Submarine incident off Kildin Island

Coordinates: 69°38′42″N 33°46′54″E / 69.64500°N 33.78167°E / 69.64500; 33.78167
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Submarine incident off Kildin Island
Part of Operation Holy Stone

USS Baton Rouge awaiting disposal at Mare Island (1995)
Date11 February 1992
Location
North of Murmansk, Russia
69°38′42″N 33°46′54″E / 69.64500°N 33.78167°E / 69.64500; 33.78167
Result USS Baton Rouge written off[1][2]
Belligerents
 United States  Russia
Commanders and leaders
Captain Gordon Kremer Cdr. Igor Lokot[3]
Strength
1 Los Angeles-class submarine 1 Sierra-class submarine
Casualties and losses
1 nuclear submarine heavily damaged 1 nuclear submarine damaged
Submarine incident off Kildin Island is located in Russia
Submarine incident off Kildin Island
Location within Russia

The submarine incident off

B-276 Kostroma near the Russian naval base of Severomorsk
on 11 February 1992. The incident occurred while the US unit was engaged in a covert mission, apparently aimed at intercepting Russian military communications. Although most sources claim that the American submarine was trailing her Russian counterpart, some authors believe that neither Kostroma nor Baton Rouge had been able to locate each other before the collision.

Background

Following the

tapping Soviet submarine communication cables, recording the pattern of noises from Soviet submarines, and observing submarine-launched ballistic missile tests.[7]

Collision

Blind encounter

The collision occurred at 8:16 pm local time,

passive sonars.[13] Miasnikov maintains that the submarines of the Los Angeles class are unable to detect acoustic signals from targets located within a cone of 60 degrees astern, thus the most probable scenario was that Kostroma approached Baton Rouge from behind. Indeed, the collision took place when the Kostroma was surfacing, hitting the US submarine underneath on her aft section. The Sierra class sonar is also ‘deaf’ to the aft direction; her usual pattern of acoustic search is moving along a loop course. The incident, however, implied that Russian attack submarines are capable of avoiding passive acoustic detection, at least under certain conditions.[7]

Damage

A Sierra-class submarine

Both submarines sustained damage, but no casualties were reported. Russian reports and American aerial surveillance agree that Kostroma's

Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington.[20] As for Kostroma, she was laid up on 28 March 1992 and had been fully repaired at Nerpa shipyards in Snezhnogorsk by 29 June 1992. The Russian submarine was temporarily renamed Krab, before recovering her original name in November 1996. After a huge overhaul, again at Nerpa, she returned to service in 2005.[21]

Political consequences

Kostroma at anchor, showing a crest with a large numeral 'One' on the front of her sail, a "kill marking" which commemorates the collision.[22]

The incident produced intense embarrassment in Washington.

Kola peninsula.[24]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b "In late 1993, it was announced that one of the oldest Los Angeles class boats, the USS Baton Rouge, would be decommissioned and placed in reserve. The official reason for this was that the boat was due for a very expensive refueling and the cost of this could not be justified in the current environment. However, confidential European sources have pointed out that the Baton Rouge was involved in a collision with a Russian Sierra class submarine and had not been to sea since. This, they suggested, pointed to serious pressure hull damage rather than refueling costs as being responsible for the decommissioning." Warships Forecast, February 1997.
  2. ^
    Texas Maritime Academy
    , Texas A & M University at Galveston, 1996.
  3. ^ "Sub wreck won't alter US policy". NewspaperArchive.com. Independent Examiner by Associated Press, Feb 19, 1992, p. 14. 19 February 1992. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  4. ^ Sontag & Drew, p. 586.
  5. ^ Reed, p. 1.
  6. .
  7. ^ a b c d Eugene Miasnikov (April 1993). "Submarine Collision off Murmansk". The Submarine Review: 6.
  8. Radio Free Europe
    /Radio Liberty, Inc., 1992.
  9. ^ John H. Gushman Jr. "Two Subs Collide off Russian Port", The New York Times, 19 February 1992.
  10. ^ Artur Blinov and Nikolay Burbyga, "Underwater Incident in the Kola Gulf," Izvestia, 20 February 1992 p.1; Nikolay Burbyga and Viktor Litovkin "Americans Not Only Helping Us, But Spying on Us. Details of Submarine Collision in Barents Sea," Izvestia, 21 February 1992, p. 2.
  11. ^ Jane's defence weekly: Volume 17, p. 352. Jane's Pub. Co., 1992.
  12. .
  13. ^ .
  14. ^ a b "However, because American boats are of single-hull design, these tears were ruptures in her pressure hull, and thus represented significant damage." Stern, p. 184.
  15. ^ The larger cut was five-feet long as per Reed, p. 153.
  16. ^ Navy to decommission Los Angeles-class attack sub Defense Daily, 17 September 1993.
  17. ^ Linder, Bruce (2005). Tidewater's navy: an illustrated history. Naval Institute Press, p. 248.
  18. .
  19. .
  20. ^ "Submarine Photo Index". www.navsource.org. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  21. ^ "945 Sierra class". warfare.be. Archived from the original on 19 February 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  22. .
  23. ^ Sontag & Drew, p. 587.
  24. ^ Stern, p. 185.

References

69°38′42″N 33°46′54″E / 69.64500°N 33.78167°E / 69.64500; 33.78167