USS Santa Fe (SSN 763) | laststandonzombieisland

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Stirring news from the Great North!

Posted on April 1, 2026 by laststandonzombieisland Leave a comment

Updates from Ice Camp, 1 CRPG, and the Marines in Norway.

So much great content has been coming from Ice Camp 26 (Boarfish), which is running for three weeks in the Beufort Sea with the surfaced USS Delaware (SSN 791) and Santa Fe (SSN 763)— marking the 100th American ice surfacings, along with personeel from U.S. Marine Corps, Air National Guard, Royal Australian Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Canadian Air Force, French Navy, Royal United Kingdom Navy, Norwegian Defence Research Institute, and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.

Beaufort Sea, Arctic Circle – Operation ICE CAMP 2026 participants from Arctic Submarine Lab, Naval Facilities Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center Detachment San Diego, Underwater Construction Team (UCT) TWO, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation Science, and various U.S. Navy commands pose for a photo at ICE CAMP Boarfish 2026, Mar. 17. (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Jacob D. Bergh)

Add to this the stuff coming from the 2,800-mile snowmobile-borne High Arctic sovereignty patrol of the Yellowknife-based 1st Canadian Ranger Patrol Group (1 CRPG/GPRC), which is visiting 17 remote communities across the country’s arctic regions. The patrol has reached Naujaat and Hudson Bay, and is finally turning South.

1 CRPG GPRC Canadian Rangers Long Range patrol at Kugaaruk radar station

1 CRPG/GPRC Canadian Rangers Long Range patrol at the long abandoned circa 1903 NWMP barracks, on Hudson Bay’s Cape Fullerton

Finally, check out this great U.S. Marine Corps video by Sgt. Noah Masog highlighting Exercise Cold Response 26 in Norway.

SSNs still keeping the Pole nailed down

Posted on March 10, 2026 by laststandonzombieisland Leave a comment

When not sniping wayward Iranian corvettes and launching TLAMs for CENTCOM, the 125-year-old U.S. Navy Submarine Service is busy this week atop the world.

The Arctic Submarine Laboratory’s Operation Ice Camp 2026 kicked off last week in the Arctic Circle as the legacy Virginia-class fast-attack submarines USS Santa Fe (SSN 763) and USS Delaware (SSN 791) performed a vertical surfacing to a very 1981’s The Thing kinda camp.

The camp, named “Boarfish,” gets its namesake from the WWII Balao-class fleet boat USS Boarfish (SS 327), which served as the flagship for Operation Blue Nose, the first-ever exploration under the polar ice cap. Of note, this year marks the 100th U.S. sub surfacing through Arctic ice at the North Pole, a tradition kicked off by USS Skate (SSN 578) in March 1959.

Skate cracking the ice back in the day

Just as the as-yet-to-be-identified SSN that sank the Iranian Dena last week carried three Royal Australian Navy personnel who are busy learning their trade on nuclear-powered hunter killers for AUKUS, Delaware is carrying a small team of RN submariners, while SUBPAC’s Santa Fe has a few more Ozzys.

“The three-week operation brings together U.S. forces and international partners to research, test, and evaluate operational capabilities in the challenging Arctic environment,” notes SUBLANT.

Submarines at play in Oz

Posted on February 28, 2019 by laststandonzombieisland Leave a comment

Recently four of Australia’s six home-grown Collins-class diesel-electric submarines were spotted frolicing in the West Australian Exercise Area northwest of Rottnest Island near Cockburn Sound. The quartet, HMAS Collins (S73), HMAS Farncomb (S74), HMAS Dechaineux (S76) and HMAS Sheean (S77) were taking part in exercises Lungfish 2019 and Ocean Explorer 2019 in the Indian Ocean.

Able to “snort” at a shallow depth for just a few minutes in a 24-hour period to keep their batteries topped off, the sight of four of these modern SSKs in formation on the surface is rare.