![]() and Russian foreign and defense policy, German politics, and culture. Undersea fiber-optic cables remain exposed and unprotected.Ĭaleb Larson holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy. While the Losharik will be out of commission for some time, the possibility of Russian tampering with undersea cables is not over. ![]() The Losharik will likely be repaired and put back to sea, assuming the damage was not catastrophic, though Russian naval repairs are notoriously slow. A retired Russian admiral has alleged that the 2000 Kursk submarine disaster was caused by a collision with a NATO sub in an unproven claim that defies the official conclusion that the country’s. To understand why the Losharik can dive so deeply, one has to consider what lies on the ocean floor at such astounding depths- underseas fiber-optic cables.Īn estimate by a UK-based think tank estimated that every day, underseas cables conduct “97% of global communications and $10 trillion in daily financial transactions.” A disruption in information transmission could be a crippling economic (or military) blow-and Russian submarines are already on patrol or operating in some capacity near these cables. A Russian naval aid reinforced the idea of the deceased sailors as heroes, saying that, “with their lives, they saved the lives of their colleagues, saved the vessel and prevented a planetary catastrophe,” in a possibly hyperbolic gesture. Four of them were awarded Russia’s highest honor, Hero of the Russian Federation. Kommersant, a Russian business newspaper, speculated that the fire may have been caused by replacement batteries that were lithium-ion, rather than the original silver-zink batteries, which could have caused a short circuit or explosion.ġ4 sailors died as a result of the fire. Due to the especially cramped conditions on the Losharik, battling the blaze was likely made even more difficult. Rather than an open flame, a fire would likely be noticed by smoke or smoldering. Submarines are non-combustible by design-even the paint inside subs is nonflammable. The fire on the Losharik likely started in one or multiple battery compartments, for reasons that are not entirely clear.įires onboard submarines are not like a fire inside a house. Though propelled by a nuclear reactor, the Losharik also has onboard batteries that can store extra electric power. The Losharik was likely going to or coming from the Severodvinsk shipyard. In 2014, the Russian version of Top Gear, an automotive program, published photos of an ocean-side SUV test that captured the Losharik in the background. The last fuel assembly was removed from the submarine’s aft reactor on February 17th 2003. Unfortunately, however, the team was forced to cut the forward hull off the rest of the sub to bring it to the surface, damaging the best evidence of what caused the explosions at the bottom of the sea.Aside from grainy satellite photos, not much photographic evidence of the Losharik was available. Using $100 million, the best available technology and an international team of experts, Kursk was raised on September 26, 2001, approximately one year after the accident. Dmitry Kolesnikov’s widow, Olga, (3rd R), mourns Octoduring a memorial ceremony for the crew of the sunken Russian nuclear submarine Kursk at the ship’s home port of Severomorsk, some 1500 km (940 miles) north of Moscow. Under great pressure, Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to pull the submarine up from the seabed for investigation, even though a ship or object of this size had never been recovered from the ocean floor before.Īlso, since the Barents Sea is frozen for most of the year, the operation had only a small window in which to work. When the divers finally reached Kursk a week later, They found no signs of life. Since the fate of the 118 Russian crew members aboard the Kursk is unknown, several nations offered to contribute to the rescue effort, but the russian government refused any help, It was the largest attack submarine in the world, about three times the size of the largest submarines in the United States Navy. The submarine was 500 feet long and weighed 24,000 tons, had two nuclear reactors, and could reach speeds of 28 knots. A Russian boy stands next to portraits of victims of the Kursk submarine disaster in their barracks during a first-anniversary commemoration ceremony at the Kursk operating base Vidyayevo in Murmansk oblast, Russia, on August 12. On August 12, Kursk was scheduled to fire a practice torpedo at 11:29 hours, before doing so, there were two closely spaced explosions in the forward hull of the submarine and it sank to the bottom of the sea. Russian ships, planes and submarines met in the Barents Sea, which is located above the Arctic Circle, to practice military maneuvers. Kursk it left port on August 10 to participate in war games with the Russian army.
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