Russian attack sub patrolled Gulf of Mexico undetected for several weeks...and we only knew about after it left the region!

Was this news released deliberately to counter President Obama`s proposal to slash $1.3 billion from the defense budget for the Navy`s shipbuilding projects? It may seem so, but what does it say about our national defense and cost to our ballooning defense spending? (RSA)

Russian Akula sub, image credit: AP

Russian attack submarine sailed in Gulf of Mexico undetected for weeks, U.S. officials say
BY: Bill Gertz
Washington Free Beacon
August 14, 2012 

A Russian nuclear-powered attack submarine armed with long-range cruise missiles operated undetected in the Gulf of Mexico for several weeks and its travel in strategic U.S. waters was only confirmed after it left the region, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

[...]

The officials who are familiar with reports of the submarine patrol in the Gulf of Mexico said the vessel was a nuclear-powered Akula-class attack submarine, one of Russia’s quietest submarines.

The fact that the Akula was not detected in the Gulf is cause for concern, U.S. officials said.

A Navy spokeswoman declined to comment.

One official said the Akula operated without being detected for a month.

“The Akula was built for one reason and one reason only: To kill U.S. Navy ballistic missile submarines and their crews,” said a second U.S. official.

“It’s a very stealthy boat so it can sneak around and avoid detection and hope to get past any protective screen a boomer might have in place,” the official said, referring to the Navy nickname for strategic missile submarines...

(click here to read the full article on the Washington Free Beacon)

Remember the USS Pueblo? - the U.S. Navy ship captured by North Korea more than 40 years ago

Spy gadgets, top secret documents and bullet holes: Aboard the U.S. Navy ship captured more than 40 years ago by North Korea
DAILY MAIL
Published: April 17, 2012

Its captivity is an enduring reminder of tensions between the United States and North Korea throughout the Cold War - the bullet holes riddling its rooms a frightening memory of the lives lost.

Now, more than 40 years after its capture by North Korean forces in 1968, photographs from aboard the USS Pueblo give a haunting insight into the lives of the men who struggled to maintain its control.

Walls of gauges, switches and typing and printing devices pay tribute to its few short months as a spying ship for the U.S., before it was seized and moored on the Taedong River in Pyongyang.

Captured: USS Pueblo was seized by the North Koreans during the Cold War and is moored in Pyongyang. Credit: John Pavella/Flickr

Insight: Photos taken inside this year - 44 years after its capture - show the spying vessel's surveillance hub. Credit: Bryanh/Flickr

Remembered: The ship, which contains soldiers' clothes found on board, is now used as a museum. Credit: Rapidtravelchai/Flickr

The vessel - the only ship of the U.S. Navy currently held captive - is now open to visitors as a museum in North Korea, its unpainted walls and unswept floors capturing a fearful moment in time.

Images taken aboard show stark rooms designed to focus on their mission; communication boards stretching into every corner and lookout spots throughout the ship.

The ship was seized on January 23, 1968; the U.S. Navy claimed it was in international waters, while North Korea said it was sailing within their territory.

The Japanese visitor, who took pictures for Rocket News 24, said his guide told him as he toured the vessel: 'Even today, America continues to beg the ship to be returned.'


Spies: The ship was collecting data on Soviet naval patterns when it was chased by North Korean boats. 

 
Terror: When the ship tried to flee, it came under fire, with the scores of bullet holes still visible. Credit: Mark Fahey/Flickr and bryanh/Flickr

Remaining evidence: As they came under attack, the crew failed to destroy all sensitive material. Credit: bryanh/Flickr

The U.S. maintained it was an observation ship, while the North Koreans claimed it was a warship - a claim that could be supported by the scores of bullet holes in the ship, Rocket News reported.

According to the American account, Pueblo was on orders to intercept and conduct surveillance of Soviet ships when a North Korean sub chaser crept upon the vessel.

When it demanded the ship stand down or expect fire, the American commander attempted to move away but could not out-outmaneuver the sub chaser and growing numbers of torpedo boats.

History: After the men were snatched from the ship, they were taken to a POW camp where they were tortured. Credit: gadgetdan/Flickr

Despite expecting an imminent attack, the crew were unable to access the ship's ammunition below deck - and most were untrained in how to use the machine guns, which were wrapped in tarps.

With the North Koreans trying to board the ship, one of the sub chasers fired a cannon at the ship, killing a member of the crew. A U.S. soldier, Duane Hodges, was also killed.

Other vessels barraged the boat with bullets as the Americans tried to destroy the sensitive material - yet they only managed to ruin 'a small percentage' of documents, according to witnesses.

In demand: A tour guide told a Japanese visitor that 'American continues to beg for its return' Credit: Mark Fahey/Flickr

When the North Koreans boarded the ship, the 82 crew members were tied, blindfolded and beaten They were taken to POW camps, where some crew members were tortured before their release.

The Japanese visitor told the news site he did not trust everything the North Korean guide told him about the ship and its takeover - but admitted that might be his Japanese prejudice.
The ship has been in North Korean hands ever since and has been visited by more than 250,000 visitors since it was docked along the Taedong River.

War with Iran, sure seems like its not a matter of 'if' but 'when'

Gunboats, Super-Torpedoes, Sea-Bots: U.S. Navy Launches Huge Iran Surge
WIRED
Spencer Ackerman
March 16, 2012 | 11:55 am

The Navy practices a mock boarding operation on the U.S.S. Princeton in the Middle East, 2010. Photo: U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet 

Sending more aircraft carriers to the waters near Iran, it turns out, was just the start. Yes, the U.S. currently has more seapower aimed at Iran in the Persian Gulf than in the fleets of most countries on Earth, Iran included. But that was just the Navy cracking its knuckles.

In the next few months, the Navy will double its minesweeper craft stationed in Bahrain, near Iran, from four to eight. Those ships will be crucial if Iran takes the drastic step of mining the Strait of Hormuz, one of the global energy supply’s most crucial waterways. Four more MH-53 “Sea Stallion” helicopters, another minesweeping tool, are also getting ready for Bahrain, to give the U.S. Fifth Fleet early warning for any strait mining.

Then the Navy will prepare to get closer to Iranian shores. Much closer. It’s got five close-action patrol boats in the Gulf right now. Once the Coast Guard returns three that the Navy loaned out, the Navy will have five other patrol craft in the United States. All those boats are getting retrofitted. With Gatling guns. And missiles.

Sure, the guns aboard the two aircraft carriers currently near Iran are the seapower equivalent of high-powered, long-range rifles. “But maybe what you need is like a sawed-off shotgun,” capable of doing massive damage from a closer distance, said Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the Navy’s senior officer. All 10 of those patrol boats, Greenert told reporters at a Friday breakfast in Washington, will get strapped with the Mk-38 Gatling Gun and should make it to the Gulf next year. (Though, alas, they won’t have the Gatling/laser gun mashup BAE Systems is working on.) They’ll also get close-range missiles that can hit Iranian shores from four miles away — the same kinds Navy SEALs use.

Consider it Teddy Roosevelt’s gunboat diplomacy for the 21st century. Over plates of greasy eggs and bacon, Greenert outlined a plan to give the U.S. what is almost certainly the biggest stick the Navy has ever had in the Gulf. The idea, which he didn’t make explicit, is to convince Iran to think long and hard before ever messing with either the U.S.’s Arab allies across the Gulf or disrupting a narrow transit point through which a fifth of the world’s energy supplies flow.

Add up the aircraft carriers, the Gatling-packing patrol craft, the Orions, the Sea Stallions and the minesweepers, and Greenert still isn’t finished with the surge. Then come the new, advanced torpedoes that can compensate for the “turpidity [and] particulate” drags of the Gulf waters. And the drone subs — or, as Greenert put it, “some underwater unmanned neutralization autonomous units” to help hunt mines. And every Navy ship that sails through the strait will come equipped with new, modular “infrared and electro-optical” visibility systems that clarify the foggy Gulf even at night. Extra spare parts and contractor crews will sustain the surge.

And if all that wasn’t enough, Greenert disclosed that he and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will soon ask themselves if the Navy needs to rotate more aircraft carriers to the Gulf. That decision, so important that it’s Panetta’s to make, will come “in the next few months.”

“I looked in every domain, undersea, surface and air,” Greenert said, “to make sure that we’re doing our best for the guys that are over there.”

Even with the prospect of an Israeli bombing campaign lingering overhead, the Navy has already proven it can get Iran to back off its bellicose rhetoric. Tehran hasn’t attacked the U.S. carriers, and it hasn’t mined the strait. Yet.

Greenert suggested that Iran’s naval forces are too sensible to actually challenge the vastly superior American force nearby. The regular Iranian navy is “professional, courteous [and] good mariners,” he said. Even the radical Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps isn’t “ramping up” in the Gulf and keeping its activities “normal.”

Perhaps true. And once the Navy’s surge forces all get into the Persian Gulf, the Iranian sea forces might not have any choice, if they want to continue existing. But if Iran’s pattern of miscalculation continues, then the larger Navy force nearby might be a provocation — and will have to end a fight quickly if it breaks out.