insanely huge supertankers.

I will have to ask if we actually export much from the port because frankly I am not sure. Losing our ability to export something isn't nearly as devastating as losing a large percentage of our imported oil and not having the ability to simply reroute them. There are some games you could potentially play at other ports to offload the tankers but it would be an absurdly slow process and it would require some sort of pipeline to transport it to the refineries back down here. As I said earlier, the area in question (along with Houston) are like the pipeline "hubs" so I am not even sure we would have the pipelines to feed the refineries even if we could miraculously figure out how to offload the sheer quantity of oil at some other port. No way in the world Houston could handle that kind of increase in traffic either so they are out.

Refined product export happens closer to the refineries to smaller tankers/rail/barge. LOOP isn't set up to export product. You could theoretically export crude if they wanted I guess.

The LOOP only accounts for about 15% of US foreign oil imports. It would be problematic to have it closed but not catastrophic. Cruise missile strikes on the Houston area refineries would be much worse but you'd piss off all of central and south America at the same time since many nations send their crude here for refining and we ship back product.

 

[Lanyap]

This is why we need guns in the South.

 

[JEDIYoda]

A submarine did what it was supposed to do, how amazing.

Exactly..if you believe that it was never detected!

What advantage is there to saying we did not detect the submarine? Yet knowing full well that we knew its every move?

There is no advantage to telling the world that we knew about the submarine....