Colliding+Nuclear+Subs

Colliding Nuclear Submarines between Britain and France

 * Date:** undisclosed; thought to be 3-4 February 2009

British HMS Vanguard and French Le Triomphant collided in the Atlantic Ocean. “deterrent capability remained unaffected and there was no compromise to nuclear safety” -No one was injured. -each sub about 150 metres long, 13 in diameter, had 250 crew members each, and 16 350-ton intercontinental ballistic missiles with 5,000-mile range

France’s Defense Ministry, Feb 6: Le Triomphant struck “a submerged object (probably a container)” during return from a patrol, damaging the sonar dome on the front end -France will not give a specific date or time, nor did they mention the British sub -Le Triomphant did not know that they had hit another sub -subs collided because they both had sophisticated anti-sonar equipment, did not know each other was there Britain has at least one nuclear sub patrolling the Atlantic at all times -Royal Navy states that subs use “water space management” to separate themselves both geographically and in depth from other vessels; collision highly unlikely

-anti-nuclear activists concerned that nuclear subs pose risks of radioactive leak into the ocean; if the damage had been greater, the entire Atlantic could have been affected
 * Debate issues:** if nothing really bad happened, why is this causing uproar?

=Anti-Sub= //-Kate Hudson, chair of Britain’s Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament:// “this is a nuclear nightmare of the highest order… the collision of two submarines, both with nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons onboard, could have released vast amounts of radiation and scattered scores of nuclear warheads across the seabed” -//John Large, nuclear analyst//: “the real risk is if you have a fire onboard caused by the impact. Each warhead has about 30kg-50kg of high explosive around it. That would burn and your plutonium core would burn as well. That would disperse into the atmosphere and be a major problem” -Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is calling for all British Trident submarines to be pulled from duty immediately; danger of keeping them at sea when there is no current threat to Britain. Dangerous and does nothing to improve security.

-US Navy has approx 18 Trident subs, Ohio class submarines, considered America’s strongest deterrent force, patrolling both Pacific and Atlantic -million-to-one unlucky chance that both subs were in the same place at same time -could have been a disaster, but chance of it happening again is highly unlikely
 * Pro-Sub:**

-collision may be result of lack of communication between France and NATO nations -official explanation: “they briefly came into contact at a very low speed while submerged”
 * Issue #2: Secrecy**