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SS News Daily for 15FEB06
Since 02-15-06
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Photo by Juan Fernandez
Global presence of submarine force, Virginia Class and SSGN conversion topics of discussion
By JO1 (SW/AW) Jon Rasmussen, NAS Whidbey Island Public Affairs, 14 February 2006
By Jim Wolf, Reuters, 14 Feb 06
By Steve Andreasen, The San Francisco Chronicle, 14 Feb 06
Bruce Smith, Associated Press, 14 February 2006
Defense News, 14 Feb 06
Photo by Juan Fernandez
The Peruvian DE submarine BAP Pisagua (SS-33) departed the naval station in Callao, Peru, February 14, 2006, enroute to SUBDIEX 06 (US/PE DESI Deployment 06-1) with a complement of 9 officers and a crew of 44. General Bantz J. Craddock, USA, Commander, U.S. Southern Command, participated in the departure ceremony, along with Vice Admiral Jorge Carlos Montoya Manrique, Commander Peru Naval Operations Pacific, and Rear Admiral Fergan Herrera Cuntti, Commander Submarine Forces Peru. The Peruvian submarine is part of an “international submarine force,” enhancing the capabilities of the world’s free nations that operate submarines through global cooperation.
Global presence of submarine force, Virginia Class and SSGN conversion topics of discussion
By JO1 (SW/AW) Jon Rasmussen, NAS Whidbey Island Public Affairs, 14 February 2006
Commander, Naval Submarine Forces, Vice Adm. Chuck Munns, addressed the Oak Harbor Navy League to educate local Navy League members about the Navy’s undersea forces.
Vice Adm. Munns was the guest speaker at a luncheon held at the Oak Harbor Yacht Club. Oak Harbor is located near Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Wash.
Munns was visiting Navy Region Northwest to attend a return to service ceremony for USS Ohio (SSGN 726) as a guided missile submarine upon the completion of its conversion from a ballistic missile submarine (SSBN). The conversion, a first of its kind, allows the SSGN to carry 150 Tomahawk Land Attack missiles and deliver a complement of more than 60 special operations forces into battle.
Munns was introduced to the crowd by his brother and former Oak Harbor Navy League President, Capt. Larry Munns (ret.) who joked about being “a little bit of an interpreter” because not a lot of submariners visit Oak Harbor, a community steeped in Naval Aviation.
Munns began by expounding the importance of a worldwide U.S. Navy submarine presence and their importance in global operations. He explained their role in gathering and relaying accurate intelligence to help operational commanders make informed decisions and plans.
“We’ll bring back information that our national decision makers will use to help put our nation on a course that we think is best for the nation.
To illustrate the effectiveness of submarine intelligence, Munns told the Navy Leaguers about one submarine’s contribution to the drug war.
“One of our submarines saw the drug runners coming out with their go-fast boats and tipped off our whole system and together we were responsible for a 40-ton takedown. That’s about a fourth of all the drugs that come into the U.S. in any one year,” he said.
Just as NAS Whidbey Island’s future is taking shape in the P-8A Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) and E/A-18G Growler, the submarine force is looking ahead with the Virginia Class fast-attack submarines and newly reconfigured SSGNs.
Speaking of USS Virginia (SSN 774), the first submarines designed for post-cold war operations with increased capabilities and versatility, Munns said: “It’s been designed, it’s been built, it’s in the water and in fact it has done its first deployment already – two years earlier than any other submarine we’ve done in our design process.”
He went on to provide an overview of the SSBN to SSGN conversion program, which culminated the following day when the first of four SSGNs, Ohio, returned to the fleet. The other three guided missile subs will be: USS Michigan (SSGN 727), USS Florida (SSGN 728) and USS Georgia (SSGN 729).
After the luncheon concluded, the Admiral commented on the importance of the Navy League’s mission of showing community support for the Navy.
“The Navy League is very important to us; they’re the civilian arm of our naval sea service,” said Munns. “There’s less and less of our population who have served in the military so that there is more and more of a need to have a connection to our own society. It’s very nice to have an organization like the Navy League to come together on their own time and do that for us.”
By Jim Wolf, Reuters, 14 Feb 06
WASHINGTON - The United States will mount this summer its biggest show of naval power in the Pacific in at least 10 years, with exercises involving four aircraft carriers, the U.S. Pacific Fleet commander said on Tuesday.
The announcement by Adm. Gary Roughead was in line with Pentagon orders unveiled this month to boost the U.S. Navy's presence in the Pacific, said Capt. Matt Brown, a fleet spokesman.
Four aircraft carrier strike groups will take part in three separate drills, including one with a home port on the U.S. East Coast. The exercises will start in June and continue through August, Brown said.
Roughead said this number of U.S. aircraft carriers in the Pacific in close proximity to one another had not occurred in at least 10 years.
Other experts said it might be the biggest such U.S. concentration in the region since U.S. forces withdrew from Vietnam more than 30 years ago.
The carrier strike groups will exercise at times with other navies in the region, Roughead said, without giving details. The admiral said that at one point three of the U.S. carriers would be operating together.
"And it also provides a deterrent for anyone who would wish us ill," he told a luncheon organized by the Asia Society, a private group that fosters ties across the region.
"The ability to move these forces around more agilely, more rapidly, is the way that we will be operating in the future," Roughead added.
In a 20-year strategy blueprint made public on February 3, the Pentagon called China the power with "the greatest potential to compete militarily with the United States and field disruptive military technologies that could over time offset U.S. military advantages absent U.S. counter strategies."
The so-called Quadrennial Defense Review said the United States was hedging against uncertainties by building new longrange weapons; putting 60 percent of its submarines in the Pacific, up from 50 percent now; and maintaining at least six aircraft carriers in the Pacific.
Roughead said the scheduled 2008 basing of the nuclear-powered carrier George Washington in Yokosuka, Japan, also would bolster U.S. clout in the region. In addition, he said, more U.S. forces, including Marines, would be based in the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam.
The Washington is due to replace the conventionally powered Kitty Hawk, the oldest active ship in the U.S. Navy.
By Steve Andreasen, The San Francisco Chronicle, 14 Feb 06
Buried in President Bush's defense budget is a proposal to spend $2.5 billion to arm a small number of long-range ballistic missiles on submarines with conventional instead of nuclear warheads. Advocates argue that only these new conventional missiles can give America the ability to hit terrorists within minutes anywhere on the globe. While the idea of using long-range ballistic missiles in the war on terrorism may sound great, Congress must carefully weigh whether making these missiles more "usable" will increase or diminish global security.
Since their initial deployment in the 1950s by the United States and Russia, long-range ballistic missiles have been armed with nuclear weapons. Over the past 50 years, these missiles have never been used in combat. Moreover, the United States has led an international campaign opposing the development of ballistic missiles -- nuclear or conventional -- by other nations in every region of the globe, arguing that because of their short flight times and destructive force, they can be used for surprise attack and are inherently destabilizing.
If the United States decides now to arm some long-range ballistic missiles with conventional weapons, we might expect nations that now have long-range nuclear missiles -- in particular, Russia and China -- to follow our lead. Other nations could also someday adopt our rationale for proceeding with "conventional" missiles -- e.g., North Korea, Iran, India and Pakistan -- and these missiles could easily be converted to carry nuclear weapons. Thus, we could substantially undercut our efforts to prevent both the spread of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons by proceeding with the deployment of conventional warheads on long-range ballistic missiles.
Many states would also perceive the deployment of conventional warheads on these missiles in the United States as lowering the threshold for use of these weapons. Indeed, deployment of conventional long-range ballistic missiles in Russia, China and perhaps other nations would be inevitable. It is hard not to conclude that the probability of these weapons being used would increase.
So what if they were used? Nations with a missile early-warning system -- for example, Russia -- that detected the launch of a long-range ballistic missile might fear it was the target of a missile strike, in particular, if the missile appeared headed toward it. Russia could not know for certain if the missile was armed with a nuclear or conventional warhead. In the absence of -- or even with -- advance warning, this could increase the risk of a mistaken nuclear retaliatory launch.
Linked to these practical and policy concerns is a set of congressional and diplomatic hurdles. Congress recently denied funding for a new more "usable" nuclear weapon for attacking terrorist targets as unnecessary and unwise and may view refinements of submarine-launched ballistic missiles for the same purpose as equally dubious. During the Clinton era, the Russian military expressed concern that U.S. conventional warheads on long-range ballistic missiles combined with a national missile defense will enhance America's ability to attack Russia. China may read these developments in the same light. Many nations will view a U.S. decision to deploy conventional warheads on these missiles as yet another unilateral initiative where the United States adopts a posture of "do as we say, not as we do."
Sixty years ago, American leaders had to decide whether to build more and more powerful nuclear bombs, and whether to seek international controls on nuclear materials and weapons. The choices made then, some without a great deal of deliberation, helped feed a nuclear arms race. Today, we do need to improve our ability to strike terrorists; but we should not go down the path of deploying conventional munitions on long-range ballistic missiles and risk fueling a new missile and nuclear arms race without a rigorous analysis and debate over the implications and alternatives.
Bruce Smith, Associated Press, 14 February 2006
CHARLESTON, S.C. - Best-selling crime author Patricia Cornwell will donate at least $500,000 to help researchers solve the mystery of the sinking of the Confederate submarine Hunley, the first sub in history to sink an enemy warship.
"This is a crime scene and you are doing an autopsy on that submarine," Cornwell told The Associated Press Tuesday. "It's much like Jack the Ripper - you take the best modern science and apply it to a very old investigation and see if you can make the dead speak after all these years."
The eight-man, hand-cranked sub rammed a spar with black powder into the Union blockade ship Housatonic off Charleston on Feb. 17, 1864. The Hunley never made it back.
The sub was located off Charleston 11 years ago and raised in 2000.
Cornwell, whose 20 crime books include her series of thrillers featuring medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, often conducts research in working labs to give her novels added realism. She visited the Hunley in its conservation lab a month ago and worked with Dr. Jamie Downs, the coastal regional medical examiner for the state of Georgia who has worked on the Hunley project.
Cornwell said one of the purposes of her donation is to bring in equipment such as high-tech computers that might help solve the mystery of the sinking. That equipment includes an infrared device able to show structural weaknesses in metal.
She also said she may recruit other scientists she has met over the years - including experts in metal from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory - who may be able to help unravel the Hunley mystery.
"They may not find anything that answers the question," she said in an interview from New York. "I'm simply saying this should not be put to rest without us doing everything we can to try to figure out what happened to the Hunley and what killed these eight people on board."
There are generally two theories about the sinking. One is that the glass in the conning tower was shot out during the attack, allowing water to rush into the iron vessel. The other is that the crew ran out of air as they tried to crank the sub back to shore.
In December, scientists said that in removing encrustation from the front conning tower, the view port glass was missing. If shattered glass is found at the bottom of the sub, it could indicate it was broken during battle. But if it is found largely intact, it might indicate it broke when the sub was sinking. The floor of the sub is still encrusted with hardened sediment.
A Thursday news conference was scheduled to discuss Cornwell's involvement in the project.
But she told the AP there were no plans to write a book about the Hunley, such as her 2002 book that explored the identity of Jack the Ripper, who killed at least seven prostitutes in London's East End in 1888.
Defense News, 14 Feb 06
Japan said Feb. 14 that managing its deteriorating ties with China had become critical amid warnings of a potential military conflict between the neighbors that could drag in the United States.
”Any mismanagement can lead to unintended results,” Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Akira Chiba told reporters after speaking at a forum in Washington on the troubled Sino-Japanese ties.
He was responding to a warning by a former senior U.S. State Department official at the meeting of increasing prospects of a military conflict between the two Asian giants that would make American involvement inevitable.
”The management of the situation is extremely important,” Chiba said, adding that he was however “optimistic of the wisdom” of the Chinese and Japanese governments in preventing the situation from worsening.
Sino-Japanese ties have soured over Japan’s wartime legacy, fuelled by visits by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to the Yasukuni Shrine, and the publication of Japanese textbooks that allegedly whitewash Japanese wartime atrocities.
Frictions have also occurred over Beijing’s opposition to Japan’s bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.
But Chiba said “the juicy issue” amid the sagging relations between Tokyo and Beijing was the question of a “strategic realignment” in China-Russia ties.
”The question is that the history issue is not taken care of by the art of diplomacy,” he said.
”The strategic alignment or realignment can be confrontation or collaboration,” he said, referring to the once close ties between Japan and China against the former Soviet Union during the Cold War.
While Sino-Japanese ties have plummeted to one of their worst levels, China-Russia relations have grown closer recently.
Moscow and Beijing have wiped out old border conflicts, signed new trade accords and held large-scale joint military maneuvers.
Some analysts see the Sino-Russian rapprochement as a sign of a desire to wrest military and economic power in the Asia-Pacific region from the United States, which is linked by a half century military alliance with Japan.
”There is an increasing chance of a military miscalculation, miscommunication between the Japan and China militaries that could involve the United States,” warned Randall Schriver, a former top East Asian official at the State Department during President George W. Bush’s first term of office.
”My understanding is the militaries are coming into contacts (with) the potential for a more dangerous situation,” he said.
A Chinese naval destroyer took aim at a Japanese military surveillance aircraft near their disputed waters in September 2005, and a Chinese nuclear-powered submarine entered Japanese waters off the Okinawa Islands a year earlier.
On a number of occasions, Chinese research vessels have also intruded into Japanese waters without giving prior notification.
”I am more worried about a conflagration in the East China Sea than in the Taiwan Strait,” said Dan Blumenthal, a former senior director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia at the Pentagon.
He said the Asian region was “very worried” about a potential conflict between Japan and China.
Yang Bojiang, a visiting Chinese scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington, told the forum that Chinese leaders were more interested in resolving rising domestic issues than going to war.
He cited recent surveys on Chinese websites on 2006 challenges, saying the first nine out of the 10 priorities cited by the Chinese were domestic issues.
”Only the 10th was (related to) diplomacy,” Yang said. “I don’t think the attack of a foreign country is the highest concern of the Chinese leaders,” he said.
Schriver said he was not aware of any U.S. plan to contain the rising tensions.
”Some sort of CBMs (confidence building measures) between the militaries of Japan and China are welcomed,” he said.