« Responder #1 em: Junho 18, 2007, 11:24:12 pm »
The cold war beneath the sea.
In May 1968, submarine specialist John Craven, then chief scientist of the navy's special projects office, had just crossed into Virginia from Washington, D.C., on his way home from work when he heard an alarming news report on the radio. The USS Scorpion, a submarine, was missing in the ocean with 99 men on board. On hearing the news, Craven writes, "I immediately turned my car around and headed for the war room of the Pentagon." Amazingly, the loss of the Scorpion coincided with the disappearance of a Soviet submarine."
Submarines and the Cold War
That terrible War we feared never came. America's leaders placed special trust and confidence in the Submarine Force, who went to sea entrusted with weapons of incredible destructive power, propelled by power plants of unbelievable sophistication, armed for Armageddon, while charged with the solemn responsibility of preventing it.
U.S. strategy during the Cold War relied on our ability to dominate the seas. This strategy required naval forces capable of projecting power to deter and prevent conflict, and when required, to fight and win. Undersea superiority was a vital aspect of this strategy, and for this reason our submarines were key elements of U.S. forces.
Throughout the Cold War, a cornerstone of national security was deterrence. SSBNs were the preeminent and survivable leg of the strategic triad that was instrumental in deterring global nuclear war for half a century. Lurking in the ocean depth, anyplace around the globe, and capable of retaliation to an enemy attack on America, SSBNs carried over half of our nations strategic warheads at less than 20% of the total costs.
Deterrence of war has been the sole mission for the SSBN since its inception in 1960. It was on a November day in 1960 that the GEORGE WASHINGTON left Charleston on that first patrol - at the height of the Cold War. We were all on guard against a belligerent, nuclear-armed Soviet Union.
Attack submarines, SSs and SSNs, deployed to every region of the world during the Cold War, operating in the open ocean, in choke points and narrow waterways, and under the arctic ice. The U.S. dearly dominated the undersea environment and the Soviets knew it - such that the attack boats were also a deterrent force.
Cold War submarines made over 3,500 strategic deterrent patrols and uncounted surveillance and barrier patrols. In addition, during the major campaigns in this war such as Korea and Vietnam, submarines made many offensive, defensive, and special operations patrols. Submariners of the cold war were in constant jeopardy. Each patrol was a gamble in fate. You not only had to deal with the enemy, you also had to deal with deteriorating equipment that the Navy refused to upgrade or repair. It is a miracle in itself that the ill-fated Scorpion was the only boat lost during that era.
Only after the loss of the Scorpion that the defense department finally started allocating funds to update sub-safe on the older boats. No one knows for sure what happened to cause her to be lost, but it will always be in my mind that the non working emergency systems were the final cause of her demise. I'm sure other factors were involved that caused the tragedy to begin with, however if you have no emergency systems that work, what are your chances of survival?
Registado
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