![]() ![]() These circumstances again raise questions of what the Connecticut was doing and where. It also has a very sensitive naval base at Yunlin on Hainan where it bases its nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable submarines. So the accident might well have occurred within China’s 200nm EEZ around the Paracels.Īccording to the sub’s manufacturer, General Dynamics Electric Boat, the missions of the Seawolf class of submarines include “surveillance, intelligence collection and special warfare,” especially in shallow waters.Ĭhina has military installations on the Paracels. On October 3, the day after the accident, a Seawolf sub was spotted on the surface 43 miles southeast of the Paracel Islands. In other words, the sub may have been violating China’s laws and rights in its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ). One possibility is that the accident occurred in waters under China’s jurisdiction and the US feared that China might demand to take over or at least participate in the investigation. The US Navy said the delay in reporting the incident was due to concerns about “keeping the damaged sub safe and ensuring a thorough investigation of the incident.” The navy refused to specify the location of the accident “due to operations security.”īut it is not clear why reporting the incident right away and its location would endanger the sub’s safety and compromise the investigation. Rethinking Indonesia’s nickel market dominance It’s irresponsible and displays a lack of transparency on the part of the US to deliberately delay and conceal the details of the accident.” In this instance the US was anything but transparent regarding the details even though the accident generated worries about radiation affecting its friends and allies in the region.Ĭhina’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said, “The United States should clarify more details of the occurrence, including the specific location, the intention of its navigation, what kind of object the sub had struck, whether it caused a nuclear leak that would contaminate the marine environment. Military transparency favors the stronger players, because they can learn the weaknesses of others while intimidating them by allowing calculated glimpses of their superiority. The US has frequently accused China of a lack of transparency in military matters. In removing two officers and the chief of the boat from their positions, Vice-Admiral Karl Thomas, commander of the US 7th Fleet, detailed their errors. He “ determined sound judgment, prudent decision-making and adherence to required procedures in navigation planning, watch team execution and risk management could have prevented the incident.”Īs a former US attack-sub commander put it, “Not everything goes right all the time,” and “even pros have bad days.” In this case they had a very bad day. The incompetence of the sub’s commanders was admitted. The US Navy’s announcement was brief and vague. It did not say what the submarine hit or where – only that it was “operating in international waters in the Indo-Pacific region.” It turned out to be a “seamount” in the South China Sea. The vessel eventually proceeded on the surface under its own power to Guam, where the damage is being assessed. According to the announcement, the submarine “remained in a safe and stable condition” and its “nuclear propulsion plant and spaces were not affected and remain fully operational.” On October 7, the US Navy announced that five days earlier, on October 2, its Seawolf-class nuclear-powered and nuclear-weapons-capable submarine USS Connecticut had hit an unidentified object in the South China Sea. The US nuclear-sub accident last month demonstrated operator incompetence, government hypocrisy and the environmental threat posed by such operations in the South China Sea. ![]()
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