
Driving Inside the Soviets’ Secret Submarine Lair - tilt
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2012/04/driving-inside-the-soviets-secret-submarine-lair/
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shabble
" _[...]the humidity in the room, which had to be critically maintained at 60
percent — deviation either way could have resulted in an explosion large
enough to destroy the entire base, not to mention the mountain that housed it
and much of the surrounding area._ "

I'm going to assume that anything large enough to destroy the surrounding
mountain would require at least one of the missiles/warheads to go
(thermo-)nuclear. But my understanding is that actually achieving the Big Bang
is really rather difficult to do intentionally, let alone by accident - at
worst you have a few kton fizzle. So how is a small change in humidity able to
trigger one or more of these weapons? (And, if one did successfully trigger,
is it possible that it could daisy-chain the rest, or would they be torn apart
before achieving supercritical geometry?)

Then again, I guess it's maybe possible that the supplies of conventional
munitions and maybe nasty missile/rocket propellants could do some major
damage, but a whole mountain?

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quacker
That part struck me as embellished writing (or perhaps the tour guide
exaggerated that point). I hardly know a thing about the sensitivity of
explosive weapons, but consider the importance the Soviets placed on secrecy.
If there was such a danger, I can't imagine them working so hard to construct
the place in near-total obscurity, and subsequently relegating the safety of
up to six submarines and up to 3000 people to the accuracy of a single hair.

Although, having looked it up now, hair-tension hygrometers could be a bit
more accurate than what I initially guessed, though there are more accurate
alternatives.

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ChuckMcM
I agree the writing was probably embellished but the challenge of low humidity
is static charge. I suspect the threat was more that a static discharge would
_disable_ the weapon (it wouldn't actually work) rather than to cause it to
spontaneously explode. ESD damage is a scourge in all weapon plants.

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tvon
Kind of meta, but what an absolutely horrible "slideshow".

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jevinskie
Yes, it reloads the whole page _and_ the dozen or so social widgets all while
constantly moving the slideshow image further down the screen. I need to
install one of those widget blocker addons again...

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cafard
Odd that they'd have put this in the Black Sea, where the only salt-water
egress is via the Bosporus & Dardanelles, i.e. through the narrow waters of a
NATO member.

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zalew
It's not odd because it worked the other way around - USSR sent ships onto the
Black Sea to protect themselves from the ones approaching through Bosphor.
Defence.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreux_Convention_Regarding_t...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreux_Convention_Regarding_the_Regime_of_the_Turkish_Straits)

~~~
po
Under the treaty, they could send submarines through the straits but they had
to notify Turkey:

 _Under Article 12, Black Sea states are also allowed to send submarines
through the Straits, with prior notice, as long as the vessels have been
constructed, purchased or sent for repair outside the Black Sea. The less
restrictive rules applicable to Black Sea states were agreed as, effectively,
a concession to the Soviet Union, the only Black Sea state other than Turkey
with any significant number of capital ships or submarines.[8][14] The passage
of civil aircraft between the Mediterranean and Black Seas is permitted, but
only along routes authorised by the Turkish government.[15]_

When I sailed through the Bosphorous, we had a tour guide who told us that
once a Soviet sub was spotted outside of the black sea and later spotted
inside but notice had never been given and the sub had never been seen going
through. They later figured out that the sub had made the journey by shadowing
underneath a large civilian ship to prevent from being spotted (by sonar I
suppose). After that, they decided to run chains across the straight
underneath the depth of a normal ship.

I'm not sure how true it is, but it makes a good story. :-)

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lobotryas
Entertaining article. Now I want to buy a Land Rover so I can have the same
kinds of adventures exploring old submarine bases!

~~~
grecy
Last year I finished driving from Alaska to Argentina in a Jeep...

If you are seriously interested in this kind of Overland travel, checkout
<http://wikioverland.org> The Encyclopedia of Overland Travel which contains
pretty much everything you need to know.

~~~
njs12345
What did you do for the Darién Gap? :)

~~~
grecy
I loaded my Jeep into a shipping container and had it shipped from Colon
(Panama) to Cartagena (Colombia). I flew.

I documented the whole process in great detail so others can do the same:
[http://theroadchoseme.com/shipping-across-the-darien-gap-
pt-...](http://theroadchoseme.com/shipping-across-the-darien-gap-pt-1)

~~~
blhack
How do you afford this?

~~~
grecy
I saved every penny I had for 2 years working as a Software Engineer. During
the trip I freelanced a little, managed a hostel for 5 months, and wound up
with the balance on my credit card.

I've just finished paying off my Credit Card, so have started saving for the
next one. I work full time and am just about to start my 2nd and 3rd
concurrent jobs.

The whole price breakdown can be seen at <http://theroadchoseme.com/the-price-
of-adventure>

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larrys
The woman guide claims that she worked there at "level 2 security" (2nd to
highest) in 1982. That would make her roughly 48 to 52 today. She doesn't look
that age. She looks younger (lack of wrinkles and she isn't doing botox we can
assume). But more importantly who would give somebody that young (about 18 to
22) that type of security clearance?

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nextstep
Why can we assume she hasn't had botox injections?

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vsviridov
Actually, the visa regime in Ukraine is pretty soft now. Most people can stay
up to 3 months without a visa.

And there are guided tours for the Balaklava Submarine base.

I was in town just last summer, didn't get to go to the base though.

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andrewfelix
Didn't realise that shot of the sub was a model until watching the video. How
dishappointing.

