Pacific Reach

Navy hosts international sub exercise
Dan Box November 27, 2007

THE Australian navy is playing host to a vast international military exercise meant to prevent a repeat of the Kursk tragedy, in which the crew of a Russian submarine died after the vessel was trapped on the seabed.

Submarines, ships and teams of specialist divers, as well as military observers from 15 nations, gathered yesterday in Perth for the first day of the two-week operation, which has been codenamed Pacific Reach.

New Sub Class
The guided missile submarine USS Ohio is gently pushed to the pier by a tugboat as it returns to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Bremerton, Wash., Dec. 19, 2005, after completing sea trials. Ohio is the first ballistic missile submarine to complete conversion to the new class of guided missile submarines. The submarine will also have the additional capability to transport and support Navy special operations forces. Defense Dept. photo by Rick Chaffee

Such was the impact of the 2000 Kursk tragedy -- in which the Russian authorities refused offers of help from the US and Britain, condemning the vessel's 118 crew to their deaths -- that a number of unlikely military allies have put aside their differences.

Pakistan, which was suspended from the Commonwealth last week, has sent observers to work alongside elite British navy divers, trained to parachute from helicopters to help evacuate stricken submarines.

NATO has also sent a team to observe the participants -- including China, Russia, Indonesia and the US -- many of which are building up their submarine fleets within the region.

Exercise director Captain Peter Scott said: "It's quite a remarkable event. It's not an exercise that is predicated or based on any particular military alliance. And it's not always been the case that submariners and navies were willing to call on assistance fromothers."

Two Australian submarines, as well as one each from South Korea and Japan, will take part in a number of simulated emergencies, including one where a vessel will sever communications and sink to the seabed, replicating theKursk emergency, to await rescue.

The exercise also has a wider strategic aim of building military relationships between countries in Asia, a region that a number of analysts describe as being involved in an "arms race" for submarines.

In September, Indonesia announced it would buy 10 new submarines as well as other military technology from Russia, while China and Pakistan are also increasing their fleets.

The Submarine Institute of Australia estimates that by 2020 up to 10 nations will be operating about 100 submarines across the region, in contrast to the six Collins-class submarines maintained by the Australian navy at present.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/

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She is four years late and a massive £900million over-budget. But when the Royal Navy's super-sub HMS Astute finally arrived, she made for an awesome sight. More complex than the space shuttle, and able to circumnavigate the globe without surfacing, the 7,400-ton monster is the largest and deadliest hunter-killer submarine ever built.
www.martinfrost.ws/.../hunter_killer.html