Submarine incident off Kola Peninsula
Submarine incident off Kola Peninsula | |||||||
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Part of Operation Holy Stone | |||||||
USS Grayling moored at Port Canaveral, Florida, a few months after the incident | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
United States | Russian Federation | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Cdr. Richard Self[1] | Cdr. Andrei Bulgarkov | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
1 Sturgeon-class submarine |
1 Delta IV-class submarine | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
1 nuclear submarine lightly damaged | 1 nuclear submarine lightly damaged | ||||||
The submarine Incident off Kola Peninsula was a collision between the
Previous incident
Despite the end of the
On 11 February 1992, the American attack submarine
According to some sources, Baton Rouge was written off for the high costs of repairing the damaged
The collision
Novomoskovsk, commanded by
An investigation revealed that Grayling had been tracking the Russian submarine bearing between 155 and 165 degrees and from distances of between 11–13 kilometres (5.9–7.0 nmi). Grayling lost contact with Novomoskovsk when the Russian submarine changed course to 180 degrees. To reacquire the target, Grayling sped to the location of contact loss at 8–15 knots (15–28 km/h).[14]
The breaking waves created in the shallow waters of the
Political consequences
The second clash between American and Russian submarines in a year unleashed a flurry of angry reactions, both inside the Clinton administration and in Yeltsin's Russia. The news that the US Navy was still keeping a close watch on Russia's ports and bases came barely a week before a scheduled summit between the presidents of both countries. At that time, the US government was trying to improve relationships with Russia, especially by supporting Yeltsin's reforms. During the meeting, which took place in Canada, Clinton promised that he would conduct a review not only of the incident itself, but of the policies "of which the incident happened to be an unintended part."[18]
Clinton's statement caused concern in the US Navy, but after a briefing for top officials, among them the new national security adviser, Anthony Lake, the submarine force got the green light to continue its activities in the Barents Sea, although at a greatly reduced pace.[19] The result was a major effort to restrict the operational procedures and improve the training of submarine commanding officers.[20]
See also
- Submarine incident off Kildin Island
- Strait of Juan de Fuca laser incident
- Incident at Pristina airport
- 2021 Black Sea incident
- 2023 Black Sea drone incident
Notes
- ^ a b Riddles persist in return of sub involved in collision State, 9 April 1993
- ^ Sontag & Drew, page 586
- ^ Reed, page 1
- ^ a b c Eugene Miasnikov (April 1993). "Submarine Collision off Murmansk". The Submarine Review: 6.
- ^ John H. Gushman Jr. "Two Subs Collide off Russian Port", The New York Times, 19 February 1992
- ^ 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
- ^ Jane's defence weekly: Volume 17, p. 352. Jane's Pub. Co., 1992
- ISBN 0815777744
- ^ "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. However, some European sources claim that the Baton Rouge was involved in a collision with a Russian Sierra-class submarine and had not been to sea thereafter. This, they suggested, pointed to serious pressure hull damage rather than refueling costs as being responsible for the decommissioning." Warships Forecast, February 1997
- Texas Maritime Academy, Texas A & M University at Galveston, 1996
- ^ a b Cherkashin, Nikolay. "Подводный крейсер идет на таран (An underwater cruiser rams)" (in Russian). Soviet Belorussia. Archived from the original on 23 April 2009. Retrieved 10 February 2009.
- ^ a b U.S. and Russian Subs in Collision In Arctic Ocean Near Murmansk by Michael E. Gordon. The New York Times, 23 March 1993
- ^ The Last Frontier of the Cold War by Jon Bowermaster
- ^ a b c USS Grayling (SSN-646), History, Patrols and Crews Archived 12 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Mesothelioma Web Organization. Retrieved on 25 May 2013
- ^ Sontag & Drew, p. 590
- ^ Northern Fleet Official: SSBN Novomoskovsk to Stay in Navy till 2020, 14 August 2012
- ^ "Nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines - Project 667BDRM". russianships.info. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
- ^ Sontag & Drew, pp. 590–592
- ^ Sontag & Drew, pp. 592–593
- ISBN 0385602650
References
- Sontag, Sherry and Drew, Christopher (1998). Blind Man's Bluff: The untold story of American submarine espionage. Thorndyke press. ISBN 0786218762
- Stern, Robert (2007). The hunter hunted: submarine versus submarine encounters from World War I to the present. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1591143799
- Reed, Williams (2003). Crazy Ivan: Based on a True Story of Submarine Espionage. IUniverse. ISBN 0595265065