A rare event is being discussed right now by the Navy - an American nuclear submarine not only came close to Russia's anti-submarine squadron, but even entered Russian territorial waters. Why did this provocation require the personal permission of the US President, and what top-secret equipment did this submarine leave in Russian waters?
A few days ago, a group of Pacific Fleet warships, including the Shaposhnikov and several corvettes, sailed east through the La Perouse Strait towards the Kuril Ridge for exercises. These exercises are taking place throughout the fleets. The main events take place in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Black Seas, while the Pacific Ocean has remained in the shadows until recently.
Until the US Navy got involved in these exercises. Here is what the Russian Ministry of Defense officially reports about the event:
"On February 12, 2022, at 10:40 a.m., a Virginia-type U.S. Navy submarine was detected in the area of an exercise of Pacific Fleet forces in Russian territorial waters near the island of Urup in the Kuril Ridge. The Defense Attaché of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow was summoned to the Russian Ministry of Defense in connection with the violation of the state border of the Russian Federation by a U.S. Navy submarine.
The crew of the foreign submarine was informed in Russian and English in audio-submarine communication mode: "You are in the territorial waters of Russia. Surface immediately!". The crew of the American submarine ignored the Russian request. In accordance with the guiding documents on protection of the state border of the Russian Federation in an underwater environment, the crew of the frigate Marshal Shaposhnikov of the Pacific Fleet used appropriate means.
The American submarine used a self-propelled simulator to bifurcate the target on radar and acoustic control facilities and left the territorial waters of the Russian Federation with maximum speed."
First of all, such an encounter could not have been accidental. The entire Pacific Fleet of the Russian Navy, together with its corvettes, is now down to eight warships capable of operating in the far maritime zone. Two have left for the Mediterranean and six remain: the frigate Marshal Shaposhnikov, the destroyer Admiral Panteleyev and four corvettes. All of them are taking part in exercises. Clearly, the as yet unknown Virginia has been spying on them. This is a common American practice, there is nothing new in it. The US assures, of course, that the Virginia did not enter Russian territorial waters. However, it would be strange to trust this denial.
But how did the Russian Navy detachment discover the Virginia? There was nothing about it in the first MoD reports. However, it was reported that sonar communication and "appropriate means" were used. And the "appropriate means" that are used in such cases for so-called preventive bombing are most often reactive depth bombs (RBIs). The Pacific Fleet Commander can make the decision about warning bombing on his own.
However, the use of sound and depth sounders meant that the boat was literally at "pistol" range - just a few kilometers from our ships. At a distance many times shorter than that needed by this American submarine to detect our ship and launch torpedoes at it.
Maybe our corvettes detected the boat from afar with their towed hydroacoustic stations? But then the "Shaposhnikov" would have had to chase the boat to try to contact it and then fire. And the Americans would have heard this. They would hardly wait for the "masters" in foreign territorial waters. The same can be said about the possibility of the submarine being detected by the powerful Polinom hydroacoustic system, which the Shaposhnikov is equipped with.
A day later TASS, citing an anonymous source, made a clarification: "The American Virginia-type submarine was detected by Il-38 naval aircraft and one of the Pacific Fleet boats in the course of exercises on searching and destroying submarines of the conventional enemy in areas of their possible deployment," he said.
According to a source of the agency, the coordinates of the submarine were given to a group of warships led by the frigate Marshal Shaposhnikov of the Pacific Fleet. After which the Russian multi-purpose ship performed all necessary actions to protect the state border of the Russian Federation. He noted that the American submarine had an objective advantage in detecting the Russian surface ship, but the operational actions of the Pacific Fleet anti-submarine forces apparently took her by surprise.
This story looks strange to say the least. The fact is that the submarine's "objective advantages" in surface ship detection range are enormous. And if our ships had been pointed at the sub by aircraft or our submarine (here she could have covertly detected the Americans under certain conditions), she would have had time to detect the ships and stealthily get away from them. And this did not happen.
Then the only logical explanation remains - the Americans deliberately set themselves up, let themselves be detected. Why?
Political background
There is an opinion, with good reason, that since at least the time of Reagan (and up to now) the invasion of foreign territorial waters by an American submarine needs the personal authorization of the US president. This is, in general, understandable - an unsuccessful attack on a submarine by the "masters" of territorial waters, which would result in the death of the boat or its capture in the territorial waters of another state, would create a grave political crisis fraught with anything.
And right now, amid the confrontation around Ukraine, the crisis in relations between Russia and the West, such permission, judging by this incident, has been obtained. And then this fact is deliberately demonstrated by the Russian Navy. Isn't this a hint that Russia, having concentrated its forces in the west, has weakened its defenses in the east?
Is there somebody out there who might have to be contained? Sure. Japan has been watching with interest as a large part of the Russian Armed Forces, including those from the Far East, have gone to major exercises to the Ukrainian borders.
And here it is impossible not to recall the news of February 7. Word again to TASS: "The U.S. supports Japan on the issue of the "northern territories" (as Japan calls the southern part of the Kuril Islands) and recognizes Japan's sovereignty over them. US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said this on the occasion of Japan's Northern Territories Day on Monday."
Japan has no claims on Urup. But first of all, it is close by, and secondly, the Kurils were once all Japanese.
Can all this be seen as a hint that, if anything happens, Russia will create a new line of tension not only in the west, but also at the other end of the country - in the east? And shouldn't the very method of "detection" - showing up five or six kilometers away - be seen as a demonstration of the threat of Russian naval ships in the event of a real conflict?
Bait
Another crucial detail of this incident is that the Virginia used a hydroacoustic countermeasures device - a decoy.
The Americans have excellent countermeasures. But the perfection of technology has played a cruel joke on the U.S. - they have strict restrictions on the use of their latest means of hydroacoustic countermeasures outside the actual war. A self-propelled device that has served its purpose will sink and end up on the bottom. It can be recovered later. If it sank in Russian territorial waters, the Russian Navy will raise it. And then Russia will learn something that is very critical for the US Navy - the current capabilities of the US Navy to counteract our torpedoes and hydroacoustic systems. This is top secret information of great importance to the U.S. - and Russia.
But the Virginia shot off this device. So there was permission to use it. Perhaps the leakage of these secrets is not as important to the U.S. as the very fact of demonstrating what happened.
Conclusions
A number of conclusions can be drawn from all of the above. Firstly, the detachment of six anti-submarine ships of the Russian Navy was in the area of the American submarine strike - until the enemy gave himself away. This is a wake-up call. Both the hydroacoustic system on the corvettes and the Polynom system on the Shaposhnikov and the Pantaleev allow this to be prevented.
There are also anti-submarine helicopters to prevent such things. The ships taking part in the exercise could carry up to eight helicopters (two each on the Panteleev and Shaposhnikov and one each on the corvettes). Even if two of them were search and rescue Ka-27PS, the other six is plenty to keep any submarine from sneaking up to "pistol" range.
This case will certainly be investigated - and surely everything will be done to ensure that such a thing does not happen again. In the current extremely nervous international situation, it is not permitted to let submarines capable of stealth torpedo attack from at least 40 km to our ships at 5-6 km distance. And this is no less important than finding out the motives of the Americans' actions.
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