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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!princeton!eosp1!lincoln
From: lincoln@eosp1.UUCP (Dick Lincoln)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: USN Carrier collides with Russian sub
Message-ID: <735@eosp1.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 23-Mar-84 11:31:48 EST
Article-I.D.: eosp1.735
Posted: Fri Mar 23 11:31:48 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Mar-84 08:45:30 EST
References: <302@hogpd.UUCP>
Organization: Exxon Office Systems, Princeton, NJ
Lines: 33

rabbit!jj comments:
	I can't believe that neither the sub nor the carrier knew
	nothing of the other's presence.  Comments, please, if you
	have real information or experience with such systems?

It seems obvious both that the Kitty Hawk knew there was a Soviet sub
*in the area* (from contact with the KH's protecting picket ships) and
vice versa.

WCBS Radio in NYC explained the incident as follows:

(1)  The Kitty Hawk drug her keel over the sub as the KH overtook the
sub from the rear.  The sub was rising from a deep dive to periscope
depth at the time.

(2)  The KH didn't know the sub's immediate position because the KH
doesn't have sonar gear.

(3)  The sub didn't know the KH's immediate position because the sub
has no sonar detection from her after direction (pickup would be
drowned in her own screw noise).

The sub's proper procedure before returning to periscope depth or
surfacing from a deeper dive (in the Soviet Operations Manual, according
to WCBS) is to *turn the boat around* and scan in all directions with
the sonar to avoid being hit from its rear blind spot.  Apparently the
sub's captain failed to follow this procedure.

(4)  No significant damage was done to either vessel, although if the
sub had managed to come only a few feet closer to the surface before
impact, she would have been split in two by the KH, killing all 90 of
her crew and possibly exposing the area to intense radioactive
contamination from her fragile reactor core.