![]() ![]() Like the Connecticut, we suffered damage, flooding, and injuries. We were a mile off the coast of Vladivostok harbor, well inside the Russian twelve-mile territorial limit. In Spies of the Deep, I wrote about a collision between my submarine, the USS Drum (SSN-677) and the K-324-a Soviet Victor-III-class submarine. As a former submariner and navy diver, I recall nearly being killed on several of these missions. During the Cold War, the navy codenamed these Holy Stone. I wrote about these missions in my books, Red November and Spies of the Deep. ![]() The USS Connecticut was likely on a stealth espionage mission in the South China Sea when it hit… something. In one ICEX, which lasts about a month, British sailors died when a fire broke out on a UK boat, and it could not surface immediately. In the event of a reactor shutdown or fire, the boat can’t surface until the crew finds a thin ice patch. Other subs must find thinner ice, which creates a dangerous situation. ![]() Only a few boats, including the Sea Wolf-class, can surface through thicker ice. Submariners need special equipment and training to minimize accidents, including collisions. Fresh water mingles with salt water to create strange anomalies that can affect sonar, navigation, fire (weapons) control, and other equipment. Operating in the icy north is quite different from doing so in the Pacific Ocean or South China Sea. During simulated battles, they fire dummy torpedoes, hide behind ice keels, and test the latest equipment and tactics under the polar ice cap. Every few years, the Navy sends two attack subs to an ice flow about 200 miles north of Alaska, where they fight each other. Navy said it was not another vessel, such as a Chinese submarine, but is that the truth? While writing my latest two books, Spies of the Deep and Status-6, I rode aboard the USS Connecticut during an Ice Exercise (ICEX) in the Arctic. The accident damaged the Sea Wolf-class fast-attack submarine and injured nearly a dozen crew members. The USS Connecticut (SSN-22) collided with an unknown or undisclosed underwater object in the South China Sea on October 2, 2021. ![]()
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