French and British Sub Collided in Atlantic

The Sun

Commentary

Perhaps there is a need for sub traffic control, similar to the satellite detection service that NASA carries out on contract for the US Defense Department. Obviously they didn't inform the Russin and the Iridium consortium when their satellites collided. Technology has made the world a more complicated and less safe place. The old paradigm that operates on fear and national security is no longer sufficient. There has be to more trust and cooperation among nations or disaster is just a matter of time.

Excerpts

BRITISH and French nuclear submarines which collided deep under the Atlantic could have sunk or released deadly radioactivity, it emerged last night.
The Royal Navy’s HMS Vanguard and the French Navy’s Le Triomphant are both nuclear powered and were carrying nuke missiles.

Between them they had around 250 sailors on board.

A senior Navy source said: “The potential consequences are unthinkable. It’s very unlikely there would have been a nuclear explosion.

“But a radioactive leak was a possibility. Worse, we could have lost the crew and warheads. That would have been a national disaster.”

The collision is believed to have taken place on February 3 or 4, in mid-Atlantic. Both subs were submerged and on separate missions.

As inquiries began, naval sources said it was a millions-to-one unlucky chance both subs were in the same patch of sea. Warships have sonar gear which locates submarines by sound waves.

But modern anti-sonar technology is so good it is possible neither boat “saw” the other.