• A US Navy nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarine surfaced in the Norwegian Sea.
  • It was accompanied by a guided-missile cruiser and two naval aircraft.
  • The show of force came weeks after Russia sent a submarine and naval fleet to Cuba.
  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    4 months ago

    And don’t dismiss that they’d kill to know the location of a SSBN at any time under normal conditions.

    Like, I don’t know how high of a federal clearance you e ever gotten, but literally everything about a SSBNs schedule is at least secret. The people on them don’t even know where they are 99% of the time.

    Russia isn’t shooting down a nuke anyways, it doesn’t matter where it’s coming from, it’s hitting what it’s aimed.

    It’s literally an intercontinental ballistic missile…

    https://www.salon.com/2022/03/03/why-scientists-still-cant-figure-out-how-to-intercept-icbms/

    America isn’t even confident we could shoot one of NK’s down. We could launch from a SSBN literally on the other side of the planet and absolutely nothing would stop it from hitting Moscow.

    We gave up valuable intelligence for literally zero reason.

    It shows that we’re irrational for doing it. Or even worse, that we thought Russia is so irrational that they needed to see it. Making both of us irrational.

    The entire reason SSBNs are the threat they are, is you can only beat a ICBM by taking it out before it launches, and no one has a clue where the SSBNs are.

    When were acting rational and want a show of force. We park an LHD or even Aircraft Carrier squadron off a coast.

    Edit:

    Like, if Russia happened to have sonar going in that area, and they just saw it surface…

    They can compare sound signatures of that time period and may possibly isolate the distinctive sound of a SSBN. Something they’ve been trying to find for decades and could possibly lead to them being able to find SSBNs out in the wild.

    This is a god awful decision that has potentially huge ramifications…

    I get people wouldn’t know about all of this, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a big deal.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        4 months ago

        There’s a lot of noise around a harbour, and unlikely to be opposition right outside.

        Completely different than middle of the ocean.

        • eggymachus@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          4 months ago

          I don’t know… admittedly, I only remember some vague bits from Tom Clancy novels, but didn’t Soviet attack subs wait outside the home ports for the SSBNs to try to stay on their tail, and they never managed to?

          I should dig up The Hunt for Red October, I guess, but given current geopolitics maybe Red Storm Rising is a better fit :)

          • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            4 months ago

            but didn’t Soviet attack subs wait outside the home ports for the SSBNs to try to stay on their tail, and they never managed to?

            I wouldn’t be surprised.

            But I know one of the most classified parts of a sub, is what the propeller looks like. Because then you could determine what it sounds like.

            Knowing one was at X location at Y time is dangerous because then recordings can be compared to other periods and if anything stands out…

            Then you can search for that.

            It’s just a whole lot of risk in area we go thru ridiculous pains to minimize any risk, for no legit payoff.

            There’s just no logic behind this move or rationalization of it.