The worst way to determine the position of a previously uncharted seamount is to run into it underwater. That is apparently what happened to the Seawolf-class attack submarine, USS Connecticut, when it hit an object while submerged on October 2.
“The investigation determined USS Connecticut grounded on an uncharted seamount while operating in international waters in the Indo-Pacific region,” 7th Fleet spokesperson Cmdr. Hayley Sims told USNI News in a Monday afternoon statement following an earlier version of this post. “Commander, U.S. 7th Fleet will determine whether follow-on actions, including accountability, are appropriate.”
The damage to the forward section of the submarine damaged its ballast tanks and prompted Connecticut to make a week-long voyage on the surface from the South China Sea to Guam, USNI News reports. The Navy has said repeatedly that the submarine’s nuclear reactor and propulsion system are undamaged.
The boat is currently in Guam undergoing initial repairs overseen by Naval Sea Systems Command, personnel from the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and submarine tender USS Emory S. Land (AS-39). The Navy will first determine how the submarine can be fixed enough to safely leave Guam for follow-on repairs.
The Navy has not described the extent of the damage to the submarine, but commercially available satellite images suggest the vessel suffered damage to its sonar dome and bow array. The scope of the structural damage to the ballast tanks is unclear.
As Guam does not have a drydock large enough to lift the sub, it is likely that it will have to travel to Hawaii or even the US West Coast for repairs. Only three Seawolf-class submarines were ever built. They are highly advanced submarines that provide unique capabilities widely understood to be optimized for intelligence-gathering activities, among other specialized missions.
Apparently their advanced electronics doesnt include ocean topography mapping software. A rather painful woops. As well as showing limitations of the naval vessel
Willy, do they also still run on the Windows XP variant called “Windows for warships”?
The intelligence gathering does not include making better, more detailed, classified maps of the sea floor. So now the world knows where the USS Connecticut Seamount is located. This could be a first, as it is usually sea-level guyots, and reefs that are discovered this way…
To Peter Wright
For all I know they could be running on windows 95
knows nothing and I can prove it.
Is the sea mount going to be named after the vessel like uncharted rocks in Swedish waters that cause sinkings?
LOL Mount Submarine Accident. I will vote for it