Afghan National Army Commandos and Coalition Special Operations Forces conducting clearing operations through Wardak and Nangarhar provinces, Afghanistan, to deny insurgent safe havens in the area and to improve security throughout the provinces. 10.20.2011
http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201110/hiromitsu-shinkawa-japan-tsunami-rescue-story (full story at GQ)
Later, lost far at sea, when you’re trying to forget all you’ve left behind, the memory will bubble up unbidden: a village that once lay by the ocean.
Here are the neatly packed homes with gray-tiled roofs over which the mountains rise in rounded beneficence, towering over lush rice fields that feed a nation. Here are the boats that fish the sea, in all of its blue serenity, and the grass in all of its green. There is such peace in this picture of abundance: lumber from the mountain, rice from the field, fish from the deep ocean. People want for nothing here.
This village woven together by contentment is yours, Hiromitsu, and it is here, in the memory of it whole, that you know yourself best, the fourth-generation son of rice farmers. Here among a hundred wooden houses is the concrete one your family built. The house is made with metal pilings, which by your calculations will stand any high tide or errant wave. On your verdant plot a mile from the sea, a garden bursts with peonies, outbuildings sag, a koi pond teems. Here you live with your wife, Yuko, to whom you daily profess your love, and your parents, whom you still honor with the obedience of a child. In the barn are the pigeons you adore, for there’s no more beautiful sight in the world than a flock mystically circling deep in the sky, then suddenly one breaking for home, wings aflutter, straining, as if to say, I’m here.
Recently Iranian state news quoted a naval commander as saying his country plans to have a “powerful presence” near the U.S. border.
A Pentagon spokesman responded Wednesday by questioning if Iran was capable of carrying out the stated plan.George Little told reporters that Iran has the right to send vessels into international waters, but “whether they can truly project naval power beyond the region is another question.”
Hmm, really, lets take a look at this.
Iran has three Russian-built Kilo class diesel attack submarines
The Iranian Kilos:
Displacement: 4,000 tons submerged
Dimensions: 74 x 9.9 x 6.5 meters
Propulsion: Diesel-electric propulsion, 2 x 1000 kW Diesel generators, 1 x 5,500-6,800 shp, Propulsion motor, 1 x fixed-pitch Propeller
Speed: 25 knots (46 km/h)
Range: 7,500 nautical miles (13,890 km) (on diesels)
Crew: 52
Armament: 6 x 553 mm torpedo tubes, 18 x torpedoes, 24 x mines
Number Class Name Year Homeport
901 Kilo Tareq 1992 Bandar Abbas
902 Kilo Noor 1993 Bandar Abbas
903 Kilo Yunes 1997 Bandar Abbas
As you can see, these ships are classed to make a 7500-mile one way trip. If packed with a skeleton crew using high-calorie rations and a low consumption diet, and traveling at the most efficient speed. They could conceivably make the 7800 mile overseas voyage from Bandar Abbas to the coast of Venezuela and set up shop. IF Hugo Chavez was high-strung enough to push the issue.
Thats the big IF
IF Hugo didn’t extend refueling to the Islamic U-Boat, then all bets are off (maybe). IF he does allow them to buy gas a groceries there. Its on.
Iran would not even have to do anything with the submarine to gain a huge victory. All they would have to do is make it. The sight of a Russian made hunter killer, flying the flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Caribbean, seemingly Uncle Sam’s private Koi Pond, would be a huge propaganda victory.
In World War Two, Hitler’s Kreigsmarine built and sent to see more than 700 Type VII Class U-Boats, many of whom sailed to the US East and Gulf Coast to sink dozens of American ships right off our coastline. These boats surely must have been larger than the Iranian Kilos right?
Lets See;
German Type VIIC, 1942
Displacement: 769 tonnes (757 long tons) surfaced
871 t (857 long tons) submerged
Length: 67.1 m (220 ft 2 in) o/a
Propulsion: 2 × supercharged Germaniawerft, 6-cylinder, 4-stroke M6V 40/46 diesels totaling 2,800–3,200 hp (2,100–2,400 kW). Max rpm: 470-490
Speed: 17.7 knots (20.4 mph; 32.8 km/h) surfaced
7.6 knots (8.7 mph; 14.1 km/h) submerged
Range: 15,170 km (8,190 nmi) at 10 kn (19 km/h) surfaced
150 km (81 nmi) at 4 kn (7.4 km/h) submerged
Is that right? The capable German subs are actually smaller? Hmpf.
Of course it will be pointed out that they sailed from France and not from Iran, however many did in fact spend extended time at sea sailing from Germany itself, refueling from milch-cow subs in the Western Hemisphere. Which of course couldn’t happen these days right. I mean could the country of Iran possibly outfit a ship with some spare diesel and food storage sailing under a Panamanian flag to float around the Caribbean? Impossible right!
? Right ?
What do we have to stop it from happening?
Well, Anti-Submarine warfare (ASW) in the US has been cut back systematically for nearly two decades. In the 1980s the US Navy had almost 500 land based P3 and carrier based S3 aircraft (on 15 aircraft carriers) who were dedicated to finding and busting subs. Today, all of the S3s are in the bone-yard or museums and less than 150 P3s remain (not all of them usable). They are slated to be replaced by as few as 100 P8’s in coming years. [S3’s in the bone-yard in Arizona]
In the 1980s we had 208 dedicated surface-based sub-killers:
8 Brooke and Bronstein Class Frigates
10 Garcia Class Frigates
46 Knox Class Frigates
51 Perry Class Frigates
31 Spruance Class Destroyers
23 Charles F Adams Class Destroyers
10 Farragut Class Destroyers
4 Kidd Class Destroyers
12 Hamilton Class High Endurance Cutters (Yes, back when the Coast Guard Had Sonar!)
13 Bear Class Medium Endurance Cutters (Again, Coast Guard Sonar!)
Plus no less than 30 Cruisers who would be dedicated to air defense, but were still capable of hammering the crap out of a Soviet Akula or Zulu if it came close enough to thier carriers.
These ships had a mix of ASROC Launchers, (since retired) and a half dozen 12.8inch (324 mm) ASW Torpedo Tubes and more often than not, SH-3 Seaking (retired), S-2 Seasprite (retired) and SH-60 Seahawk (redesigned to be more multimission and less ASW) antisubmarine helicopters.
[Ex-John Young, a Spruance Class Destroyer sunk in 2004 via SINKEX. Glad we dont need these anymore!]
Today we are left with: 80 dedicated surface-based sub-killers
The increasingly marginalized FFG-7 Perry frigates (only 19 fully active)
The DDG-51 Burke Class destroyers (61 completed but only 41 of these with helicopter hangars) These are excellent platforms but are more likely to be escorting carrier battle groups and amphibious ready groups along with the remaining CG-47 type cruisers than actually out independently looking for rouge subs.
The US Navy seems to have gone more multimission than ever before, and ASW is far down the list of priorities.
Good thing that the Iranians couldn’t possibly project naval assets to our coast.
I heard in 1940 that the Japanese couldn’t possibly use aerial torpedoes inside Pearl Harbor too.
Back in the old days trackers would follow an enemy body of troops by looking for tracks from shoed horses (most farm horses arent) cast off gear, abandoned field latrines, etc.
Today they would follow our batteries
In a statement by the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
Royal Navy strikes third major blow in a week against pirates
A suspected pirate mother ship has been stopped by the Royal Navy in the third blow dealt to pirates in the past week by UK forces. The dhow – thought to be the launchpad for last week’s attack on an Italian cargo ship – was stopped by the combined efforts of HMS Somerset, RFA Fort Victoria, Royal Marines Commandos and a Merlin helicopter from 829 Naval Air Squadron some 200 miles off Somalia.
A burst of fire sends fountains of water shooting up from the Indian Ocean as another show of overwhelming force from the Royal Navy forces suspected pirates to stop.
This is the moment a pirate mother ship – thought to be behind last week’s attack on an Italian cargo ship – is halted in the third blow in a week dealt to Somali pirates by UK forces.
After freeing the crew of the Montecristo and Pakistani fishermen held hostage on their dhow, the combined punch of RFA Fort Victoria, HMS Somerset, Royal Marines Commandos, raiding craft and a Merlin helicopter struck again, this time snaring a suspected mother ship.
Some 200 miles off the coast of Somalia, Royal Marines from RFA Fort Victoria boarded the hijacked vessel as the men aboard desperately tossed piratical paraphernalia – weapons and boarding equipment – into the Indian Ocean and set one of their skiffs adrift.
Those desperate actions were to no avail – they were observed by the Merlin helicopter from HMS Somerset, which had found the dhow at first light and shadowed it as the frigate and supply ship Fort Victoria closed in.
Even so it took shots across the bow and the Royal Marines scaling the vessel’s side to cause the suspected pirates to capitulate.
Capt Rod Yapp Royal Marines, the commander of the boarding team, said:
“Approaching the dhow before boarding was quite tense. Through my weapon sight I could see dark figures moving in the shadows on the bridge.”
“We quickly boarded and secured the dhow then mustered the 24 occupants on her bow.”
His team found ample evidence that the vessel was being used as the launchpad for pirate attacks: there was a large cache of boarding ladders, weapons, a second attack skiff and equipment from a previously-pirated ship.
Capt Yapp added:
“There was a clear indication that the suspected pirates found on the dhow were well-practised and knew what they were doing.”
“One of the weapons had recently been fired and was well maintained – as was the RPG rocket. I think that if we hadn’t disrupted this group of suspected pirates, it is quite possible that they would have attacked another merchant vessel.”
The green berets also found 20 Pakistani sailors being held hostage. While they were free to go on their way once evidence gathering had finished, the four suspected pirates who were apprehended were handed over to the Italian authorities on suspicion of their involvement in the attack on the MV Montecristo.
The bulk carrier was attacked at the beginning of last week and spent a day and a half in the hands of pirates; her crew were able to retreat to the engine room and were freed when Fort Victoria and her commandos arrived on the scene after picking up the Italians’ SOS.
Fort Victoria is carrying out NATO’s counter-piracy mission in the Indian Ocean, Operation Ocean Shield, while HMS Somerset is currently assigned to the Combined Maritime Forces counter-piracy mission, Combined Task Force (CTF) 151.
Describing this latest success, Somerset’s CO Cdr Paul Bristowe said:
“The mother-ship was located by Somerset’s Merlin helicopter at first light and the boarding teams brought to immediate notice whilst Somerset closed with the dhow.”
The vessel was soon surrounded by a Royal Navy and Royal Marines boarding team from RFA Fort Victoria, supported by HMS Somerset’s helicopter.”
“This operation demanded high levels of seamanship to ensure that the dhow was kept under close observation as the boarding party moved in,” said Fort Victoria’s Commanding Officer, Capt Shaun Jones RFA.”
Capt Gerry Northwood, in charge of the counter-piracy mission aboard Fort Victoria, added:
“This decisive and timely action by the Royal Navy, along with the rescue of the Montecristo on October 11, will send a strong message to those who wish to commit piracy in this part of the world.”
“Somali-based piracy seeks to undermine the freedom of the seas across a wide area.”
“Their victims are local traders and fishermen of the Indian Ocean as well as sailors in the large merchant ships carrying the vital trade on which the UK economy depends.”
http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/News-and…ird-Major-Blow
A member of the upper deck gun crew on RFA Fort Victoria, with Royal Navy frigate HMS Somerset in the background
[Picture: Leading Airman (Photographer) Dave Jenkins, Crown Copyright/MOD 2011]
Royal Marines boarding teams close in on the dhow
[Picture: Leading Airman (Photographer) Dave Jenkins, Crown Copyright/MOD 2011]
The Kiss Your Ass Goodbye award of the month goes to the good people who found the Time Capsule left from the Bellvue Hospital Medical College that had been just chilling in a cornerstone since 1897.
Thats 114 years to you and me…..Back when they called cars horseless-buggies, there was no professional sports other than bareknuckle boxing, and no one had heard of social security.
Well boys and girls, inside the time capsule was various papers, trinkets etc. (Elect McKinley President!) which is groovy. Put it in a display somewhere and tell the locals all about it with a plaque in the lobby of the new building.
What was also in the capsule, was “a test tube that had some bacterial spores in it that were gotten and cultured from a patient in 1896″
and according to the article on NYC’s CBS affiliate : http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/10/07/time-capsule-found-at-former-bellevue-hospital-medical-college/
A nice microbiologist is going to open it and check them out….and is ” is trying to wake up those spores and grow them so they can study the organisms.”
How
About
No
These things have been in exile for a century. How can this be good? What if they are for a common cold that was around in 1896 that everyone had the anti-body for and it died out quietly. This cold, reintroduced to a population six generations removed, may be our time’s new black death, ready to clean the slate.
Sure I am most likely over-reacting, but what if im not?
Why couldn’t the good people who found it just quietly slipped the test tube into a furnace somewhere.
Oh well, see you in the funny papers
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