British, French Nuclear Subs Crash in Atlantic

British, French nuclear subs crash in Atlantic: report

LONDON (AFP) — A British and a French submarine, both of them nuclear-powered and carrying nuclear weapons, collided in the Atlantic Ocean earlier this month, the Sun newspaper reported on Monday.

The tabloid said HMS Vanguard and France's Le Triomphant were both damaged in the incident, but there were no reports of damage to the nuclear parts. The British sub has now been towed to Faslane in Scotland for repair.

Both vessels -- between them carrying about 250 sailors -- were reportedly submerged and on separate missions when they crashed on February 3 or 4.

The Ministry of Defence refuses to comment on submarine operations but a spokesman said: "We can confirm that the UK?s deterrent capability has remained unaffected at all times and there has been no compromise to nuclear safety."

HMS Vanguard is one of four nuclear submarines operated by the British military as part of its Trident system, and one is always on deterrent patrol.

Each vessel is 150 metres long and 13 metres in diameter, and can carry up to 48 nuclear warheads on a maximum of 16 missiles.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gv0WPcebREaWMjZYZBxMxdhyrjQA

YEAH!!!!

reminds me a lot of this fiasco:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/cdnsubs/chicoutimitimeline.html

stupid brits, if it wasn't for these bad boys: http://sbynews.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-british-submarine.html I'd have to question the quality of the British Navy

I'd still question the quality of the British Navy regardless of the astute class...I remember another submarine managed to crash INTO THE SHETLAND ISLANDS....As far as i'm aware they're on all the maps and being part of Britain you would've thought they could manage not to crash into them...apparently not though.

Then there was the frigate captain who crashed into Australia.

Stupid sailors you mean, the Brits as a nation have proven through history they are the masters of the sea, if their sailors in those ships (prob Americans for arguments sake 😛 ) are fools then they need new men.

Originally posted by Burning thought
Stupid sailors you mean, the Brits as a nation have proven through history they are the masters of the sea, if their sailors in those ships (prob Americans for arguments sake 😛 ) are fools then they need new men.

They're called "boats", not "ships"...At least in reference to the submarines anyway.

Ime sorry for that crucial mistake......

Originally posted by jaden101
I'd still question the quality of the British Navy regardless of the astute class...I remember another submarine managed to crash INTO THE SHETLAND ISLANDS....As far as i'm aware they're on all the maps and being part of Britain you would've thought they could manage not to crash into them...apparently not though.

Then there was the frigate captain who crashed into Australia.

wow!!

both of those are kind of ridiculous

lol, at least it isn't the Russians. They don't even have the military technology to save their own sailors when a sub crashes

Originally posted by Burning thought
Stupid sailors you mean, the Brits as a nation have proven through history they are the masters of the sea, if their sailors in those ships (prob Americans for arguments sake 😛 ) are fools then they need new men.

lol, the point isn't to trash the British Navy (although....). If you want to talk about my hypothesis in this, it would be more about the dangers of nuclear weapons, but more just having a laugh at a moderately serious event.

also, you might have missed my link to this: http://sbynews.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-british-submarine.html in the initial post, which essentially says the exact same thing you did.

oh no I looked at the link, that sub could probably destroy most navies by itself if it wasnt for a lack of torpedos although I just thot you were blaming the navy itself, didnt realise you were joking. Although I wonder to myself why, and how the two subs crashed....it could be something we dont know, not the foolery of the sailors.

Originally posted by Burning thought
oh no I looked at the link, that sub could probably destroy most navies by itself if it wasnt for a lack of torpedos although I just thot you were blaming the navy itself, didnt realise you were joking. Although I wonder to myself why, and how the two subs crashed....it could be something we dont know, not the foolery of the sailors.

of course, and if the fires on the Canadian sub are any indication, we will probably not find out anything until it is buried in the papers and nobody remembers it.

I'd be interested if it was human error vs machine error, but really, 2 nuclear subs, armed with nuclear weapons, from allied countries in friendly waters... doesn't seem like either boat crew was all to awares

perhaps something criminal was up. Or sabotage.

ya, I think human error is a little bit more likely than that...

the error might be criminal though. Crashing a nuclear powered boat into another nuclear powered boat, both armed with nuclear weapons might constitute criminal negligence, depending on how far away they were from land.

Ime not sure about that, I cant image why anyone on a submarine carrying nukes would not be alert, they would have to be responsible people, not green fresh recruits I would imagine.

Originally posted by Burning thought
Ime not sure about that, I cant image why anyone on a submarine carrying nukes would not be alert, they would have to be responsible people, not green fresh recruits I would imagine.

hence the mystery

Well at least no nukes went off or the world would be in a little bit of a trouble. (well no nukes damaged, ime not sure if they can be set off without arming codes, surely their not armed nukes going about the place)

This reminds me of one of those episodes on Cops where the twelve year old steals his dads sports car to take on a joy ride and ends up trashing it. Only, he trashes it by crashing into another pre-teen who stole his fathers car for a joy ride as well.

Silly French.

I am sorry, little off-topic (in an off-topic forum thread) but Inimalist do you have much more information on that new British Submarine? I like it 🙂

Originally posted by Burning thought
if their sailors in those ships (prob Americans for arguments sake 😛 ) are fools then they need new men.

I must be psychic. Before I opened a thread about the British and the French, I just knew that someone inside the thread would mention America, and not in a relevant way, of course.

I find it amazing that someone has failed to mention the chances of two Submarines accidently crashing in the worlds oceans, the oceans are vast and there arn´t that many subs in the see.

So they were either on exercise together, or hunting each other, more like the French one was Hunting the British one seeing as the French one was hunter class Sub, as apposed to the British "nuclear missile" firing platform Sub.

They were probably trying out the Sonar proof technology, which appeared to work quite well seeing as they couldn´t see each other.