Neptune: mate I don’t know what ship you’ve jumped, but I say you’re one crew member short of a full compliment. If you read my take on this whole inccident carefully I never said that the LA collided at all with Kursk, I said that she may have scraped the torpedo thus causing the damage seen in the photo (backed up by Terran who lives in Norway mind you). The hole seen in Kursk is more evidence os a torpedo sized weapon passing through it, I heard that Chinese were there and thus formed all my opinions

OK guys this story has really got all factions of the “Conspiracy Theorists” going, I too have had my thoughts about the whole deal so I’d like to offer my personal experiences in the Submarine service as a basis for my own conclusions- please bear with me…

A few things must first be looked at as to sub ops in both that area and between all the countries in the area on a political scale, I’d like to deal first with the countries on a political scale:
Russia: was conducting a major excercise, why? In order to a) Show off the Shkval torpedo to the Chinese who are interested in a very large order for the weapon. b) to test the Shkval Mk 2 for their own fleet (these two facts have somehow managed to stay out of the lime light- the Russians were only going to sell the Mk-1’s to the Chinese, The Mk-2’s were not spoken about to the Chinese nor where they even mentioned to them because Russia still wanted some sort of dominance). c) Russia wanted to send out a message not only to the world, but mainly to America that it was still a force to be reckoned with despite the ailing times that had fallen on them since the collaps of the USSR.

China: Interested in gaining an upper hand in the China Sea and surrounding area, wanted to has the dominant weapons in their local area so as to force certain issues: Taiwan’s reclaimation, solving the Spratleys problem! With this sort of weapon in their arsenal, other countries would be forced to think twice about naval action in protecting these areas- certainly the US wouldn’t risk a carrier against a salvo of Shkvals and other nations like Vietnam and the Phillippines wouldn’t go into a fight if they didn’t have some sort of chance.

USA: Forever a busy body, always wants to test their intel gathering sometimes pushing far too hard for infor that mistakes are made. Good Old Ollie North got busted selling F-14 parts to the US- how? An American plane pictured an IRIAF F-14 over the gulf once with susspicious parts on it, paper trails were followed and down came the Hammer! Pushing to hard- especially in the silent service is super critical, 115 men get tired and since this was a snap excercise the sub in the area was diverted back to monitor the games- people were tired, mistakes happen.

The UK: Whilest it is acknoledged in the intel community that if you want some really hard and solid info you ask the Brits to get it, it’s not known where some of their assets were at the time in question. How did the Poms know that something had happened? The story of the siesmic center in the middle of the country doesn’t really hold up because there are many more siesmic centers dotted around that part of the world and it’s just a co-incidence that none of them happened to pick it up, yet one based in the middle of England, on dry and hard land mind you, just so happened to pick it up and confirm an American made story- does this strike you as odd?

Norway: Being a next door neighboure to Russia and having to protect the Northern front of NATO they were very keen in watching what was happening. Again I tie this back to the Brits in the comment about the seismic activity monitoring center- surely if anything had happened, why was it England who spoke up and not Norway who were actually closer?

Now for the Sub Ops side:
It is a well known fact that the US always have a sub up in that part of the world to monitor any and all Russian naval activity. What has been to mentioned but has been skimmed over is that two days after the incident, A US LA Class sub was seen docking in a Norwegian port with damage to her sail, there has been only one photo of it and that is now hard to find as it has been yanked off the net so fast (though I am sure that someone out there with infinite time on their hands could dig it up). It should be noted that LA Class subs don’t dock in Norway unless they abosultly need to, the pic in question does show some major damage to the sail, so much so that she’d be heard around the world if she went anything over 10kts, even 5kts would be a problem with noise.

Another factor in all of this is… Why did the Russian high command wait so long in trying to get them up? Nine days to finally accept some help? there was far more to this than meets the eye! Why also did Russian news cover up the fact that the families were being druged into sedation during a public announcement about the accident, especially after one mother asked why the help that was being offered was being refused?

Finally I offer this, the Russians tested a Mk-2 first, this being a new weapon and never had been operationally fired, the team on the boat, most having not been at sea for apporx 16 months might not have had training on this weapon and treated it much like a Mk-1, the time away from sea would have had an adverse effect on them and they might have forgotten how to set the system properly (thus operator error). The fish after being fired shot out, around to starboard in a very wide circle knocked the LA on the sail (thus causing the damage), then slammed into the mother ship (Kursk). The Russians, rather embaressed about the whole affair, let the sailors drown in order to cover it up, paid off the US (who knows what with- but watch for military assets over the next few years, or even a political promise from the Russians to the Americans about never selling advanced arms to China- thus the Chinese who were there have left in disgrace with nothing). The UK tipped off the US in knowing what happened came up with a story so unlikely that everyone thought it had to be true, thus once again the US owes the brits a favour.

The official side is that no one will ever know as there would be a secrecy level so high that it has been used so few times in military history that if ever you came across the name of the code it’s under, you’d never be heard of again. Basically guys and girls… Let sleeping dogs lie! 😉

I saw that they raised the Anchor today, well done, but can anyone tell me if there are any planes to build a replica of this long lost ship?

Regulas was also a feature on about half a dozen subs back in the mid 50’s this was America’s version to the Whiskey Longbins.

Also with the first design and the actual inservice ship, you’ll notice the aft flight deck. When the LB was originally designed, helos weren’t in wide spead service.

I just had a thought, if this could be used as a COD plane, what are the chances of it being used as an AWACS plane as well? I mean the tail would have to change so as not to interfere with thwe radar signal and stuff, but it could be done, right?

She is a wonderful little plane and it now has a belly pod available for extra storage. There are plans for a bigger model (GA-10 I have heard talk of) with a turbo prop possibly a PT6/65.