Japanese sub damaged in collision
JS Shoryu
In an accident reminiscent of the USS Greenville incident, the Japanese Submarine Shoryu collided with the bulk carrier Ocean Artemis while surfacing. The accident occurred in Japanese home waters near the island of Shikoku. Although damaged and with injured crew, fortunately there was no loss of life on board either vessle.
Poetrooper sends.
With Japanese sub damaged in collision, where does maritime readiness stand?
By: Mike Yeo
MELBOURNE, Australia — A Japanese submarine is damaged after colliding with a commercial ship in international waters off Japan on Monday, resulting in slight injuries to three crew members.
According to Japan’s Ministry of Defense, the diesel-electric submarine JS Soryu hit the commercial bulk carrier Ocean Artemis as it was surfacing in waters south of Cape Ashizuri in Kochi prefecture on the Japanese island of Shikoku on Monday morning local time.
The ministry added that the damage sustained by the Soryu was worse than initially thought, with the conning tower warped and the starboard hydroplane — which is used to adjust the submarine’s depth underwater — almost broken off.
The collision also damaged the antenna mast array of the submarine, which includes the periscope and communications antenna, leaving the Soryu unable to report the incident via normal communications channels.
As a result, the submarine, which was on a training sortie when the incident occurred, had to get within mobile phone coverage before being able to contact the Kure naval base to report the incident.
Poe points out the lack of emergency comms on board the sub, and rightly so. A descent INMARSAT phone can be had for about a grand. Read the entire article here: Defense News
Thanks, Poe.
Category: Guest Link, International Affairs, Navy
Ruh Roh…Someone gots some ‘splaining to do. Training mission? As we all know, the training for war can be as dangerous as the war itself. Slim details on this but I always thought that subs kinda sorta eased their way up, unless they had an emergency surface drill. Too much SHARP training and not enough surfacing training?
Lotsa respect for bubbleheads…Had a coupla cousins that did that way back yonder. Never had any desire at all to purposely sink a boat that I was riding in. I think that ASW Troops call them “Targets”.
Heh. We ASW troops also called it “Sub Hunting” and not “Sub Finding.” Sneaky bastards.
Over at theWARZONE some ex-bubbleheads speculate that the sub, running at shallow depth could have been sucked up and into the freighter by the Venturi effect created by the huge freighter passing overhead.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/39176/veteran-submariners-explain-what-might-have-gone-wrong-in-japanese-submarine-collision
What caught my attention in the news article was the laughable incongruity of a modern warship being dependent on the mobile phones of crewmembers to communicate with their shore base. Where the hell are all the redundancy systems that are supposed to be in place for just such emergencies?
As Miz Poe said when I showed her the article, “What, they can’t afford a satellite phone?”
Aaron (former sonar chief) did a great job discussing this collision on his YouTube channel SubBrief and looked at what may have happened. It’s also a good lesson on limits of sonar when in heavily trafficked areas and the troubles with thermoclines.
Thanks Bim, helped alot. Most of what I know about subs, I learned from reading Clancy. The rest from paying attention to the guys here.
Even if they can blame it on the thermo layer, SONAR still gots some ‘splaining to do. Don’t have to be a bubblehead or a cartographer to see that those subs will come in handy when the shooting war with the Communist Chinese Starts.
Why does Japan even have a Sub? I thought they were banned
from having a military after we showed them the light.
You’re only a little out of date…their military aka Self Defense Forces were just re-established. In 1954.
And used as Godzilla chow every couple of years since.
A diesel/electric boat would be a local asset, coastal defense, especially an attack boat.
A Missle boat either cruise, or ballistic, would be an offensive asset.
IIRC the Japanese are only allowed to operate in defensive posture, sent logistic suppprt to Desert Storm but not allowed to operate offensively in compliance with the articles of surrender. We handle their off shore requirements.
Sorry, but I’d rather not spend too much time inside of giant metal dildoes (dildos? it’s actually both, anyway…) either ones with water wings or air wings.
Either one makes me glad I have my feet firmly planted on terra firma.