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Originally posted by Valhall
Well, my thought is, unless you can produce something more than rambling half connected thoughts on this, I'm still over here in the camp that your Kursk blew itself up because your military leaders didn't take care maintenance and obscelence issues like they were supposed to and it had an obsolete torpedo that blew up.
I'll check back to see if you offer anything to support your theory.
Originally posted by Valhall
Well, Advisor, it wasn't just a theory, it was the official conclusion. And it was the hydrogen peroxide propellant that leaked into the carbon steel casing. Something like a volumetric expansion of 600 times is caused by this. Basically, the minute the HO started leaking, the torpedo was a pipe bomb. And there would be more than one explosions. The leaky torpedo explosion, and then the subsequent and resultant munitions explosions caused by the first.
There was actually a British submarine that was sunk in port from the same thing.
These torpedoes were supposed to be completely obsoleted, and had not been pulled from the munitions stores...hence the occurence.
Originally posted by Pyros
Cyrus,
Any sailor will tell you that driving subs is a very risky business. Lets face it - a sub is a ship that has been purposely designed to SINK. Submariners take great risks every day.
Accidents do happen on submarines, not just Russian subs. Most nations who use subs have lost a few over the years, the US included. The Chinese just lost an entire crew of a fast attack boat due to a fire at sea or some malfunction of their life support system. The US lost a fast attack boat (USS Scorpion) in the Atlantic due to a torpedo malfunction. Sometimes it happens.
I personally was involved with rescuing the crew of the USS Bonefish in 1989. They were participating in an ASW exercise with my ship when they caught on fire (at a depth of 200 feet). They got to the surface quickly, and most of their crew got out of the boat fast, but 3 sailors still died due to smoke inhalation and the boat had to be towed back to base and scrapped. That was a crappy day to say the least.
There is no doubt that US and Russian subs sometimes get a little close to each other in their zeal to see who is best, but you shouldn't feel bad about Russian sub accidents, cause they happen to everyone. Russian is just having a bad time lately because she cannot properly fund her sub fleet (and therefore train crews and perform maintenance), which is making the accident rate climb.
Once the Russians reduce the size of their fleet and professionalize it, they will be an effective and safe fighting force. But any improperly funded and training fighting force is bound to suffer accidents.